Configuration & environment variables WIP
LITEFile follows Twelve-Factor App principles, configuring all environment-specific settings, API keys, database credentials, and storage parameters through environment variables.
Environment variables reference
| Variable name | Required? | Default value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE | Yes | efile.settings_dev | Django settings module (efile.settings_dev, efile.settings_staging, efile.settings_prod). |
DJANGO_SECRET_KEY | Yes (Prod) | Insecure dev key | Cryptographic secret key used for session signing and CSRF tokens. |
DATABASE_URL | Yes (Prod) | sqlite:///db.sqlite3 | Database connection string (e.g., postgres://user:pass@host:5432/dbname). |
DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS | Yes (Prod) | localhost,127.0.0.1 | Comma-separated list of allowed hostnames/domains. |
EFSP_URL | No | https://efile-test.suffolklitlab.org | Base URL for the EFSP REST API endpoint. |
SUFFOLK_EFILE_API_KEY | No | "" | API authentication key for the EFSP proxy service. |
OPENAI_API_KEY | Optional | None | API key for OpenAI or compatible LLM provider used for document extraction. |
OPENAI_BASE_URL | Optional | https://api.openai.com/v1/ | Base URL for OpenAI-compatible endpoint (or local LLM gateway). |
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID | Yes (Storage) | "" | AWS IAM access key for document upload to S3. |
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY | Yes (Storage) | "" | AWS IAM secret access key. |
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME | Yes (Storage) | "" | S3 bucket name for court document storage. |
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME | No | us-east-1 | AWS region where the S3 bucket is hosted. |
DJANGO_LOG_LEVEL | No | DEBUG (Dev) / INFO (Prod) | Logging verbosity for the efile application logger. |
Example .env file (development)
Create an efile_app/.env file for local development:
# efile_app/.env
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE="efile.settings_dev"
DJANGO_SECRET_KEY="local-dev-secret-key-replace-in-production"
# AWS S3 Storage (Required for file uploads)
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="your-aws-access-key-id"
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="your-aws-secret-access-key"
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME="litefile-dev-bucket"
AWS_S3_REGION_NAME="us-east-1"
# AI Extraction (Optional)
OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."