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Configuration

MemoryBase is configured entirely through environment variables. All variables can also be placed in a .env file in the project root — pydantic-settings reads it automatically.

Variables

Variable Type Default Description
DATABASE_URL str sqlite:///./memorybase.db SQLAlchemy database URL. Use postgresql://user:pass@host/db for production.
MEMORYBASE_API_KEY str dev-key-change-in-production Secret key sent in X-MemoryBase-Key header. Must be changed in production.
HOST str 0.0.0.0 Host to bind the uvicorn server to.
PORT int 8000 Port to listen on.
CORS_ORIGINS list[str] ["http://localhost:5173", "http://localhost:3000"] Allowed CORS origins.
STATIC_DIR str ../frontend/dist Path to the frontend build output. Served at / when the directory exists.
MEMORYBASE_LLM_PROVIDER str anthropic Default LLM provider (for future LLM features).
MEMORYBASE_LLM_MODEL str claude-sonnet-4-20250514 Default LLM model.
MEMORYBASE_LLM_API_KEY str "" API key for the LLM provider.

Example .env File

# Database
DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./memorybase.db

# Security — change this before deploying!
MEMORYBASE_API_KEY=my-strong-secret-key

# Network
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8000

# CORS — add your frontend URL
CORS_ORIGINS=["http://localhost:5273", "https://yourdomain.com"]

# LLM (optional)
MEMORYBASE_LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
MEMORYBASE_LLM_MODEL=claude-sonnet-4-20250514
MEMORYBASE_LLM_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

PostgreSQL Setup

To switch from SQLite to PostgreSQL, install the driver and set the URL:

pip install psycopg2-binary

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://memorybase:password@localhost:5432/memorybase

MemoryBase uses SQLModel (SQLAlchemy under the hood) and works with any SQLAlchemy-compatible database.

Runtime Settings

LLM provider and model can also be changed at runtime via PATCH /api/settings. These settings are persisted to the database and take precedence over environment variables after the first save.

Field Description
llm_provider Provider name (e.g. anthropic, openai)
llm_model Model identifier
llm_api_key API key — accepted but never returned in API responses