Environment Variables

Required Variables

Variable	Description	Example
`NEXT_PUBLIC_BACKEND_API_URL`	Backend API base URL	`http://localhost:8000`
`AUTH_SECRET`	NextAuth.js secret for JWT signing	Random 32+ char string

Optional Variables

Variable	Description	Default
`NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_NAME`	Application display name	`HyperSaaS`
`NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY`	Google Maps for location features	—
`NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY`	Stripe publishable key	—

Setup

# Copy the example file
cp .env.example .env.local

# Edit with your values
nano .env.local

Example .env.local:

# Backend API
NEXT_PUBLIC_BACKEND_API_URL=http://localhost:8000

# NextAuth
AUTH_SECRET=your-random-secret-at-least-32-characters-long

# Google Maps (optional — for location features in chat)
NEXT_PUBLIC_GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY=AIza...

# Stripe (optional — for billing)
NEXT_PUBLIC_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY=pk_test_...

How Variables Are Used

Backend API URL

Used by getApiURL() in lib/utils.ts to construct all backend API calls:

export function getApiURL(): string {
  return process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_BACKEND_API_URL ?? "http://localhost:8000";
}

Auth Secret

Used by NextAuth.js to sign and encrypt JWT tokens. Generate a secure value:

openssl rand -base64 32

Public vs Private

Variables prefixed with NEXT_PUBLIC_ are exposed to the browser. All others are server-only.

Prefix	Available in	Use for
`NEXT_PUBLIC_`	Server + Client	API URLs, public keys, feature flags
No prefix	Server only	Secrets, API keys, internal config