Environment variables

VectorLint reads configuration from environment variables at runtime. You can set them in two places:

~/.vectorlint/config.toml: global defaults that apply across all projects
.env in your project root: project-level overrides that take precedence over the global config

In CI, pass them directly as pipeline environment variables or secrets. See CI Integration for examples.

Never commit API keys to version control. Add .env to your .gitignore.

LLM provider

Variable	Required	Description
`LLM_PROVIDER`	Yes	The LLM provider to use. Accepted values: `openai`, `anthropic`, `azure-openai`, `gemini`, `amazon-bedrock`.
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	If using OpenAI	API key for OpenAI.
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	If using Anthropic	API key for Anthropic.
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	If using Gemini	API key for Google Gemini.
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY`	If using Azure	API key for Azure OpenAI.
`AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT`	If using Azure	Your Azure OpenAI resource endpoint URL.
`AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME`	If using Azure	Your Azure OpenAI deployment name.
`AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION`	No	Azure OpenAI API version. Defaults to `2024-02-15-preview`.
`AWS_REGION`	If using Bedrock	AWS region for Bedrock.
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	No (Bedrock)	AWS access key. Optional with an IAM role or `~/.aws/credentials`.
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	No (Bedrock)	AWS secret key. Optional with an IAM role or `~/.aws/credentials`.
`BEDROCK_MODEL`	No	Bedrock model ID. Defaults to `global.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929-v1:0`.

Search provider

Required only for rules that use the technical-accuracy evaluator. If not set, rules that depend on external lookup return reduced-confidence results.

Variable	Required	Description
`SEARCH_PROVIDER`	If using technical-accuracy	Search provider to use. Accepted value: `perplexity`.
`PERPLEXITY_API_KEY`	If using Perplexity	API key for Perplexity search.

Review behavior

Variable	Default	Description
`CONFIDENCE_THRESHOLD`	`0.75`	Confidence gate. Controls how strictly raw model candidates are filtered before surfacing violations. Accepted range: `0`–`1`. Invalid values fall back to `0.75`.

Lower values surface more findings (higher recall, more noise). Higher values surface fewer findings (higher precision, fewer false positives). See Handling false positives for guidance on when to adjust this.

Example configurations

OpenAI: global config.toml

[env]
LLM_PROVIDER = "openai"
OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-..."

Anthropic: project .env

LLM_PROVIDER=anthropic
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

With search provider

[env]
LLM_PROVIDER = "openai"
OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-..."
SEARCH_PROVIDER = "perplexity"
PERPLEXITY_API_KEY = "pplx-..."

CI environment with higher confidence threshold

LLM_PROVIDER=openai
OPENAI_API_KEY=${{ secrets.OPENAI_API_KEY }}
CONFIDENCE_THRESHOLD=0.85

Precedence

When the same variable is set in multiple places, VectorLint resolves it in this order (highest precedence first):

Shell / CI environment variables
Project .env file
Global ~/.vectorlint/config.toml
Built-in defaults

LLM Providers: configure your provider with full setup examples
CI Integration: pass environment variables securely in pipelines
Handling false positives: when and how to adjust CONFIDENCE_THRESHOLD

Overview

Get started

Configuration

Rules

Scoring

Guides

Reference

Environment variables

LLM provider

Search provider

Review behavior

Example configurations

OpenAI: global config.toml

Anthropic: project .env

With search provider

CI environment with higher confidence threshold

Precedence

​LLM provider

​Search provider

​Review behavior

​Example configurations

​OpenAI: global config.toml

​Anthropic: project .env

​With search provider

​CI environment with higher confidence threshold

​Precedence

​Related

LLM provider

Search provider

Review behavior

Example configurations

OpenAI: global config.toml

Anthropic: project .env

With search provider

CI environment with higher confidence threshold

Precedence

Related