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. |
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
