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Created March 31, 2026 10:16
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Claude Code environment variables full list
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environment-variables.md

Claude Code Environment Variables

Scope and methodology

This file documents environment variables visible in the checked-in source of this repository snapshot. It is not guaranteed to be exhaustive for the full product, because many imported files are not present here.

For each variable, this document gives:

  • the visible purpose in code
  • the rough subsystem it belongs to
  • whether it appears likely to be hidden from normal user documentation

Visibility legend

  • Documented/public-looking: likely intended for normal users or administrators
  • Advanced/likely underdocumented: visible and meaningful, but more operational than mainstream
  • Internal/hidden: appears intended for Anthropic-internal, testing, bridge/runtime, or diagnostic use
  • Unknown: name is visible, but this snapshot does not show enough behavior to classify confidently

High-confidence, user/admin-facing variables

Authentication and provider routing

  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — API key auth source; also shows up in auth-status output and managed env handling. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN — auth token source used alongside other provider-managed auth vars. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN — OAuth token env source and GitHub Actions secret name. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN — lets auth login skip browser flow and exchange a refresh token directly in cli/handlers/auth.ts:138. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_SCOPES — required companion to CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN; scopes are space-separated. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK — switch provider routing to Bedrock. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • CLAUDE_CODE_USE_VERTEX — switch provider routing to Vertex. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • CLAUDE_CODE_USE_FOUNDRY — switch provider routing to Foundry. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_BEDROCK_AUTH — skip Bedrock auth helper path. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_VERTEX_AUTH — skip Vertex auth helper path. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SKIP_FOUNDRY_AUTH — skip Foundry auth helper path. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL — override first-party API endpoint. Security-sensitive per utils/managedEnvConstants.ts:94. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL — Bedrock endpoint override. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_BASE_URL — Vertex endpoint override. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_BASE_URL — Foundry endpoint override. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_RESOURCE — Foundry project/resource selector. Security-sensitive. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_PROJECT_ID — Vertex project selection. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK — Bedrock auth credential. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_API_KEY — Foundry auth credential. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Model and output configuration

  • ANTHROPIC_MODEL — default model override. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODEL — override model for subagents/worker agents. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS — maximum output tokens; validated in doctor UI and used in API code. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • MAX_THINKING_TOKENS — thinking budget control. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EFFORT_LEVEL — effort setting override used by /effort. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • MAX_STRUCTURED_OUTPUT_RETRIES — retry limit for structured output recovery in QueryEngine.ts:1011. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Telemetry and traffic controls

  • CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_TELEMETRY — explicitly enable telemetry. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • DISABLE_TELEMETRY — disable telemetry. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • DISABLE_ERROR_REPORTING — disable error reporting. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC — reduce nonessential traffic. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS and related OTEL_* header/protocol/export vars — OpenTelemetry transport/logging tuning; treated as safe but still advanced. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Tooling and UX controls

  • ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH — enables tool search support. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_TERMINAL_TITLE — disable terminal title management. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_IDE_SKIP_AUTO_INSTALL — skip IDE auto-install flow. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • USE_BUILTIN_RIPGREP — prefer builtin ripgrep path. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • BASH_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_MS, BASH_MAX_TIMEOUT_MS, BASH_MAX_OUTPUT_LENGTH — bash tool limits. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • MAX_MCP_OUTPUT_TOKENS, MCP_TIMEOUT, MCP_TOOL_TIMEOUT — MCP/tool execution limits. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Command visibility toggles

  • DISABLE_COMPACT — disables /compact in commands/compact/index.ts:9. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_DOCTOR_COMMAND — disables /doctor in commands/doctor/index.ts:7. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_EXTRA_USAGE_COMMAND — disables extra-usage command. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_FEEDBACK_COMMAND — disables feedback UI/command. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_BUG_COMMAND — disables bug/feedback-related flows. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Variables clearly tied to trust, setup, or session behavior

  • CLAUDE_CODE_REMOTE — marks CCR/remote runtime; used for memory sizing and transport behavior in entrypoints/cli.tsx:9, cli/print.ts:512, cli/transports/WebSocketTransport.ts:771. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SIMPLE — simplified tool mode; also one of the ablation-forced vars in entrypoints/cli.tsx:22. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_THINKING — disables thinking behavior; referenced in ablation bootstrap. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_INTERLEAVED_THINKING — related thinking-mode toggle. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • DISABLE_AUTO_COMPACT — disables auto-compaction. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_AUTO_MEMORY — disables automatic memory behavior. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BACKGROUND_TASKS — disables background task behavior. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID — session identifier env propagated to subprocesses in commands/clear/conversation.ts:205. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EAGER_FLUSH — forces eager transcript/storage flushing in QueryEngine.ts:457. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_IS_COWORK — cowork-specific eager flush behavior in QueryEngine.ts:458. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_RESUME_INTERRUPTED_TURN — resume-related behavior in headless/print flow. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • ENABLE_SESSION_PERSISTENCE — gates session persistence handling in remote/CCR flow. Visibility: Internal/hidden

Remote/bridge/runtime variables that look internal

These mostly appear tied to specialized remote-control, bridge, or environment-runner systems.

  • CLAUDE_CODE_USE_CCR_V2 — switches to CCR v2 transport behavior in multiple transport files. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_POST_FOR_SESSION_INGRESS_V2 — changes session-ingress transport selection. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_CCR_MIRROR — enables mirror mode in bridge code. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_WORKER_EPOCH — worker epoch for CCR client state. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ENVIRONMENT_KIND — environment runner kind, with bridge explicitly checked in cli/remoteIO.ts:96. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ENVIRONMENT_RUNNER_VERSION — runner version reporting in cli/remoteIO.ts:66. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ACCESS_TOKEN — referenced in bridge comments as a sensitive worker/session token. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_BRIDGE_OAUTH_TOKEN — ant-only bridge auth token in bridge/bridgeConfig.ts:20. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_BRIDGE_BASE_URL — ant-only bridge base URL. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_BRIDGE_USE_CCR_V2 — bridge-side override for CCR v2 usage. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_BRIDGE_SESSION_INGRESS_URL — ant-only custom session ingress URL. Visibility: Internal/hidden

Plugin, background install, and prompt-suggestion variables

  • CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_PLUGIN_INSTALL — enables sync plugin install path in cli/print.ts:1739 and affects setup prefetch behavior. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_PLUGIN_INSTALL_TIMEOUT_MS — timeout for sync plugin install. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROMPT_SUGGESTION — prompt suggestion toggle in headless/print flow. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_PROACTIVE — enables proactive behavior if proactive module is present. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_STREAMLINED_OUTPUT — alternate streamlined output mode for stream-json. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EXIT_AFTER_FIRST_RENDER — ant-only/debug render exit shortcut. Visibility: Internal/hidden

New-init, ablation, and debug/testing variables

  • CLAUDE_CODE_NEW_INIT — opt into new /init behavior in commands/init.ts:231. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ABLATION_BASELINE — bootstrap flag that auto-forces a package of simplification toggles in entrypoints/cli.tsx:21. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_VERIFY_PLAN — env-controlled loading of VerifyPlanExecutionTool in tools.ts:89. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • OVERFLOW_TEST_TOOL is a feature flag, not an env var, but it behaves similarly at surface level; noted here to avoid confusion. Visibility: n/a

Swarm / teammate / agent variables

From utils/swarm/constants.ts and related code:

  • CLAUDE_CODE_TEAMMATE_COMMAND — override the executable used to spawn teammate instances. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_AGENT_COLOR — assigns a spawned teammate color. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_PLAN_MODE_REQUIRED — forces spawned teammates to require plan mode before implementation. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS — safe env var related to experimental agent-team support. Visibility: Internal/hidden

Host/provider management and admin-oriented variables

  • CLAUDE_CODE_PROVIDER_MANAGED_BY_HOST — prevents settings-sourced routing vars from overriding a host-managed provider configuration in utils/managedEnvConstants.ts:5. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR — visible in spawn-utils allowlists and likely controls config directory location. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT, CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA — plugin environment paths in plugin integration code. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUDE_CODE_API_KEY_HELPER_TTL_MS — TTL for apiKeyHelper-derived auth. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented
  • CLAUDE_BASH_MAINTAIN_PROJECT_WORKING_DIR — bash/project cwd behavior. Visibility: Advanced/likely underdocumented

Generic process or platform variables used by Claude Code

These are not Claude-specific, but Claude Code reads or sets them.

  • USER_TYPE — major internal/external surface gate throughout commands, tools, bridge, and debug behavior. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • NODE_ENV — used in several code paths to change test behavior. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • NODE_OPTIONS — read for debugger detection and set in remote mode to raise heap size in entrypoints/cli.tsx:11. Visibility: Documented/public-looking
  • COREPACK_ENABLE_AUTO_PIN — forcibly set to 0 at startup to avoid Corepack auto-pinning in entrypoints/cli.tsx:5. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • SAFEUSER and USER — read in commit/PR command logic. Visibility: Unknown
  • IS_DEMO — affects onboarding/setup visibility in interactiveHelpers.tsx:105 and other places. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • IS_SANDBOX — used in security checks around bypass-permissions in setup.ts:406. Visibility: Internal/hidden
  • CLAUBBIT — bypasses trust dialog path in interactiveHelpers.tsx:131. Visibility: Internal/hidden

Variables implied by safe-env or managed-env lists

utils/managedEnvConstants.ts is especially important because it acts like a security policy file.

Variables treated as security-sensitive

The comments explicitly call out endpoint, proxy, and TLS variables as dangerous when set via remote managed settings, including:

  • ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL
  • ANTHROPIC_BEDROCK_BASE_URL
  • ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_BASE_URL
  • ANTHROPIC_VERTEX_BASE_URL
  • HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY and lowercase forms
  • OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT and related endpoint vars
  • NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED
  • NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS
  • auth and resource selectors like ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN, AWS_BEARER_TOKEN_BEDROCK, ANTHROPIC_FOUNDRY_RESOURCE

These are not all directly consumed in the visible files, but the code explicitly treats them as sensitive to trust boundaries.

Are these hidden from documentation?

Broadly:

  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, provider-selection vars, and a few obvious UX toggles look public or semi-public
  • many routing, OAuth refresh, model-limit, and tool-tuning vars look real but probably underdocumented
  • bridge, CCR, teammate, ablation, verify-plan, worker, and ant-only vars are almost certainly internal/hidden
  • USER_TYPE is one of the most important hidden variables because it changes the entire product surface

Most interesting hidden variables

If you only care about the most non-obvious ones, these stand out:

  • USER_TYPE
  • CLAUDE_CODE_VERIFY_PLAN
  • CLAUDE_CODE_ABLATION_BASELINE
  • CLAUDE_CODE_USE_CCR_V2
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ACCESS_TOKEN
  • CLAUDE_BRIDGE_*
  • CLAUDE_CODE_TEAMMATE_COMMAND
  • CLAUDE_CODE_PLAN_MODE_REQUIRED
  • CLAUDE_CODE_EAGER_FLUSH
  • CLAUDE_CODE_SYNC_PLUGIN_INSTALL
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