Environment Variables Reference

Complete reference for every environment variable used by BloggFast.

Last updated: April 12, 2026

Note

Copy .env.example to .env.local as your starting point. Never commit .env.local to version control. All variables are validated on startup via @t3-oss/env-nextjs — missing required variables will cause a descriptive build/startup error.

Database variables

Variable	Purpose	Required	Notes
`DATABASE_URL`	Neon Postgres pooled connection string (via pgBouncer)	Yes	Used for runtime queries. Must include `channel_binding=require&sslmode=require` for Neon
`DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED`	Direct (non-pooled) connection string for Prisma migrations	Yes	Required for `prisma migrate dev` and `db:seed`. Use the endpoint without `-pooler` in the hostname
`PGHOST`	Postgres host (pooled) — for Neon dashboard use	No	Optional convenience variable provided by Neon
`PGHOST_UNPOOLED`	Postgres host (direct) — for Neon dashboard use	No	Optional convenience variable provided by Neon
`PGUSER`	Postgres username	No	Optional — already included in the connection strings
`PGDATABASE`	Postgres database name	No	Typically `neondb`
`PGPASSWORD`	Postgres password	No	Optional — already included in the connection strings

.env.local

# Pooled connection (use for runtime queries)
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:pass@ep-xxx-pooler.region.aws.neon.tech/neondb?channel_binding=require&sslmode=require

# Direct connection (use for Prisma migrations and seeding)
DATABASE_URL_UNPOOLED=postgresql://user:pass@ep-xxx.region.aws.neon.tech/neondb?sslmode=require

Neon Auth variables

Variable	Purpose	Required
`NEON_AUTH_BASE_URL`	Neon Auth endpoint URL — provided by Neon when you enable Auth on your project	Yes
`NEON_AUTH_COOKIE_SECRET`	Secret key used to sign session cookies — must be at least 32 characters	Yes

.env.local

# From your Neon project → Auth tab
NEON_AUTH_BASE_URL="https://ep-xxx.neonauth.region.aws.neon.tech/neondb/auth"
NEON_AUTH_COOKIE_SECRET="a-long-random-secret-string-of-at-least-32-characters"

Tip

Find these values in your Neon project dashboard under the Auth tab after enabling Neon Auth. The base URL format is specific to your Neon project endpoint.

Sanity CMS variables

Variable	Purpose	Required	Example
`NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID`	Your Sanity project ID (public — exposed to browser)	Yes	`pup1pp2q`
`NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET`	Sanity dataset name (public — exposed to browser)	Yes	`production`
`SANITY_API_TOKEN`	Server-side Sanity API token with Editor permissions	Yes	`sk...`
`SANITY_TOKEN_ARTICLE_UPLOADER`	Separate Sanity token used when the AI generator publishes articles to Sanity	No	`sk...`
`SANITY_WEBHOOK_SECRET`	Secret for validating Sanity webhook payloads (cache revalidation)	No	Any random string

.env.local

NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_PROJECT_ID=your_project_id
NEXT_PUBLIC_SANITY_DATASET=production
SANITY_API_TOKEN=sk...
SANITY_TOKEN_ARTICLE_UPLOADER=sk...  # Optional: separate write token for AI article uploads

OpenAI variables

Variable	Purpose	Required	Notes
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	OpenAI API key for text generation (gpt-5-mini default, configurable) and image generation (gpt-image-1 default)	Yes	Get from platform.openai.com/api-keys. Key starts with `sk-proj-`

.env.local

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-proj-...

Note

BloggFast uses OpenAI as its AI provider with 6 selectable text models and 2 image models. The default text model is gpt-5-mini and the default image model is gpt-image-1. Both are configured via the same OPENAI_API_KEY. The active model can be changed in the admin AI settings. Image generation requires a paid OpenAI account with image generation access.

Resend email variables

Variable	Purpose	Required	Example
`RESEND_API_KEY`	Resend API key for sending emails	Yes	`re_...`
`RESEND_FROM_EMAIL`	Sender address for outgoing emails (must be a verified domain in Resend)	Yes	`hello@yourdomain.com`
`RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET`	Webhook signing secret for verifying Resend event deliveries (bounced, complained, etc.)	No	`whsec_...`
`RESEND_AUDIENCE_ID`	Resend Audience ID for contact list sync — if set, subscribers are added to this Resend Audience	No	UUID from Resend Audiences dashboard

.env.local

RESEND_API_KEY=re_...
RESEND_FROM_EMAIL=hello@yourdomain.com
RESEND_WEBHOOK_SECRET=whsec_...    # Optional
RESEND_AUDIENCE_ID=               # Optional

Note

During development, you can use onboarding@resend.dev as the from address without domain verification, but it only sends to the account email. For production, verify your own domain in the Resend dashboard under Domains.

Site variables

Variable	Purpose	Required	Example
`NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL`	Full public URL of your site — used for generating absolute URLs (OG images, sitemaps)	Yes	`https://myblog.com`
`NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL`	App base URL — used for internal routing and API endpoint construction	Yes	`https://myblog.com` or your Vercel domain

.env.local

# Development
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL="http://localhost:3000"
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="http://localhost:3000"

# Production (set in Vercel dashboard)
NEXT_PUBLIC_SITE_URL="https://myblog.com"
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="https://myblog.com"