Configuring environment variables and the .env file

MobilityManager is configured through standard .NET configuration, which reads from environment variables. This article lists the settings you will most often provide and explains how the .env file feeds them into the Docker Compose stacks.

How environment variables map to settings

Nested configuration keys use a double-underscore (__) separator in environment-variable form. For example, Jwt:Key becomes Jwt__Key, and ConnectionStrings:SystemConnection becomes ConnectionStrings__SystemConnection.

Core settings

Variable	Description	Required	Default
`DatabaseProvider`	`PostgreSQL` or `SqlServer`	Yes	—
`ConnectionStrings__SystemConnection`	System database connection string	Yes	—
`ConnectionStrings__TenantConnection`	Tenant database connection string	Yes	—
`Jwt__Key`	JWT signing key (min 32 bytes)	Yes	—
`Jwt__Issuer`	JWT issuer identifier	No	`CK.MobilityManager`
`Jwt__Audience`	JWT audience identifier	No	`CK.MobilityManager.Users`
`DocumentStorage__EnableEncryptionAtRest`	Toggle document encryption at rest	No	`true`
`DocumentStorage__LocalEncryptionKey`	Base64 32-byte key, required when encryption is on	Conditional	—
`License__PublicKey`	RSA public key for license validation	No	—
`ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT`	Environment name	No	`Production`
`ASPNETCORE_URLS`	Kestrel binding inside the container	No	`http://+:8080`

The .env file for Docker Compose

Copy .env.example to .env and set your own values. The Compose files read variables such as POSTGRES_PASSWORD, JWT_KEY, DOCKER_REGISTRY, DOCKER_IMAGE, and VERSION and inject the resulting configuration into the containers:

POSTGRES_PASSWORD=YourStrongPassword123!
JWT_KEY=YourSecretKeyThatMustBeAtLeast32CharactersLong!
JWT_ISSUER=CK.MobilityManager
JWT_AUDIENCE=CK.MobilityManager.Users
DOCKER_REGISTRY=ghcr.io
DOCKER_IMAGE=your-org/ck-mobility-manager
VERSION=latest

Warning: The values in .env.example are placeholders. The example JWT_KEY is a known committed default and is rejected outside Development — always generate your own.

Where each environment reads configuration

Docker Compose: the .env file plus values hard-coded in the Compose service definitions.
Kubernetes: the mobilitymanager-config ConfigMap and mobilitymanager-secrets Secret.
Published deployment: environment variables from your process manager, plus appsettings.json.

Tip: Keep secrets (database passwords, Jwt__Key, the encryption key) out of ConfigMaps and source control. Use a secret store and inject them at runtime.

Configuring the database connection strings
Setting the JWT signing key for production
Configuring the document encryption-at-rest key
Production hardening checklist

Written by Alexander Hagemann

Updated:

Configuring environment variables and the .env file

How environment variables map to settings

Core settings

The .env file for Docker Compose

Where each environment reads configuration

Related

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