Gateway environment

The Gateway is a Laravel application, so it reads its own settings from a .env file. This page covers that file. Instance environment variables covers the .env files that the Gateway manages for Instances.

Where the file lives

The file’s path depends on how the Gateway runs.

Gateway	File
Installed Gateway	`/home/orbit/shared/gateway.env`. Every release links to it.
Development checkout	`apps/gateway/.env`. Copy it from `apps/gateway/.env.example`.

An installed Gateway caches its configuration, so an edit takes effect only after Apply an env change.

Keys in the example file

apps/gateway/.env.example lists the keys a new Gateway needs, with development defaults. Keys that start with ORBIT_ are Orbit settings. The other keys are standard Laravel configuration.

Key	Meaning
`APP_NAME`, `APP_ENV`, `APP_DEBUG`, `APP_URL`	Laravel application name, environment, debug mode, and URL.
`APP_KEY`	Encryption key. When it is empty, the Gateway reads `gateway.app-key` in `ORBIT_HOME`, so a replaced checkout keeps reading the settings it encrypted.
`APP_LOCALE`, `APP_FALLBACK_LOCALE`, `APP_FAKER_LOCALE`	Laravel locales.
`APP_MAINTENANCE_DRIVER`, `APP_MAINTENANCE_STORE`	Where Laravel records maintenance mode.
`ORBIT_HOME`	Directory for the Gateway’s durable state. It defaults to `$HOME/.orbit`. Preserve a complete state set lists what it holds.
`ORBIT_GATEWAY_CHECKOUT`	Stable path of the Gateway checkout. The release layout and the Gateway’s Node agent units use it. It defaults to `/home/orbit/orbit/apps/gateway`.
`ORBIT_HIBERNATION_IDLE_SECONDS`, `ORBIT_HIBERNATION_SWEEP_SECONDS`, `ORBIT_HIBERNATION_WAKE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS`	Development runtime hibernation timing. See App-dev runtime hibernation.
`PHP_CLI_SERVER_WORKERS`	Number of workers for `php artisan serve` in local development.
`BCRYPT_ROUNDS`	Laravel password hashing cost.
`LOG_CHANNEL`, `LOG_STACK`, `LOG_DAILY_DAYS`, `LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL`, `LOG_LEVEL`	Laravel logging. Gateway request logs describes the files.
`DB_CONNECTION`	Laravel database connection. The Gateway uses SQLite.
`SESSION_DRIVER`, `SESSION_LIFETIME`, `SESSION_ENCRYPT`, `SESSION_PATH`, `SESSION_DOMAIN`	Laravel sessions. The API is stateless, so the example uses the `array` driver.
`FILESYSTEM_DISK`, `QUEUE_CONNECTION`, `CACHE_STORE`	Laravel storage, queue, and cache drivers.
`ORBIT_GATEWAY_QUEUE_CONNECTION`, `ORBIT_GATEWAY_QUEUE_REDIS_DATABASE`	The Redis Database connection and database index of the Gateway queue, which Laravel Horizon works. Empty, the scheduler runs its commands itself. Tests set `ORBIT_GATEWAY_QUEUE_DRIVER=database` to keep the queue in SQLite.
`ORBIT_WEBSOCKET_REPOSITORY`, `ORBIT_WEBSOCKET_REF`, `ORBIT_WEBSOCKET_INSTALL_PATH`, `ORBIT_WEBSOCKET_PORT`	Defaults for the `websocket` Node role. See Realtime events with Reverb.
`TYPESAFE_API_KEY`	Key for the Jev classifier in Tasks.
`ORBIT_TASKS_REVIEW_REQUEST_LOGINS`	GitHub logins requested as reviewers on a task pull request. See Tasks.

Other ORBIT_ keys belong to one feature, and the page for that feature documents them.

Drift check

bin/env-docs runs in CI. It fails when:

Gateway, CLI, or PHP SDK code reads an ORBIT_ key that no docs page mentions.
apps/gateway/.env.example lists a key that this page does not mention.
apps/gateway/.env.example lists a key that neither Gateway code nor Laravel reads.

The check finds keys read through env(), including env(key: ...), and through getenv(), Env::get(), $_SERVER, and $_ENV. ADRs do not count as documentation. Keys without the ORBIT_ prefix belong to Laravel, PHP, or the operating system, and their own docs cover them.

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Gateway environment

Gateway environment

Where the file lives

Keys in the example file

Drift check

​Gateway environment

​Where the file lives

​Keys in the example file

​Drift check

Gateway environment

Where the file lives

Keys in the example file

Drift check