Configuration Reference

Environment variables and configuration options for MyAIAssistant.

Backend Configuration

Environment Variables

Create a .env file in the project root or set these environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
APP_NAME	MyAIAssistant Backend	Application name
APP_VERSION	0.1.0	Application version
DATABASE_URL	sqlite+aiosqlite:///./myaiassistant.db	Database connection string
CORS_ORIGINS	http://localhost:3000,http://localhost	Allowed CORS origins (comma-separated)

Example .env File

APP_NAME=MyAIAssistant Backend
APP_VERSION=0.1.0
DATABASE_URL=sqlite+aiosqlite:///./myaiassistant.db
CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000,http://localhost

Database Configuration

SQLite (Default)

DATABASE_URL=sqlite+aiosqlite:///./myaiassistant.db

PostgreSQL (Production)

DATABASE_URL=postgresql+asyncpg://user:password@localhost:5432/myaiassistant

RAG Configuration

The RAG service uses these defaults (configurable in code):

Setting	Default	Description
persist_directory	./data/chroma	ChromaDB storage location
collection_name	knowledge_base	Vector collection name
chunk_size	1000	Text chunk size in characters
chunk_overlap	200	Overlap between chunks
embedding_model	all-MiniLM-L6-v2	Sentence transformer model

Frontend Configuration

Vite Configuration

API proxy settings in vite.config.js:

export default defineConfig({
  server: {
    port: 3000,
    proxy: {
      '/api': {
        target: 'http://localhost:8000',
        changeOrigin: true
      }
    }
  }
})

Docker Configuration

For Docker deployments, the frontend nginx configuration proxies API requests:

location /api {
    proxy_pass http://backend:8000;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}

Local Development

Backend Setup

cd backend

# Install dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Create .env file
cp .env.example .env

# Run development server
uv run uvicorn app.main:app --reload

Frontend Setup

cd frontend

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run development server
npm run dev

Running Tests

cd backend

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run with verbose output
uv run pytest -v

# Run with coverage
uv run pytest --cov=app --cov-report=html

Docker Configuration

Using Environment Variables

With docker run:

docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -e DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./myaiassistant.db \
  -e CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost \
  myaiassistant-backend

With docker-compose:

services:
  backend:
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=sqlite:///./myaiassistant.db
      - CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost

With .env file:

services:
  backend:
    env_file:
      - .env

CORS Configuration

The backend configures CORS middleware:

app.add_middleware(
    CORSMiddleware,
    allow_origins=settings.cors_origins,
    allow_credentials=True,
    allow_methods=["*"],
    allow_headers=["*"],
)

For development, common origins:

CORS_ORIGINS=http://localhost:3000,http://localhost:5173,http://localhost

For production, restrict to your domain:

CORS_ORIGINS=https://yourdomain.com

Logging

The backend uses Python's standard logging:

import logging
logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

Configure log level via environment:

LOG_LEVEL=INFO

Performance Tuning

Uvicorn Workers

For production, run multiple workers:

uvicorn app.main:app --workers 4 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Database Connection Pool

For PostgreSQL, configure pool size:

engine = create_async_engine(
    DATABASE_URL,
    pool_size=5,
    max_overflow=10
)

ChromaDB Settings

Adjust chunk settings for your use case:

RAGService(
    chunk_size=500,      # Smaller for precise retrieval
    chunk_overlap=100    # Reduce for less redundancy
)

Troubleshooting

Module not found errors

uv sync --extra dev

Port already in use

lsof -ti:8000 | xargs kill -9

Database locked

rm myaiassistant.db
# Database recreates on startup

CORS errors

Check that CORS_ORIGINS includes your frontend URL.

Docker build failures

docker-compose build --no-cache