Environment variables

Every environment variable the control plane, schedulers, runtime manager, in-VM harness and dashboard read, grouped by service, with its default and what it does. Required in prod means the process refuses to start (or, for the harness, refuses to run the workload) when LANTERN_ENV is prod, production or staging and the value is missing. Flag values accept 1, true or on unless a row says otherwise.

How to use this page

Local development needs none of these: make run-api sets the database, Redis and S3 values, and every security variable has a dev default or is skipped with a warning. For production, start from the checklist below, then see Operations for how the Helm chart supplies them. A production process that is missing a required value logs it by name and exits at startup.

Production checklist

Service	Must be set
Control plane	JWT_SECRET, LANTERN_RECEIPT_SECRET, LANTERN_CREDENTIAL_KEY, LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN, LANTERN_RLS_ENFORCE=1 with LANTERN_APP_DB_PASSWORD, LANTERN_CONTROL_PLANE_TLS_CERT/_KEY, LANTERN_SCHEDULER_GRPC_ADDR, LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_CA/_CERT/_KEY
Runtime scheduler	LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN, SCHEDULER_NODE_TOKEN, LANTERN_DEFAULT_MANAGER_ADDR, manager TLS CA and client cert
Runtime manager	LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN, LANTERN_MANAGER_TLS_CA/_CERT/_KEY
Harness	LANTERN_WORKLOAD_UID, LANTERN_HARNESS_EXEC_TOKEN

The control plane also refuses to start in prod with LANTERN_TWILIO_WEBHOOK_AUTH=off or LANTERN_USE_CLAUDE_CODE=1, and the scheduler refuses LANTERN_DIALER=stub.

Control plane: listeners, stores, process

Binary: services/control-plane/cmd/server. HTTP REST is on :8080, gRPC on :50051.

Variable	Default	Meaning
HTTP_ADDR	:8080	REST listen address.
LISTEN_ADDR	:50051	gRPC listen address (the tenant-trust boundary).
LANTERN_METRICS_ADDR	:9464	Separate Prometheus /metrics listener. Unauthenticated and labelled with agent names, so scrape it from Prometheus only, never through ingress.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level.
LANTERN_DRAIN_TIMEOUT	30s	Graceful-shutdown drain window (Go duration).
LANTERN_ENV	unset (dev)	prod, production or staging turns on every production startup guard in this table. The Helm chart defaults it to production.
DATABASE_URL	postgres://localhost:5432/lantern?sslmode=disable	Postgres DSN (pgvector image). Also read by cmd/migrate and the cron scheduler.
REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6379/0	Redis for rate limits, pub/sub and queues.
LANTERN_PG_MAX_CONNS	20	Postgres pool size.
LANTERN_PG_MAX_CONN_LIFETIME	1h	Max connection lifetime.
LANTERN_PG_MAX_CONN_IDLE_TIME	30m	Max connection idle time.
LANTERN_REDIS_POOL_SIZE	20	Redis pool size.
S3_ENDPOINT	unset	S3-compatible endpoint for agent bundles and attachments.
S3_BUCKET	lantern-bundles-dev	Bucket name.
S3_REGION	unset	Signing region.
S3_ACCESS_KEY	falls back to AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, then lantern	Object-store access key.
S3_SECRET	falls back to AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, then lanternsecret	Object-store secret. Set real values outside dev.
SEED_DEV	unset	1/true: cmd/migrate seeds the dev tenant and admin user.

Control plane: auth, secrets, trust boundaries

These are the production-required ones. With LANTERN_ENV=production the control plane refuses to start when a required value is missing.

Variable	Default	Meaning
JWT_SECRET	dev default (public)	Signs dashboard JWTs. Unset or the dev default is fatal in prod. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RECEIPT_SECRET	dev default	HMAC secret for run receipts and marketplace invocation signatures. Fatal in prod when unset. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RECEIPT_ED25519_SEED	unset	Seed for the Ed25519 receipt key. Unset: receipts fall back to HMAC and cannot be verified offline by third parties.
LANTERN_CREDENTIAL_KEY	unset (plaintext in dev)	32-byte AES-256-GCM key that encrypts provider keys and connector tokens at rest. Fatal in prod when unset or malformed. Required in prod.
LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN	unset	Shared service token for the gRPC trust boundaries. Set the same value on the control plane, gateway, workflow engine, runtime scheduler, model router and runtime manager. Fatal in prod when unset; dev warns and allows unauthenticated calls. Required in prod.
LANTERN_CONTROL_PLANE_TLS_CERT	unset	PEM path for the gRPC server certificate. Both cert and key, or neither; one alone is always fatal. Prod requires them. Required in prod.
LANTERN_CONTROL_PLANE_TLS_KEY	unset	PEM path for the matching key. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RLS_ENFORCE	unset (off)	1 enforces Postgres row-level security through the lantern_app pool. Prod refuses to start without it. Required in prod.
LANTERN_APP_DB_PASSWORD	unset	Password of the non-superuser lantern_app role used when RLS is enforced. Prod refuses to start without it. Required in prod.
LANTERN_AUTHZ_ENFORCE	off	1/true/on: a key missing the endpoint’s scope gets 403. Off: the miss is logged and the request proceeds.
LANTERN_CORS_ORIGINS	http://localhost:3001	Comma-separated allowed browser origins. Public endpoints (receipt verify, /.well-known/*) stay open.
LANTERN_TRUSTED_PROXIES	empty	CIDRs whose X-Forwarded-For is trusted for rate-limit keys.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_SECRET_TOKEN	unset	Pre-shared token for the manager-to-control-plane secret relay. Unset: POST /v1/runtime/secrets/resolve returns 403.
LANTERN_AGENT_IDENTITY_SECRET	unset	HMAC secret for per-instance agent identity tokens.
LANTERN_AGENT_IDENTITY_ED25519_SEED	unset	Seed for Ed25519 agent identity tokens (preferred over the HMAC secret).
LANTERN_AGENT_IDENTITY_TTL	1h	Identity token lifetime (Go duration).
LANTERN_DL_SIGNING_SECRET	unset	Signing secret for short-lived document download links.
LANTERN_SIGNAL_TOKEN	unset	Shared secret for /v1/signals (header x-lantern-signal-token). Unset: the endpoint is 401.
SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET	unset	Verifies Slack slash commands. Unset in prod: unsigned commands are refused.
LANTERN_TWILIO_WEBHOOK_AUTH	on	off skips Twilio signature checks. Fatal in prod.
LANTERN_USE_CLAUDE_CODE	unset	1 routes through a local claude binary. Fatal in prod.
LANTERN_CLAUDE_BINARY	found on PATH	Explicit path to that binary.

Control plane: sign-up, mail, OAuth

Behaviour and rationale are on Accounts & sign-up.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LANTERN_SIGNUP_MODE	closed in prod, open in dev	open, invite or closed. Any other value stops startup.
LANTERN_SIGNUP_INVITE_SECRET	unset	HMAC key for invite codes. Required for invite mode.
LANTERN_TURNSTILE_SECRET	unset	Cloudflare Turnstile secret. Setting it requires a captcha on every sign-up.
LANTERN_MAILER	log	log, smtp or http.
LANTERN_MAIL_FROM	Lantern	From address for smtp and http.
LANTERN_SMTP_ADDR	unset	host:port; required for smtp.
LANTERN_SMTP_USER	unset	SMTP user (PLAIN auth).
LANTERN_SMTP_PASSWORD	unset	SMTP password.
LANTERN_MAIL_HTTP_URL	unset	Endpoint for the http driver.
LANTERN_MAIL_HTTP_TOKEN	unset	Bearer token for the http driver.
OAUTH_DASHBOARD_URL	http://localhost:3001	Dashboard base URL used in emailed verify/reset links and OAuth redirects.
OAUTH_REDIRECT_BASE	http://localhost:8080	Base URL for the Google sign-in redirect URI. Set it to the public API URL.
OAUTH_BASE_URL	http://localhost:8080	Public base URL for connector OAuth redirect URIs.
GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID	unset	Enables “Sign in with Google” (with the secret).
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET	unset	Google OAuth client secret.
OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_	unset	Per-connector OAuth client id; connector id upper-cased, - as _ (for example OAUTH_CLIENT_ID_GITHUB).
OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET_	unset	The matching client secret.

Control plane: runtime, recovery, limits

How the control plane reaches the scheduler and manager, plus the loops and caps it runs.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LANTERN_SCHEDULER_GRPC_ADDR	unset (stub scheduler)	Runtime scheduler, for example localhost:50055. Unset uses a stub that fabricates VM ids and spawns nothing, so prod refuses to start. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_ADDR	unset	Runtime manager, for exec, pause and fork calls. Unset: those routes are unavailable.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_CA	unset	CA used to verify the manager. Prod requires mTLS to the manager; dev allows plaintext. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_CERT	unset	Client certificate (both cert and key, or neither). Prod requires it. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_KEY	unset	Client key. Required in prod.
LANTERN_DEFAULT_MANAGER_ADDR	unset	Manager address for the log-stream proxy and the health sweep.
LANTERN_MODEL_ROUTER_ADDR	unset	Model router address; also a health-sweep target.
LANTERN_WORKFLOW_ENGINE_ADDR	unset	Workflow engine address, a health-sweep target.
LANTERN_HEALTH_SWEEP_INTERVAL	60s	Peer-service health sweep period. 0 or off disables it.
LANTERN_NODE_ADDR_	unset	Explicit host:port for a named scheduler node whose address is not resolvable by DNS (node name upper-cased, . and - as _).
LANTERN_RECOVERY_INTERVAL	30s	Crash-recovery sweep period.
LANTERN_RUN_LEASE_TTL	60s	Run lease length; renewed every third of it while a run executes.
LANTERN_MAX_FORK_COUNT	100 (ceiling 1000)	Per-call cap on POST /v1/runtime/vms/{id}/fork.
LANTERN_SESSION_VM_IDLE_TTL	30m	Idle time before a session’s sandbox VM is reaped.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_TERMINAL_GRACE	10m	How long after a VM turns terminal the control plane still accepts its late log and audit reports. 0 disables the window.
LANTERN_SPAWN_RATE_PER_MIN	120	Per-tenant VM spawn rate limit.
LANTERN_SPAWN_BURST	20	Per-tenant spawn burst.
LANTERN_HOOK_RATE_PER_MIN	60	Per-trigger rate limit on POST /v1/hooks/{id}.
LANTERN_HOOK_BURST	10	Per-trigger burst.
LANTERN_DP_MAX_STREAMS_PER_TENANT	10	Concurrent data-plane run streams per tenant.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS	14	Retention for runtime_vm_logs.
LANTERN_JOURNAL_RETENTION_DAYS	90	Retention for journal_events.
LANTERN_AUDIT_RETENTION_DAYS	365	Retention for audit events.
LANTERN_USAGE_DAILY_RETENTION_DAYS	400	Retention for agent_usage_daily.
LANTERN_SIDE_EFFECT_RETENTION_DAYS	30	Retention for side_effect_receipts.
LANTERN_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE	UTC	IANA zone for cron matching and the budget day boundary when a schedule sets none.

Control plane: models, knowledge, flags

Flags marked on are on unless set to a disabling value.

Variable	Default	Meaning
OPENAI_API_KEY	unset	Platform-level fallback provider key, used when a tenant has none configured.
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	unset	Same, for Anthropic.
LANTERN_USE_MODEL_ROUTER	off	1/true/on sends plain completions through the model router; any router error falls back to the direct provider.
LANTERN_ROUTE_STRATEGY	balanced	balanced, cheap, quality or fast for model: auto.
LANTERN_LLM_MAX_TURNS	12 (cap 40)	Tool-loop turn limit per completion.
LANTERN_HAIKU_MODEL	claude-haiku-4-5-20251001	Concrete model behind the small tier.
LANTERN_SONNET_MODEL	claude-sonnet-4-6	Concrete model behind the mid tier.
LANTERN_OPUS_MODEL	claude-opus-4-8	Concrete model behind the large tier.
LANTERN_WEBSEARCH_MODEL	claude-sonnet-4-6	Anthropic model for the built-in web_search tool.
LANTERN_WEBSEARCH_OPENAI_MODEL	gpt-4o-mini-search-preview	OpenAI fallback model for web_search.
LANTERN_EMBED_MODEL	text-embedding-3-small	Embedding model for knowledge and memory.
LANTERN_EMBED_CONCURRENCY	4 (1 to 32)	Parallel embedding calls.
LANTERN_KB_MIN_SCORE	0.2	Cosine floor for a knowledge-base vector hit; below it the full-text fallback runs.
LANTERN_LLM_BASEURL_OPENAI	unset	Points OpenAI calls at a fixture or proxy base URL (used by demo mode and the replay server).
LANTERN_LLM_BASEURL_ANTHROPIC	unset	Same, for Anthropic.
LANTERN_CONNECTOR_BASEURL_	unset	Overrides a connector’s API host, for example LANTERN_CONNECTOR_BASEURL_GITHUB; used by the recorded-server example tests.
LANTERN_COMPLEXITY_ROUTING	on	Complexity-based model routing. 0/off/false disables.
LANTERN_MULTI_STEP_PLANNER	on	Multi-step planner. 0/off/false disables.
LANTERN_CLAIM_VERIFY	on	Claim-verify guard on completed-action claims. 0/off/false disables; read on every call.
LANTERN_BROWSER_SKILL	off	on/1/true enables browser-as-skill.
LANTERN_CROSS_APP	off	on/1/true enables cross-app workflows.
LANTERN_CONFIDENCE_GATE	off	1/true/on diverts low-confidence tool and connector steps to approval. See Human-in-the-loop.
LANTERN_CONFIDENCE_GATE_THRESHOLD	0.75	Minimum score in [0,1] for auto-execution.
LANTERN_CONFIDENCE_ESTIMATOR	verbalization	self-consistency (also self_consistency, sampling) polls the model; anything else uses the heuristic.
LANTERN_CONFIDENCE_SAMPLES	5 (1 to 9)	Independent judgments per self-consistency estimate; each is one LLM call.
LANTERN_CONFIDENCE_CALIBRATE	off	Lowers the score by the step type’s realized regret rate.
LANTERN_FREE_TIER_COST_USD_PER_DAY	2.00	Tenant-wide LLM spend cap applied to new tenants.
LANTERN_FREE_TIER_MAX_VMS	2	Concurrent sandbox VMs for new tenants.
LANTERN_FREE_TIER_RUNTIME_COST_USD_PER_DAY	1.00	Sandbox spend cap for new tenants.
LANTERN_KIOSK	off	Demo mode: anonymous throwaway workspaces. Refuses to start unless RLS and authz enforcement are on and JWT_SECRET is non-default.
LANTERN_KIOSK_ALLOW_PROD	off	Required to run kiosk mode under a production-like LANTERN_ENV.
LANTERN_KIOSK_TTL_MIN	30	Workspace lifetime in minutes.
LANTERN_KIOSK_MAX_SESSIONS	20	Concurrent kiosk workspaces.
LANTERN_KIOSK_IP_PER_HOUR	3	New workspaces per client IP per hour.
LANTERN_KIOSK_SWEEP_SEC	60	Expiry sweep period in seconds.
LANTERN_OTEL_ENABLED	unset	1 enables tracing (with an OTLP endpoint).
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT	unset	Standard OTLP endpoint; setting it also enables tracing.

Control plane: personal-assistant and bridge integration

Only relevant if you run the iMessage or WhatsApp bridges. All default to off or unset.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LANTERN_BRIDGE_URL	unset	WhatsApp bridge base URL.
LANTERN_BRIDGE_TOKEN	unset	Token the WhatsApp bridge validates.
LANTERN_BRIDGE_HEARTBEAT_TOKEN	unset	Shared token for POST /v1/surfaces/whatsapp/heartbeat.
LANTERN_IMESSAGE_BRIDGE_URL	unset	iMessage bridge base URL.
LANTERN_IMESSAGE_BRIDGE_TOKEN	unset	Token the iMessage bridge validates (a different variable from the WhatsApp one).
LANTERN_PERSONAL_DOCS_BRIDGE_URL	unset	Overrides the bridge URL for the personal-docs tool.
LANTERN_WHATSAPP_BRIDGE_URL	unset	WhatsApp bridge URL for the personal-docs tool.
LANTERN_DEFAULT_TENANT_ID	00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001	Tenant that single-owner background jobs act for.
LANTERN_OWNER_NAME	unset	Owner first name for briefs and calls.
LANTERN_OWNER_EMAIL	unset	Owner email: brief fallback and memory-ingest identity.
LANTERN_OWNER_PHONE	unset	Owner number for the morning brief by SMS.
LANTERN_OWNER_VERIFY_PIN	unset	PIN for the owner’s Twilio line; unset authorizes on caller ID alone (spoofable).
LANTERN_OWNER_VERIFY_TTL	12h	How long a PIN verification lasts.
LANTERN_TWILIO_NUMBER	from the Twilio connector	SMS sending number override.
LANTERN_PUBLIC_BASE_URL	unset	Public URL override for Twilio callbacks.
LANTERN_CONTROL_PLANE_URL	unset	Control plane’s own public URL (errand callbacks); also what the manager uses for the secret relay.
LANTERN_RCS_INBOUND	off	on accepts inbound RCS.
LANTERN_JARVIS_BRIEF_HOUR	unset (brief off)	Hour 0 to 23 for the morning brief push.
LANTERN_JARVIS_BRIEF_CHANNEL	unset	Channel for the brief.
LANTERN_ERRAND	off	Enables outbound errand calls.
LANTERN_ERRAND_PUBLIC_URL	unset	Public URL for errand webhooks.
LANTERN_MEMORY_INGEST	on	Background memory ingest. off disables.
LANTERN_MEMORY_INGEST_INTERVAL	15m (min 1m)	Ingest period.
LANTERN_MEMORY_DISTILL	off	1/true/on enables LLM memory distillation.
LANTERN_MEMORY_DISTILL_INTERVAL	6h (min 1m)	Distillation period.

Cron scheduler

Binary: services/scheduler/cmd/server.

Variable	Default	Meaning
DATABASE_URL	postgres://localhost:5432/lantern?sslmode=disable	Postgres DSN.
REDIS_URL	redis://localhost:6379/0	Redis.
LISTEN_ADDR	:50058	gRPC listen address.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level.
LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN	unset	Shared service token.

Runtime scheduler (placement)

Binary: services/runtime-scheduler/cmd/scheduler; gRPC :50055, REST and /metrics on :8085.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LISTEN_ADDR	:50055	gRPC listen address.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level.
DATABASE_URL	unset	Optional Postgres for write-through cluster state.
JWT_SECRET	dev default	Verifies caller JWTs on the REST surface.
LANTERN_ENV	unset (dev)	Production-like values arm the guards below.
LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN	unset	Shared service token for the gRPC port. Required in prod.
SCHEDULER_NODE_TOKEN	unset	Token that node heartbeats must present. Fatal in prod when unset; dev warns. Required in prod.
LANTERN_DEFAULT_MANAGER_ADDR	unset (log-only dialer)	Manager address for placements on node-local, node-stub or an empty node. Prod refuses to start without it. Required in prod.
LANTERN_DIALER	unset	stub forces the stub dialer. Fatal in prod.
LANTERN_NODE_ADDR_	unset	Explicit address for a named node.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_CA	unset	CA for dialing managers. Prod requires the CA and a client cert. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_CERT	unset	Client certificate. Required in prod.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_MANAGER_TLS_KEY	unset	Client key. Required in prod.
SCHEDULER_TENANT_MAX_VMS	20	Default per-tenant concurrent VM cap.
SCHEDULER_WEIGHT_WARM_POOL	0.40	Placement score weight.
SCHEDULER_WEIGHT_REGION	0.25	Placement score weight.
SCHEDULER_WEIGHT_FAIR_SHARE	0.15	Placement score weight.
SCHEDULER_WEIGHT_COST	0.10	Placement score weight.
SCHEDULER_WEIGHT_HEALTH	0.10	Placement score weight.
LANTERN_MAX_FORK_COUNT	100	Upper bound on one Fork call.
LANTERN_FORK_CONCURRENCY	16	Concurrent fork spawns.
LANTERN_AGENT_INSTANCE_ID	set by the control plane	Injected into spawned workloads, not an operator setting.
LANTERN_AGENT_INSTANCE_TOKEN	set by the control plane	Injected into spawned workloads, not an operator setting.

Runtime manager

Binary: services/runtime-manager (Rust). Spawns workloads and owns the exec channel.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LISTEN_ADDR	0.0.0.0:50054	gRPC listen address.
LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level.
LANTERN_ENV	unset (dev)	Production-like values make the guards below fatal.
RUNTIME_BACKEND	k8s	Backend: k8s, docker, firecracker, kata or wasm.
LANTERN_GRPC_SERVICE_TOKEN	unset	Callers must present it as x-lantern-service-token. Refuses to start in prod without it; per-VM certs are always refused on manager methods. Required in prod.
LANTERN_MANAGER_TLS_CA	unset	CA that harness and caller client certs must chain to. Fail-closed in prod, plaintext with a warning in dev. Required in prod.
LANTERN_MANAGER_TLS_CERT	unset	Manager server certificate (PEM). Required in prod.
LANTERN_MANAGER_TLS_KEY	unset	Manager server key (PEM). Required in prod.
LANTERN_VM_SIGNING_CA_CERT	falls back to the manager CA	CA that signs per-VM certificates.
LANTERN_VM_SIGNING_CA_KEY	falls back to the manager key	Its key.
LANTERN_CONTROL_PLANE_URL	unset	Base URL for the secret relay and report forwarding. Set with the token below.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_SECRET_TOKEN	unset	Sent as X-Lantern-Runtime-Token to the control plane. With the URL, activates the relay resolver; otherwise a dev env resolver is used.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_RELAY_ALLOW_INSECURE	unset	1 allows a non-TLS relay URL (dev only).
NODE_NAME	HOSTNAME-derived	Node name reported to the scheduler.
NODE_ADVERTISE_ADDR	LISTEN_ADDR with 0.0.0.0 as localhost	Address the scheduler dials back; set it on multi-host.
NODE_REGION	local	Region label for placement.
NODE_ZONE	local-a	Zone label.
SCHEDULER_URL	unset	Runtime scheduler address for node heartbeats.
SCHEDULER_TOKEN	unset	Heartbeat token (the scheduler’s SCHEDULER_NODE_TOKEN).
LANTERN_NODE_VCPU_MILLIS	detected	Override the advertised CPU capacity in millicores. Default: detected parallelism x 1000.
LANTERN_NODE_MEMORY_BYTES	detected	Override the advertised memory in bytes. Default: detected, else 8 GiB with a warning.
LANTERN_REAPER_INTERVAL_SECS	15	Orphan-VM reaper period (minimum 1).
AGENT_IMAGE	ghcr.io/lantern/agent-runner:latest	Default workload image (docker, kata).
DOCKER_SOCKET	/var/run/docker.sock	Docker socket path.
BUNDLE_S3_ENDPOINT	http://localhost:9000	Where agent bundles are fetched from.
BUNDLE_S3_BUCKET	lantern-bundles	Bundle bucket.
SNAPSHOT_DIR	/var/lib/lantern/snapshots	Local snapshot store root.
S3_ENDPOINT	unset	With S3_BUCKET and the AWS keys, enables the S3 snapshot tier.
S3_BUCKET	unset	Snapshot bucket.
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	unset	Snapshot-tier credentials.
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	unset	Snapshot-tier credentials.
FC_BINARY_PATH	found on PATH	Firecracker binary.
FC_KERNEL_PATH	/opt/lantern/vmlinux	Guest kernel.
FC_ROOTFS_PATH	/opt/lantern/rootfs.ext4	Base rootfs image.
FC_BRIDGE	unset	Host bridge for VM taps.
FIRECRACKER_JAILER_PATH	unset (no jailer)	Run Firecracker under this jailer binary.
FIRECRACKER_JAILER_UID	123	Uid the jailer drops to.
FIRECRACKER_JAILER_GID	100	Gid the jailer drops to.
FIRECRACKER_CHROOT_BASE	/srv/jailer	Jailer chroot base.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_UID_DEFAULT	1000	Workload uid written to spawn.json; a caller-supplied LANTERN_WORKLOAD_UID is dropped.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_GID_DEFAULT	same as the uid	Workload gid.
LANTERN_EGRESS_MODE	guest	broker (Firecracker only) gives VMs no NIC and enforces egress on the host over vsock. See Egress and credentials.
LANTERN_EGRESS_ALLOWED_PORTS	443	Comma list of ports the broker will dial.
LANTERN_EGRESS_PLAIN_INJECT	unset	1 permits credential injection over plain HTTP on port 80. Off by default.
LANTERN_HARNESS_EXEC_PORT	50056	Port of the harness exec channel.
LANTERN_HARNESS_READY_TIMEOUT_MS	5000	How long resume and fork wait for the harness.
KATA_RUNTIME_NAME	kata-runtime	Docker runtime name registered for Kata.
LANTERN_RUNTIMECLASS_GVISOR	unset	Kubernetes RuntimeClass for gVisor. Unset: that class is refused (fail-closed).
LANTERN_RUNTIMECLASS_KATA	unset	RuntimeClass for Kata.
LANTERN_RUNTIMECLASS_KATA_CC	unset	RuntimeClass for confidential Kata.
LANTERN_RUNTIMECLASS_WASM	unset	RuntimeClass for Wasm pods.
LANTERN_NODE_LABEL_GVISOR	unset	Node label that marks gVisor-capable nodes.
LANTERN_NODE_LABEL_KATA	unset	Node label that marks Kata-capable nodes.
LANTERN_ALLOW_RUNC_STANDARD	off	1/true/yes/on lets the standard class run on plain runc (admin override).
LANTERN_CC_TECH	unset	Confidential-computing technology to report.
LANTERN_OTEL_ENABLED	unset	1 enables traces (with the OTLP endpoint).
OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT	unset	Standard OTLP endpoint.

In-VM harness

Binary: services/harness (Rust, PID 1 in the VM). Almost everything here is written into spawn.json or the kernel command line by the manager; set these through the agent spec, not by hand. The exceptions are called out.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LANTERN_ENV	unset (dev)	Production-like values arm the guards below.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_UID	unset	Uid the workload, exec and shell children run as; also the only uid admitted to the secrets socket. In prod the harness refuses to start without it. Required in prod.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_GID	uid	Workload gid.
LANTERN_HARNESS_EXEC_TOKEN	unset	Token the Exec RPC requires. Must be set in prod and staging. Required in prod.
LANTERN_HARNESS_EXEC_ADDR	0.0.0.0:50056	Listen address of the one-shot exec server.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_CMD	from spawn.json	Workload command line.
LANTERN_WORKLOAD_ARGV	from spawn.json	Workload arguments.
LANTERN_MAX_RESTARTS	5	Workload restart limit.
LANTERN_DRAIN_GRACE_SECS	25	Grace period on SIGTERM drain.
LANTERN_RUN_DIR	/run/lantern	Directory for sockets (secrets.sock).
LANTERN_RLIMIT_AS_BYTES	unset (no cap)	Address-space limit applied to the workload.
LANTERN_EGRESS_RULES	[]	JSON [{pattern, http_methods, rate_bps}] declared egress.
LANTERN_EGRESS_FAIL_CLOSED	off in dev	1 refuses to boot without the iptables REDIRECT rule. Always on in prod; 0 is ignored there with a warning.
LANTERN_EGRESS_BIND	127.0.0.1:3128	Listen address of the in-guest egress proxy.
LANTERN_EGRESS_ALLOWED_PORTS	443	Comma list of ports the proxy may CONNECT to; empty re-applies the default.
LANTERN_NO_PROXY	127.0.0.1,localhost,::1,169.254.169.254	Overrides the injected NO_PROXY.
LANTERN_EGRESS_MODE	guest	broker swaps the proxy for a vsock forwarder.
LANTERN_EGRESS_VSOCK_PORT	3128	Broker-mode vsock port to the host broker.
LANTERN_EGRESS_CA_PEM	unset	Per-VM CA the broker uses to terminate TLS for injecting hosts.
LANTERN_MANAGER_ADDR	from spawn.json	Manager address; in broker mode the manager’s name, dialed over vsock.
LANTERN_MANAGER_VSOCK_PORT	unset	Broker mode: vsock port of the control channel.
LANTERN_MANAGER_SERVER_NAME	manager.lantern.internal	TLS server name used to verify the manager.
LANTERN_VM_TLS_CERT	set at spawn	Per-VM client certificate path.
LANTERN_VM_TLS_KEY	set at spawn	Per-VM client key path.
LANTERN_MANAGER_TLS_CA	set at spawn	CA used to verify the manager.
LANTERN_ALLOW_SECRET_STUB	off	1: read secrets from the harness’s own env instead of the manager. Dev only; never in production.
LANTERN_DECLARED_SECRETS	set at spawn	Secret refs the spec declared.
LANTERN_VM_ID	set at spawn	This VM’s id.
LANTERN_AGENT_INSTANCE_TOKEN	set at spawn	Per-instance identity token.
LANTERN_TRACE_PARENT	set at spawn	W3C trace parent for the spawn.
LANTERN_OTLP_SOCKET	set at spawn	Unix socket for workload OTLP.
LANTERN_CONFIDENTIAL	unset	Marks a confidential-computing VM for attestation.
LANTERN_CC_TECH	unset	Confidential-computing technology.
LANTERN_CC_MEASUREMENT_PATH	unset	File holding the launch measurement.
LANTERN_RUNTIME_CLASS	unset	RuntimeClass the pod runs under (attestation).
RUST_LOG	unset	Standard Rust log filter.

Dashboard (Next.js)

App: apps/web. NEXT_PUBLIC_* values are baked in at build time.

Variable	Default	Meaning
LANTERN_API_URL	http://localhost:8080	Control-plane URL for server-side calls (checked before NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL).
NEXT_PUBLIC_API_URL	http://localhost:8080	Control-plane URL for the browser and the kiosk page.
NEXT_PUBLIC_DEMO_MODE	unset	1 shows the demo affordances on the login page.
NEXT_PUBLIC_TURNSTILE_SITE_KEY	unset	Turnstile site key; renders the captcha widget.
LANTERN_API_KEY	unset	Appears only in the generated “view code” samples; the dashboard itself does not read it.
LANTERN_BRIDGE_URL	unset	WhatsApp bridge URL for the dashboard’s bridge proxy route.
NEXT_PUBLIC_LANTERN_BRIDGE_URL	unset	Public fallback for the same URL, and the Surfaces page probe.
LANTERN_BRIDGE_TOKEN	unset	Token the proxy sends to the WhatsApp bridge.
LANTERN_IMESSAGE_BRIDGE_URL	unset	iMessage bridge URL for the proxy route.
NEXT_PUBLIC_LANTERN_IMESSAGE_BRIDGE_URL	unset	Public fallback, and the Surfaces page probe.
LANTERN_IMESSAGE_BRIDGE_TOKEN	unset	Token the proxy sends to the iMessage bridge.
LANTERN_SIGNAL_TOKEN	unset	Gates the dashboard’s /api/signals route (header x-lantern-signal-token).
NODE_ENV	set by Next.js	production marks the session cookie Secure.

How this list was built

Names and defaults come from the reads in code, not from other docs: Go os.Getenv and the local envOrDefault/envInt helpers in services/control-plane, services/scheduler and services/runtime-scheduler; Rust std::env::var in services/runtime-manager/src and services/harness/src; process.env in apps/web. Prod requirements come from the startup guards (runStartupGuards in the control plane, authz.rs/tls.rs in the manager).

Limits

• Not covered yet: the workflow engine, model router, gateway, surface gateway and the two chat bridges. The service token above applies to the first three.
• Rows whose default says set at spawn or from spawn.json are written by the manager. Setting them yourself on the harness is overridden or ignored.
• Duration values are Go durations (30s, 1h) unless the name ends in _SECS, _MS, _MIN or _DAYS.
• Defaults for the model-tier variables change with releases; check services/control-plane/internal/handlers/llm_proxy.go.