Environment Variables

Catalyst uses config/config.json for configuration. Variables defined here are accessible via process.env.

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Server Variables

All variables in config.json are available on the server through process.env.VARIABLE_NAME.

Variable	Default	Description
NODE_SERVER_HOSTNAME	"localhost"	Server hostname
NODE_SERVER_PORT	3005	Server port
WEBPACK_DEV_SERVER_HOSTNAME	"localhost"	Dev server hostname
WEBPACK_DEV_SERVER_PORT	3006	Dev server port
BUILD_OUTPUT_PATH	"build"	Build output directory
PUBLIC_STATIC_ASSET_PATH	"/assets/"	Path for serving static assets
PUBLIC_STATIC_ASSET_URL	"http://localhost:3006"	Base URL for assets (use CDN URL in production)
NODE_ENV	"development"	Node environment
API_URL	""	Base URL for API requests
ANALYZE_BUNDLE	false	Enable webpack bundle analyzer
ENABLE_DEBUG_LOGS	false	Enable debug-level logging
ENABLE_CONSOLE_LOGGING	true	Enable console output
CLIENT_ENV_VARIABLES	[]	Variables to expose to client

---

Client Variables

By default, variables are server-only. To expose a variable to client-side code, add its key to the CLIENT_ENV_VARIABLES array:

config/config.json

{
  "API_URL": "https://api.example.com",
  "ANALYTICS_ID": "UA-123456",
  "SECRET_KEY": "do-not-expose",
  "CLIENT_ENV_VARIABLES": ["API_URL", "ANALYTICS_ID"]
}

// Client-side usage
const apiUrl = process.env.API_URL;       // "https://api.example.com"
const analyticsId = process.env.ANALYTICS_ID; // "UA-123456"
const secret = process.env.SECRET_KEY;    // undefined (not exposed)

Security Warning: Variables in CLIENT_ENV_VARIABLES are visible in the browser. Never expose secrets, API keys with write access, or database credentials.