Rawi (راوي) Documentation | Environment Variables

Configuring Environment Variables for Rawi CLI

Rawi CLI supports environment variables for configuration, similar to the AWS CLI. Environment variables provide a convenient way to set credentials, provider options, and other settings for scripting, automation, or temporary overrides.

Precedence of Options

Rawi CLI loads configuration in the following order (highest to lowest):

Command-line options (e.g. --profile, --provider, --api-key)
Environment variables (see below)
Profile settings in ~/.rawi/credentials (default or named profile, stored as JSON)

If you set a value in multiple places, the command-line option takes precedence over environment variables, which take precedence over profile settings.

How to Set Environment Variables

Set environment variables in your shell:

export RAWI_PROFILE=work
export RAWI_PROVIDER=openai
export RAWI_API_KEY=sk-your-key
export RAWI_MODEL=gpt-4o
export RAWI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
export RAWI_TEMPERATURE=0.7
export RAWI_MAX_TOKENS=2048
export RAWI_LANGUAGE=english

Set environment variables in Command Prompt:

set RAWI_PROFILE=work
set RAWI_PROVIDER=openai
set RAWI_API_KEY=sk-your-key
set RAWI_MODEL=gpt-4o
set RAWI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1
set RAWI_TEMPERATURE=0.7
set RAWI_MAX_TOKENS=2048
set RAWI_LANGUAGE=english

Set environment variables in PowerShell:

$env:RAWI_PROFILE="work"
$env:RAWI_PROVIDER="openai"
$env:RAWI_API_KEY="sk-your-key"
$env:RAWI_MODEL="gpt-4o"
$env:RAWI_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"
$env:RAWI_TEMPERATURE="0.7"
$env:RAWI_MAX_TOKENS="2048"
$env:RAWI_LANGUAGE="english"

Supported Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Example Value
`RAWI_PROFILE`	Profile name to use	`work`
`RAWI_PROVIDER`	AI provider (`openai`, `anthropic`, etc.)	`openai`
`RAWI_API_KEY`	API key for the provider	`sk-...`
`RAWI_MODEL`	Model name	`gpt-4o`
`RAWI_BASE_URL`	Custom base URL for provider API	`https://api.openai.com/v1`
`RAWI_TEMPERATURE`	Sampling temperature (0-2)	`0.7`
`RAWI_MAX_TOKENS`	Maximum tokens for response	`2048`
`RAWI_LANGUAGE`	Language setting (`english`, `arabic`)	`english`
`RAWI_REGION`	Region (for Bedrock/AWS providers)	`us-east-1`
`RAWI_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	AWS access key (for Bedrock)	`AKIA...`
`RAWI_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	AWS secret key (for Bedrock)	`wJalr...`
`RAWI_SESSION_TOKEN`	AWS session token (for Bedrock, optional)	`FwoGZXIvYXdz...`
`RAWI_USE_PROVIDER_CHAIN`	Use AWS provider chain (for Bedrock)	`true`
`RAWI_RESOURCE_NAME`	Azure resource name (for Azure provider)	`my-azure-resource`
`RAWI_API_VERSION`	Azure API version	`2024-10-01-preview`

Note: Not all variables are required for every provider. See the Configuration Guide and Providers Guide for details.

Example: Using Environment Variables

export RAWI_PROFILE=work
export RAWI_PROVIDER=bedrock
export RAWI_REGION=us-west-2
export RAWI_USE_PROVIDER_CHAIN=true

rawi ask "Summarize this S3 bucket policy"

This will use the work profile, Amazon Bedrock provider, and the AWS credential provider chain for authentication.

Making Environment Variables Persistent

To make environment variables available in every terminal session, add the export lines to your shell’s startup file (e.g. ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc).

Overriding with Command-Line Options

You can always override environment variables by specifying options directly:

rawi ask "What is TypeScript?" --profile personal --provider openai --model gpt-4o

Troubleshooting

If a required variable is missing, Rawi will prompt for configuration or show an error.
To view the current configuration, run:

rawi configure --show