Environment Variables

In MCP server mode, reklawdbox is configured through environment variables set in your MCP host config. CLI subcommands also accept command-line flags — see CLI Commands for details. CLI commands load environment variables from .mcp.json automatically.

Required

Variable	Description	Default
REKORDBOX_DB_PATH	Path to Rekordbox master.db	Auto-detected: ~/Library/Pioneer/rekordbox/master.db

The auto-detection path works for standard macOS Rekordbox installations. Only set this if your database is in a non-standard location.

Discogs enrichment

Variable	Description	Default
REKLAWDBOX_DISCOGS_BROKER_URL	URL of the Discogs broker service	Built-in production broker URL
REKLAWDBOX_DISCOGS_BROKER_TOKEN	Auth token for the broker	Built-in default

The broker is a Cloudflare Workers service that handles Discogs OAuth and rate limiting. Both the URL and token have compiled-in defaults pointing to the production broker — no configuration needed for standard use. Only set these if you are self-hosting a broker. Run reklawdbox setup --broker for a guided setup that writes a config file (~/Library/Application Support/reklawdbox/config.toml).

Audio analysis

Variable	Description	Default
CRATE_DIG_ESSENTIA_PYTHON	Path to Python binary with Essentia installed	Probes ~/.local/share/reklawdbox/essentia-venv/bin/python

Probe behavior:

• The server probes CRATE_DIG_ESSENTIA_PYTHON and the default venv path lazily on first use (not at startup). The first tool call that needs Essentia triggers the probe.
• If neither imports Essentia successfully, tools report Essentia as unavailable and continue with stratum-dsp only.
• The probe result is memoized for the process lifetime — restart the server after changing your Essentia config.
• The setup_essentia tool can install and activate Essentia without a restart.

stratum-dsp always runs regardless of Essentia availability. It provides BPM and key. Without Essentia, energy falls back to a BPM proxy. Essentia adds energy, danceability, brightness, and additional spectral features. Run reklawdbox setup to install Essentia to the default venv path — no env var needed.

Backup

Variable	Description	Default
REKLAWDBOX_BACKUP_SCRIPT	Path to a custom backup script run before write_xml	Built-in script

A backup of your Rekordbox database files runs automatically before every write_xml export using a script embedded in the binary. Set this variable only if you want to replace the built-in backup with your own script. The script receives --pre-op as its first argument.

Storage

Variable	Description	Default
CRATE_DIG_STORE_PATH	Path to internal cache SQLite	~/Library/Application Support/reklawdbox/internal.sqlite3

The cache database stores Discogs/Beatport enrichment results, audio analysis output, and broker session tokens. It is safe to delete at any time — data will be re-fetched or re-analyzed on next use.

Advanced

Variable	Description	Default
REKLAWDBOX_BEATPORT_MIN_INTERVAL_MS	Minimum interval between Beatport requests (ms)	1000
REKLAWDBOX_BANDCAMP_MIN_INTERVAL_MS	Minimum interval between Bandcamp requests (ms)	1500
REKLAWDBOX_MUSICBRAINZ_MIN_INTERVAL_MS	Minimum interval between MusicBrainz requests (ms)	1100
REKLAWDBOX_DISCOGS_MIN_INTERVAL_MS	Minimum interval between Discogs broker requests (ms)	1100
REKLAWDBOX_CORPUS_PATH	Path to the Rekordbox knowledge corpus manifest	docs/rekordbox/manifest.yaml

These are internal tuning knobs. The rate-limit intervals control minimum time between requests to each service — lower values risk HTTP 429 errors. The corpus path points to the knowledge manifest used for contextual tool responses.

Example MCP config

A complete mcp_servers config block with all commonly used variables:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "reklawdbox": {
      "command": "/opt/homebrew/bin/reklawdbox"
    }
  }
}

If you built from source, use ./target/release/reklawdbox as the command. After running reklawdbox setup, Essentia is auto-detected at the default venv path — no env vars needed for standard use.