Environment Variables

All configuration is done via environment variables. In Docker deployments, these are loaded from the .env file via env_file.

Required Variables

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	PostgreSQL connection string (e.g., postgresql://portal:pass@db:5432/invite_portal)
SESSION_SECRET	Secret for iron-session cookies and AES-256-GCM encryption. Minimum 32 characters. Generate with openssl rand -hex 32.
ADMIN_EMAIL	Email address for the admin seed account
ADMIN_PASSWORD	Password for the admin seed account (bcrypt-hashed at seed time)

Optional Variables

Variable	Default	Description
APP_NAME	RiDDiX - Matrix Synapse Panel	Application display name
APP_URL	http://localhost:3000	Public URL of the application
RATE_LIMIT_WINDOW_MS	900000	Rate limit window in milliseconds (15 min)
RATE_LIMIT_MAX_REQUESTS	15	Maximum requests per rate limit window
CAPTCHA_SITE_KEY	—	hCaptcha or reCAPTCHA site key (placeholder for future use)
CAPTCHA_SECRET	—	CAPTCHA secret key
COOKIE_SECURE	(auto)	Override the Secure flag on session cookies. true or false. Auto-detected from APP_URL if not set.
SYNAPSE_CONFIG_DIR	—	Path to Synapse config directory (for managed integration mode)
SYNAPSE_APPSERVICE_DIR	—	Path to Synapse appservice registration directory

Legacy Single-Server Variables

These variables are optional when using multi-server management (Admin → Servers). They serve as fallback for backward compatibility with single-server deployments where no ManagedServer is configured in the database.

Variable	Description
SYNAPSE_INTERNAL_URL	Synapse URL reachable from the app (e.g., http://synapse:8008)
SYNAPSE_PUBLIC_URL	Public Synapse URL shown to users (e.g., https://matrix.example.com)
SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME	Matrix server name (e.g., example.com)
SYNAPSE_ADMIN_ACCESS_TOKEN	Synapse admin user access token

info

In multi-server mode, each homeserver's connection details (URL, admin token, server name) are stored in the database as ManagedServer records. The legacy env vars are only used if no server can be resolved from the request.

Docker Compose Variables

These are used by the docker-compose.yml to configure the PostgreSQL container:

Variable	Default	Description
POSTGRES_USER	portal	PostgreSQL username
POSTGRES_PASSWORD	portal	PostgreSQL password
POSTGRES_DB	invite_portal	PostgreSQL database name

Security Notes

• SESSION_SECRET is critical. It is used to derive the AES-256-GCM encryption key for all encrypted data (server admin tokens, integration secrets, bot access tokens). Changing it after deployment will make existing encrypted data unreadable.
• Never commit .env files to version control.
• Use strong, unique values for all secrets.
• The .env.example file contains CHANGE_ME placeholders — replace every one of them.