Configuration

Odeion has two layers of configuration:

• A small set of environment variables read at startup, covering where data is stored, how the server listens, and how it connects to Postgres.
• Everything else as runtime settings in the database, edited from Admin > Settings in the web UI, or exported and imported as YAML from the CLI.

There is no configuration file read from disk by the server.

Environment variables

Required

Variable	Description
DATABASE_URL	Postgres connection string, or the literal local for the embedded Postgres. Example: postgres://user:pass@host:5432/odeion?sslmode=disable.

When set to local, Odeion downloads and runs its own Postgres instance inside the data directory. Convenient for simple setups. For production deployments, an external Postgres 15+ server is recommended.

Optional

Variable	Default	Description
ODEION_DATA_DIR	~/.local/share/odeion	Root directory for persistent state. Respects XDG_DATA_HOME. In the Docker image the default is /var/lib/odeion. See Storage.
ODEION_PORT	8080	HTTP port. The server always binds to 0.0.0.0.

Runtime settings

Everything outside of the startup variables above lives in the database and can be changed while the server is running from Admin > Settings: metadata provider keys, transcoding limits, subtitle preferences, Sonarr/Radarr integration, processing worker counts, feature toggles, and so on.

Exporting and importing settings

odeion config dumps the runtime settings to a YAML file and applies a YAML file back. Useful for version control, cloning settings between environments, and bulk edits in an editor.

# Dump the current settings to a file
odeion config export -o config.yaml

# Apply a saved file back — the server reloads live settings automatically
odeion config import -f config.yaml

# Export, open in $EDITOR, and re-import on save
odeion config edit

# Manually ask a running server to re-read settings from the database
odeion reload

From inside a running Docker container:

docker exec odeion odeion config export > config.yaml
docker cp config.yaml odeion:/tmp/config.yaml
docker exec odeion odeion config import -f /tmp/config.yaml

A few notes worth knowing before you use this in anger:

• After a successful odeion config import (or edit), the CLI signals the running server so reloadable settings take effect live — no restart needed. A small number of boot-time keys (HTTP port, embedded-postgres configuration) still require a server restart; pass --no-reload if you’d rather apply everything on the next restart.
• Secrets like integration API keys are present in the exported YAML in cleartext. Treat the file accordingly.
• A handful of server-managed keys (JWT secret, setup wizard state, license key) are excluded from both export and import so you can safely copy a file between installs without breaking sessions or the first-run wizard.

Run odeion config --help for the full set of flags on each subcommand.