dclient/docs/environment.md

(environment-variables)=

Environment variables

dclient supports two environment variables for convenient access to a Datasette instance without needing aliases or repeated URLs.

DATASETTE_URL

Set this to the base URL of your Datasette instance:

export DATASETTE_URL=https://my-instance.datasette.cloud

Then pass just the database name as the first argument to any command:

dclient query data "select * from my_table limit 10"

This is equivalent to:

dclient query https://my-instance.datasette.cloud/data "select * from my_table limit 10"

It works with all commands:

dclient insert data my_table data.csv --csv
dclient actor data

Full URLs and aliases always take priority over DATASETTE_URL. If the argument starts with http:// or https://, it is used as-is. If it matches an alias in aliases.json, the alias is used.

DATASETTE_TOKEN

Set this to an API token:

export DATASETTE_TOKEN=dstok_abc123

The token will be used automatically for any request that doesn't have a more specific token configured.

The precedence order for tokens is:

1. --token CLI flag (highest priority)
2. Stored token from auth.json (matched by URL prefix)
3. DATASETTE_TOKEN environment variable (lowest priority)

Using both together

These variables work well together for quick access to a single instance:

export DATASETTE_URL=https://my-instance.datasette.cloud
export DATASETTE_TOKEN=dstok_abc123

# Query the "data" database
dclient query data "select * from my_table"

# Insert into the "data" database
cat records.json | dclient insert data my_table - --json

# Check your actor identity
dclient actor data