Environment variables

Hostwarden needs no environment variable to run. These are the ones you may set. In a terminal, export them before you start the session; in the Claude desktop app, put them into the env key of .claude/settings.local.json and start a new session (Claude Code Desktop).

Sessions

• HOSTWARDEN_NO_UPDATE=1 — the session start skips the automatic update of an operations checkout (Updates and versioning). HEINZEL_NO_UPDATE=1 is honoured as well.
• HOSTWARDEN_GUARD_DISABLE=<host> — switches the taboo guard off toward one host, for the disk steps of an OS install on it and nothing else: the name Hostwarden reaches the host the disk writes run on by (the hypervisor, for a guest's disk), or localhost for this machine. The guard stays on for every other host; 1 or a list is refused. It counts only for a session that started with it, and Hostwarden cannot set it for you: you add it yourself, and remove it after the install (Hard guardrails).

Scripts

• HOSTWARDEN_MIRROR_TOKEN — the token bin/hostwarden-mirror pushes to your mirror with, read from the environment so it never lands on a command line (Your own mirror).
• HOSTWARDEN_FLEET_MODEL — the model the nightly run of an operations host asks for a verdict on each server's output; the default is sonnet (An operations host).

Variables for working on Hostwarden itself, such as the lab's, are in Testing a change. Any other HOSTWARDEN_* name in the scripts is set by Hostwarden for its own use.