Configuration

The frontend is configured in multiple ways:

• By Vite environment variables (VITE_*) set at build time, which are baked into the bundle.
• Through SCRUMLR_* environment variables, which are configured in two ways depending on their scope. Variables responsible for analytics options, WebSocket/server URLs, and legal document visibility are configured at runtime by cookies, which the nginx container sets. using cookies set by the NGINX container. Conversely, variables for database and Redis setups, server port, and anonymous user permissions are configured at build time using flags in main.go and read by the info endpoint in info.go.

Knowing which one applies where saves a lot of confusion. During local development you only care about the first. In a self-hosted deployment you only care about the second.

Environment files

.env and .env.development are both checked into the repository — they contain no secrets. Vite loads .env always and .env.development additionally when running yarn start.

.env.development supplies:

VITE_SERVER_HTTP_URL=http://localhost:8080
VITE_SERVER_WEBSOCKET_URL=ws://localhost:8080

That is why yarn start reaches a local backend without any setup on your part. For machine-local overrides use .env.local or .env.development.local — both are gitignored.

Available variables

Variable	Read in	Purpose
VITE_SERVER_HTTP_URL	src/config.ts	Base URL for REST calls
VITE_SERVER_WEBSOCKET_URL	src/config.ts	Base URL for the board WebSocket
VITE_VERSION	src/index.tsx, components/AppInfo	Displayed version; set from $npm_package_version
VITE_LEGACY_CREATE_BOARD	store/features/view/reducer.ts	Enables the legacy /new board creation route
VITE_SHOW_HISTORY_PAGE	routes/Boards/Sessions/History.tsx	Renders the board history list instead of the teaser
BASE_URL	several components	Vite’s own built-in; used to build URLs for static assets in public/

Vite only exposes variables prefixed with VITE_ to client code, plus its own built-ins.

If you add a variable, declare it in vite-env.d.ts as well so import.meta.env stays typed. Note: vite-env.d.ts is still incomplete as some flags like VITE_SHOW_HISTORY_PAGE are currently missing from it

Runtime configuration (cookies)

A built bundle is static JavaScript, so it cannot read environment variables. To keep one image configurable across environments, the frontend container translates its SCRUMLR_* variables into cookies:

1. Dockerfile declares the defaults.
2. nginx.conf emits them as Set-Cookie headers on /index.html
3. src/config.ts reads those cookies with js-cookie.

So the bundle never reads a SCRUMLR_* variable directly. The full list of deployment-side names is in Environment Variables.

SHOW_LEGAL_DOCUMENTS defaults to true when the cookie is absent, so an empty value does not hide the legal pages.

Because these are ordinary cookies, you can point a deployed frontend at a different backend from your browser’s dev tools by setting scrumlr__server-url and scrumlr__websocket-url by hand. That is occasionally useful for debugging.

Feature flags

Feature flags reach the store from two directions, and both end up in state.view:

• From the server. The setServerInfo thunk calls GET /info and the view reducer copies the response into state.view. The same response carries serverTime, which the reducer turns into serverTimeOffset - the clock skew the timer uses so every participant sees the same countdown
• From the build. legacyCreateBoard is derived from import.meta.env.VITE_LEGACY_CREATE_BOARD === "true" in the slice’s initial state.

Read either kind the same way:

const feedbackEnabled = useAppSelector((state) => state.view.feedbackEnabled);

A third group of view values (theme, hotkey notifications, board reactions, snowfall) is persisted in localStorage through the helpers in src/utils/storage.ts, keyed by the constants in src/constants/storage.ts.

See also

• Environment Variables — the deployment-side SCRUMLR_* names.
• Architecture — where config.ts is consumed.