Configuration reference

OLDP is configured through django-configurations. Settings live in src/oldp/settings.py and are grouped into predefined configuration classes selected with the DJANGO_CONFIGURATION environment variable. Most individual settings can additionally be overridden through environment variables (all prefixed with DJANGO_).

This page is the single source of truth for OLDP’s environment variables. Other pages (the README, Getting Started, Deployment) link here rather than restating the table.

Configuration classes

Set DJANGO_CONFIGURATION to one of:

Class	Use case
`DevConfiguration`	Local development (default). `DEBUG=True`, verbose logging.
`ProdConfiguration`	Production. Requires `DJANGO_SECRET_KEY`, `DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS`, etc.
`TestConfiguration`	Automated tests. Uses SQLite and a mock Elasticsearch backend by default.

export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=oldp.settings
export DJANGO_CONFIGURATION=DevConfiguration

When running with the German theme, point DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE at the theme package instead — see The OLDP ecosystem and the oldp-de project.

Core / Django

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE`	`oldp.settings`	Tells Django which settings file to use (Python path syntax).
`DJANGO_CONFIGURATION`	`DevConfiguration`	Predefined settings class: `DevConfiguration`, `ProdConfiguration` or `TestConfiguration`.
`DJANGO_SECRET_KEY`	`None`	Set this to a secret value in production mode.
`DJANGO_DEBUG`	`True`	Enable to show debugging messages and errors.
`DJANGO_ADMINS`	`Admin,admin@openlegaldata.io`	Format: `Foo,foo@site.com;Bar,bar@site.com`
`DJANGO_SITE_URL`	`http://localhost:8000`	Canonical public base URL, used for absolute URLs and MCP OAuth discovery. Set to the HTTPS production origin, e.g. `https://de.openlegaldata.io`.
`DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS`	`None`	Format: `foo.com,bar.net`
`DJANGO_CSRF_TRUSTED_ORIGINS`	(empty)	Trusted browser origins for CSRF and MCP Origin validation. Format: `https://de.openlegaldata.io,https://*.example.org`
`DJANGO_LANGUAGES_DOMAINS`		Format: `{'de.foo.com':'de','fr.foo.com':'fr'}`
`DJANGO_TIME_ZONE`	`UTC`	Time zone.
`DJANGO_TOP_LAW_BOOKS`	(empty)	Comma-separated `LawBook` slugs surfaced as “top books” on `/law/`, in the order listed. Empty hides the top block. Example: `gg,bgb,stgb,hgb,estg`

Database

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DATABASE_URL`	`mysql://oldp:oldp@127.0.0.1/oldp`	Database connection (usually MySQL or SQLite).

Elasticsearch

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_ELASTICSEARCH_URL`	`http://localhost:9200/`	Elasticsearch connection (scheme, host, port).
`DJANGO_ELASTICSEARCH_INDEX`	`oldp`	Elasticsearch index name.

See Elasticsearch for index management and reindexing.

Caching (Redis / file cache)

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_CACHE_DISABLE`	`False`	Set to `True` to disable cache (Redis).
`DJANGO_CACHE_BACKEND`	`file`	Cache backend selector. Set to `redis` to use `django-redis`.
`DJANGO_CACHE_TTL`	`21600` (6 h)	Default TTL in seconds for cached API and HTML views (`@cache_page(CACHE_TTL)`).
`DJANGO_CACHE_TTL_STATS`	`86400` (24 h)	TTL in seconds for stats endpoints, which aggregate over the full corpus.
`DJANGO_REDIS_URL`	`redis://127.0.0.1:6379/1`	Redis cache URL when `DJANGO_CACHE_BACKEND=redis`.
`DJANGO_FILE_CACHE_LOCATION`	`/var/tmp/django_cache`	File cache directory when `DJANGO_CACHE_BACKEND=file`; must be writable by the app.

Anonymous CDN cache

These tune AnonymousPublicCacheMiddleware, which makes anonymous public pages CDN-cacheable.

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_ANON_CACHE_ENABLED`	`True`	Master switch for `AnonymousPublicCacheMiddleware` (strips `Vary: Cookie` / `Set-Cookie` and emits `Cache-Control: public` for anonymous GET/HEAD on public pages so a CDN can cache them).
`DJANGO_ANON_CACHE_PATH_PREFIXES`	`/case/,/law/,/court/,/pages/,/search/`	Comma-separated URL prefixes treated as anonymous-cacheable.
`DJANGO_ANON_CACHE_PATHS_EXACT`	`/`	Comma-separated exact paths treated as anonymous-cacheable (e.g. the homepage).
`DJANGO_ANON_CACHE_S_MAXAGE`	`600`	CDN edge TTL in seconds for anonymous public-cacheable responses.
`DJANGO_ANON_CACHE_MAX_AGE`	`60`	Browser TTL in seconds for anonymous public-cacheable responses.

MCP server

See MCP Server for the full tool catalogue.

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_MCP_ANTHROPIC_ANON_RATE`	`500/hour`	Anonymous MCP request rate limit. Anthropic MCP IPs share a single anonymous bucket.
`DJANGO_MCP_USER_RATE`	`1000/hour`	Authenticated MCP request rate limit per user.

Email

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL`	`no-reply@openlegaldata.io`	Emails are sent from this address.
`DJANGO_EMAIL_HOST`	`localhost`	SMTP server.
`DJANGO_EMAIL_HOST_USER`		SMTP user.
`DJANGO_EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD`		SMTP password.
`DJANGO_EMAIL_USE_TLS`	`False`	Enable TLS.
`DJANGO_EMAIL_PORT`	`25`	SMTP port.
`DJANGO_FEEDBACK_EMAIL`	`feedback@openlegaldata.io`	Messages from the feedback widget are sent to this address.

Logging

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_LOG_FILE`	`oldp.log`	Name of log file (in the logs directory).
`DJANGO_LOG_MAX_BYTES`	`15728640`	Max size of `oldp.log` before rotation, in bytes (default 15 MB). Raise in production if rotation churns through history faster than you can analyze it.
`DJANGO_LOG_BACKUP_COUNT`	`10`	Number of rotated backups (`oldp.log.1` … `oldp.log.N`) to retain. Total disk usage is roughly `DJANGO_LOG_MAX_BYTES × (DJANGO_LOG_BACKUP_COUNT + 1)`.

Testing

Variable name	Default value	Comment
`DJANGO_TEST_WITH_ES`	`False`	Run tests that require Elasticsearch.
`DJANGO_TEST_WITH_WEB`	`False`	Run tests that require web access.

See Testing for how these interact with the test configuration.