Configuration

Seatbit reads a few environment variables at startup. Everything else is a platform setting that admins change in the browser under Admin → Platform settings; each of those can also be set by an environment variable.

A value saved in the platform settings wins over the environment variable. Clearing it falls back to the variable, then to the default. Each field shows where its current value comes from.

Startup (environment only)

Variable	Default
BETTER_AUTH_URL	http://localhost:3000	Public URL of your instance, e.g. https://seatbit.example.com. Used for sign-in callbacks and links in emails.
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET		Required. Random secret for sessions, e.g. openssl rand -base64 32.
SETTINGS_ENCRYPTION_KEY	derived from BETTER_AUTH_SECRET	Key for secrets saved in the platform settings. If the key changes, saved secrets must be entered again.
DATABASE_PATH	./data/lan.db (/data/seatbit.db in the image)	SQLite file. Uploads go to uploads/ next to it.
TZ	Europe/Zurich in the image	Timezone for dates in forms, emails and Discord.
ALLOW_EMAIL_LOGIN	off	1 turns on email and password login. For development and tests only.
BACKUP_DIR, BACKUP_KEEP_DAYS	/backups, 14	For scripts/backup.mjs.

Platform settings

Setting	Variable	Default
General
Allow new accounts	SIGNUP_OPEN	true
Admin emails (become platform admin on sign-up)	ADMIN_EMAILS
Currency for food orders	FOOD_CURRENCY	CHF
Email
SMTP host, port, encryption	SMTP_HOST, SMTP_PORT, SMTP_SECURITY	–, 587, starttls
Username, password	SMTP_USER, SMTP_PASSWORD
Sender	MAIL_FROM	Seatbit <noreply@localhost>
(alternative) one SMTP URL	SMTP_URL
Discord
Application (client) ID, client secret	DISCORD_CLIENT_ID, DISCORD_CLIENT_SECRET
Bot token, public key	DISCORD_BOT_TOKEN, DISCORD_PUBLIC_KEY
Reminders
Reminder check interval (minutes, 0 = off)	REMINDER_INTERVAL_MINUTES	60
Cron secret for /api/cron/reminders	CRON_SECRET
Operator & legal
Operator name, postal address, contact email	LEGAL_OPERATOR_NAME, LEGAL_OPERATOR_ADDRESS, LEGAL_CONTACT_EMAIL
Hosting location, governing law	LEGAL_HOSTING_LOCATION, LEGAL_GOVERNING_LAW
Own Terms of Service / Privacy Policy URL	LEGAL_TERMS_URL, LEGAL_PRIVACY_URL	built-in pages
Source code URL (footer "Source")	SOURCE_URL	this repository

Passwords, client secrets and tokens are encrypted (AES-256-GCM) before they are stored and never shown again; the page only shows whether one is set and its last four characters.

The Server tab shows the startup values, and Mail templates lets you change the wording of every email (see Email).

Reminders without a long-running process

The server checks for due reminders every Reminder check interval minutes. If your host stops idle processes, set it to 0 and call the endpoint from a cron job instead:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $CRON_SECRET" https://seatbit.example.com/api/cron/reminders