🔧 Configuration

JANUX Authentication Gateway relies on environment variables and Docker secrets to securely store configuration values. Below is a guide on how to configure the service.

🌍 Environment Variables

For non-sensitive settings, JANUX loads configuration from a .env file or system environment variables. The following default .env.example file is provided for local development.

Create a .env file in the project root:

.env

# ========================
# 🌍 Environment Settings
# ========================
ENVIRONMENT=local
ALLOWED_ORIGINS="*"

# ========================
# 🔐 Authentication (JWT)
# ========================
# Token expiration time
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=20

# Token issuer and audience
TOKEN_ISSUER=JANUX-server
TOKEN_AUDIENCE=JANUX-application

# ========================
# 📍 Token Endpoints
# ========================
USER_TOKEN_URL=/auth/login
ADMIN_TOKEN_URL=/auth/login

# ========================
# 🗄️ Database Configuration
# ========================
MONGO_DATABASE_NAME=users_db

# ========================
# 🇷 REDIS Configuration
# ========================
REDIS_HOST=redis
REDIS_PORT=6379

To use this configuration, copy .env.example to .env, and modify the values as needed.

Note

JANUX accepts .env and .env.local for development.

For production or any other containerized enviroments, use .env.<enviroment> e.g. .env.test or .env.production.

IMPORTANT

Ensure JANUX_ENCRYPTION_KEY is a valid 32-byte base64-encoded string!

🔐 Secure Secrets with Docker

For sensitive data, JANUX does NOT store credentials in .env files but instead loads them from Docker secrets. This ensures that sensitive information (e.g., database credentials, encryption keys) is not stored in source code or environment variables.

The expected structure for secrets in local development mimics Docker secrets:

📁 secrets/
├── janux_encryption_key
├── jwt_private_key.pem
├── jwt_public_key.pem
├── mongo_uri
├── mongo_admin_email
├── mongo_admin_password
├── mongo_admin_fullname
├── mongo_admin_role
├── mongo_user_email
├── mongo_user_password
├── mongo_user_fullname
└── mongo_user_role

Content

Each secret file contains only the value of the secret, without quotes or extra characters.

🕵️‍♂️ Setting Up Docker Secrets

If running with Docker Compose, JANUX automatically loads secrets from /run/secrets/:

➊ To grant execute permissions, run the following command:

chmod +x ./setup_docker_secret.sh

➋ Next, to create these secrets, run the following command in the terminal:

./setup_docker_secret.sh

Prior to the deployment, this script will populate Docker secrets in /run/secrets/ by reading from local files.

🔄 Loading Secrets in the Application

JANUX automatically detects whether it is running:

Enviroment	Secrets
Containerized environment (Docker, Kubernetes)	From /run/secrets/
Local / development	From ./secrets/
As a fallback	From environment variables

---

Now that environment variables and secrets are set, continue with installation. 🎯