🔧 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.

.env

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

# ========================
# ⚙️ Backend Configuration
# ========================
# Supported values: mongo, postgres
AUTH_DB_BACKEND=mongo

# ========================
# 🔐 Authentication (JWT)
# ========================
ACCESS_TOKEN_EXPIRE_MINUTES=20
TOKEN_ISSUER=JANUX-server
TOKEN_AUDIENCE=JANUX-application

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

# ========================
# 🌱 MongoDB Configuration
# ========================
MONGO_DATABASE_NAME=users_db

# ========================
# 🐘 PostgreSQL Configuration
# ========================
POSTGRES_DATABASE_NAME=users_db
POSTGRES_ECHO=false
POSTGRES_POOL_SIZE=5

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

# ========================
# 🦄 Uvicorn Configuration
# ========================
UVICORN_HOST=0.0.0.0
UVICORN_PORT=8000

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

# MongoDB (used if AUTH_DB_BACKEND=mongo)
├── 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

# PostgreSQL (used if AUTH_DB_BACKEND=postgres)
├── postgres_uri
├── postgres_admin_username
├── postgres_admin_password
├── postgres_admin_fullname
├── postgres_admin_role
├── postgres_user_username
├── postgres_user_password
├── postgres_user_fullname
└── postgres_user_role

🕵️‍♂️ 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 for MongoDB backend:

./setup_docker_secret.sh mongo

or for PostgreSQL backend:

./setup_docker_secret.sh postgres

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

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