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Environment variables

All chatgpt-to-markdown environment variables use the CONVERTER_ prefix and map directly to fields on ConverterConfig.

Variables

Variable Type Default Description
CONVERTER_INPUT_DIR path ./export Path to export directory or ZIP file
CONVERTER_OUTPUT_DIR path ./archive Path to write the Markdown archive
CONVERTER_REDACT_PII bool true Replace PII in user metadata with [REDACTED]
CONVERTER_INCLUDE_THINKING bool false Render thinking blocks from o-series models
CONVERTER_DEDUPLICATE_BY_HASH bool true Deduplicate media files by SHA-256 hash
CONVERTER_MAX_FILENAME_LENGTH int 200 Maximum output filename length

Boolean values

Boolean variables accept: true / false (case-insensitive), 1 / 0, yes / no.

.env file support

The converter loads a .env file from the working directory automatically. Example:

CONVERTER_INPUT_DIR=./exports/2024
CONVERTER_OUTPUT_DIR=./archives/2024
CONVERTER_REDACT_PII=false
CONVERTER_INCLUDE_THINKING=true

Never commit .env files containing sensitive data.

Shell export

Set variables in the current shell session:

export CONVERTER_REDACT_PII=false
export CONVERTER_OUTPUT_DIR=/data/chatgpt-archives
uv run chatgpt-to-markdown ./export ./archive

Precedence

CLI flags override environment variables. Environment variables override defaults. See the configuration reference for the full precedence order.