Environment variables

The complete set. There is no config file and no command-line flag.

AUDIOBOOKSHELF_URL

Required. Base URL of the Audiobookshelf instance, e.g. https://abs.example.com.

Rule	Behaviour
Unparseable by new URL()	Server exits with an error
Scheme other than http/https	Server exits with an error
Contains user:pass@	Server exits with an error
Trailing slashes	Stripped
Plain http to a remote host	Warning on stderr, server continues
Plain http to loopback	No warning

Loopback means localhost, *.localhost, 127.* or ::1.

AUDIOBOOKSHELF_API_KEY

Required. Sent as Authorization: Bearer <key>. Created under Settings → Users → API Keys (admin only, Audiobookshelf 2.26.0 or newer) and shown once at creation.

Deleted from process.env after the configuration is read, so it is not visible to child processes or in /proc/<pid>/environ.

Missing credentials are not fatal: the server starts, completes the handshake and lists all 44 tools, and every call then fails with the setup instructions.

AUDIOBOOKSHELF_READ_ONLY

Optional, default false. Exactly the string true enables it — 1, yes and TRUE do not, and the difference fails open, with the write tools registered. The server logs the active setting at startup.

When enabled, the 15 write tools are never registered; tools/list returns 29.

AUDIOBOOKSHELF_INSECURE_TLS

Optional, default false. Exactly the string true enables it.

Accepts self-signed and untrusted certificates for the Audiobookshelf connection only, via a scoped undici dispatcher. It does not set NODE_TLS_REJECT_UNAUTHORIZED and does not affect any other request the process makes. A warning is printed to stderr while it is active.

Prefer adding your CA to the system trust store.

Not configurable

Behaviour	Value
Request timeout	15 s
HTTP redirects	never followed
List cap	100 entries
Description cap	800 characters
Error body cap	2000 chars
Confirm-token TTL	5 minutes
Pending tokens	max 100