Environment variables

Sabine reads a small set of its own variables, all prefixed SABINE_, and a number of standard ones from the desktop. Each table says where a variable applies:

• App: your app’s executable, including its window hosts.
• Host: the Sabine host, Chromium’s browser process.
• CLI: the sabine command.
• Service: sabine-service and its daemon, and the setup an app runs on first launch.

Debugging and diagnostics

Variable	Applies to	What it does
SABINE_TRACE	App, host	Prints launch stages with their timings, host and GPU details, and frames dropped on the way to the window, to standard error. Accepts 1, true, yes, on or trace, in any case.
SABINE_CHROMIUM_LOG	App	A file path. Chromium’s browser process writes its own log there at info level. Sandboxed Chromium processes, such as the GPU and renderer processes, can’t open the file and keep writing their warnings and errors to the window host’s log.
SABINE_DEVTOOLS_PORT	App, in development	The remote debugging port for development runs, instead of 9222 or the port the app sets with .debug(port). Use a different port for each app to debug several at once. 0 lets Chromium choose a free port, which it prints as DevTools listening on ws://…. Ignored in production.

SABINE_TRACE=1 SABINE_CHROMIUM_LOG=/tmp/chromium.log sabine dev
SABINE_DEVTOOLS_PORT=9333 sabine dev

See Troubleshooting for what these show.

Development

sabine dev sets these for the app it runs, and production builds clear them. You rarely set them yourself, but they explain how a development run finds its manifest and server.

Variable	Applies to	What it does
SABINE_ENV	App, CLI	development or production. Selects the environment: the .dev app identity, development environment files, and which desktop registrations happen. When it is unset, a non-empty SABINE_DEV_URL means development, and anything else production. The CLI sets it for app builds, web builds and sabine dev, including sabine dev --release. An app compiled with it set to production, as sabine bundle does, always runs in production and ignores the variables in this table.
SABINE_DEV_URL	App	The development server’s URL. The window loads it instead of the production entry, and its loopback origins are allowed to use the bridge. SabineWindow::for_current_app uses it too.
SABINE_MANIFEST_PATH	App	The path to Sabine.toml. Without it, Sabine looks next to the executable, in the working directory, and in the Cargo package directory.
SABINE_APP_ID	App, CLI	Replaces the app id from Sabine.toml, before your builder runs. sabine dev sets it to the app id with .dev appended, and development launchers from sabine install set it too.
NODE_ENV	Builds	development or production, set by the CLI for the builds it runs, matching SABINE_ENV.

The CLI also loads .env, .env.local, .env.<mode> and .env.<mode>.local from the project, and any files passed with --env-file, into the environment of the Rust and web builds. Variables already set in the process take precedence. These files are build inputs and never ship with the app.

Bindings

Variable	Applies to	What it does
SABINE_BINDINGS	App	Set by sabine bindings to the path of the TypeScript bindings file. The app writes its bindings there and exits instead of opening a window.
SABINE_BINDINGS_CHECK	App	Set by sabine bindings --check. The app fails with an error instead of writing when the file is out of date.

Packaging and releases

Variable	Applies to	What it does
SABINE_BUILD_TARGET	Cargo build	Set by sabine bundle for the app’s Cargo build: linux, windows or macos. Build scripts can read it.
SABINE_UPDATE_SIGNING_KEY	CLI	The app’s private Ed25519 update signing key, base64. sabine bundle writes its public key into the bundle, and fails if [updates] names a different public key. sabine release-manifest signs the update manifest with it. Inside GitHub Actions, bundles with updates enabled require it.
SABINE_MACOS_SIGNING_IDENTITY	CLI	Developer ID Application identity in the keychain. Signs every framework, helper and executable inside an .app before the bundle itself, with the hardened runtime, and signs disk images.
SABINE_NOTARY_APPLE_ID	CLI	Apple ID for notarization. Set together with the next two.
SABINE_NOTARY_TEAM_ID	CLI	Team ID for notarization.
SABINE_NOTARY_PASSWORD	CLI	App-specific password for notarization.
SABINE_WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE	CLI	Path to a .pfx Authenticode certificate. Signs every .exe and .dll the app ships, and the MSI or setup .exe.
SABINE_WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD	CLI	Password of that certificate.
SABINE_WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE_SHA1	CLI	Thumbprint of a certificate in the Windows certificate store, instead of a .pfx, for certificates on a token or in a cloud signing service. Set this or SABINE_WINDOWS_CERTIFICATE, not both.
SABINE_WINDOWS_TIMESTAMP_URL	CLI	RFC 3161 timestamp server. http://timestamp.digicert.com by default.
GITHUB_REPOSITORY	CLI	In GitHub Actions, bundles without an [updates] table update from this repository’s releases. sabine release-init uses it when no --repository is given.
GITHUB_REF_NAME	CLI	sabine release-manifest checks that the release tag matches the app’s version, such as v1.0.0.
GITHUB_ACTIONS	CLI	When set, a bundle with updates enabled must have a signing key.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH	CLI	The release date written into Linux AppStream metadata, for reproducible packages. The current time when unset.
RUSTFLAGS, CARGO_ENCODED_RUSTFLAGS	CLI	Kept for Windows builds, with Sabine’s flags for the static C runtime and the GUI subsystem added.

See Code signing and Releases and updates.

Sabine system

Variable	Applies to	What it does
SABINE_FULL_ACCESS	App, Linux	When set, the app runs without Sabine’s app sandbox even if Sabine.toml declares one. A system sets it for an app the person gave full access.
SABINE_HOST_PATH	App, CLI	Path to a Sabine host executable to use instead of the one beside the app or in the installed Sabine.
SABINE_SERVICE_PATH	App, CLI, Service	Path to a sabine-service executable to use instead of the installed one. It is used only when the daemon sits beside it.
SABINE_RELEASE_MANIFEST_URL	Service, CLI	An HTTPS URL of the Sabine release manifest to install from, instead of the published releases. The manifest’s signature is still checked.

Caution

SABINE_HOST_PATH, SABINE_SERVICE_PATH and SABINE_RELEASE_MANIFEST_URL exist for building and testing Sabine itself. Don’t set them for apps you ship.

Standard variables

Sabine follows the platform’s own variables for folders, sessions and launches.

Variable	Applies to	What it does
XDG_DATA_HOME	App, CLI, Service, Linux	Sabine’s data folder, $XDG_DATA_HOME/sabine, and the app’s data folder. Default ~/.local/share.
XDG_CACHE_HOME	App, Service, Linux	Browser profiles, under $XDG_CACHE_HOME/sabine/profiles. Default ~/.cache.
XDG_CONFIG_HOME	App, Service, Linux	Autostart entries, mimeapps.list and the daemon’s systemd unit. Default ~/.config.
XDG_STATE_HOME	App, Linux	Where .remember_size() keeps the window’s size.
XDG_DATA_DIRS	App, Linux	Searched for installed desktop entries.
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR	App, host	Window sockets, the shared runtime’s socket, and Chromium’s private Wayland display. Without it, window sockets go in ~/.cache/sabine/run/.
WAYLAND_DISPLAY	App, host, Linux	The compositor to connect to, passed on to the shared runtime.
XDG_ACTIVATION_TOKEN, DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID	App, Linux	The activation token a launcher handed the app. The first window uses it to take focus, and Sabine removes it from the environment of window hosts so later windows don’t reuse it.
APPIMAGE, APPDIR	App, Linux	Set by the AppImage runtime. Sabine registers URL handlers, native messaging hosts and updates against the AppImage file instead of its temporary mount.
ZYPAK_BIN	App, Linux	Inside a Flatpak-style sandbox, where Zypak lives. Sabine starts Chromium through it.
CHROME_DEVEL_SANDBOX	Host, Linux	Read by Chromium: a root-owned setuid sandbox helper, for kernels without user namespaces.
AMD_DEBUG	App, Linux	Passed to Chromium with nodcc added: Chromium can’t share the buffers Mesa’s AMD driver gives it with delta color compression, and no frame would reach the window. Your other options are kept.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH	App, Linux	Kept for Chromium, with the runtime’s library folder in front.
HOME	Everything, Linux and macOS	The base of the default folders above.
LOCALAPPDATA	App, Service, Windows	Sabine’s data folder, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Sabine, and browser profiles.
APPDATA	App, CLI, Windows	The app’s data folder, %APPDATA%\<app id>.
ProgramFiles	Service, CLI, Windows	The system-wide Sabine folder, %ProgramFiles%\Sabine.
USERPROFILE	Service, Windows	The home folder when LOCALAPPDATA is unset.
TMP, TEMP	App, Windows	The temporary folder, which holds window sockets in sabine.
CARGO_MANIFEST_DIR	App	Set by cargo run. Sabine looks for Sabine.toml in that folder, so cargo run works without sabine dev.