Configuration — the dials

Kernel 0.1.0 is configured by environment variables — dials — read by the kernel, the reference and the bodies. Most have a standing default that stands a world on one machine; the first-world compose file sets the handful that differ inside a box. A dial declared as a governed value a person turns from the glass (the first architecture’s thirty-six dials) is re-seated in this architecture and not yet built.

Provider keys — ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENROUTER_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY — are not dials of Orreth’s: their values are read by the gateway alone, and the kernel checks only that a key’s name is reachable where it stands before it registers a mind that needs it (the env-secrets law: a key value lives in no record and no file of Orreth’s).

The rails and the ground

Dial	Default	Governs
SPINE_PG	postgresql://orreth:orreth-dev@localhost:5433/spine	Where the ground is — the Postgres database this world stands on. The image sets it by service name (ground:5432).
SPINE_RABBIT	amqp://orreth:orreth-dev@localhost:5672/%2F	The invocation rail — RabbitMQ, where work waits for the one body that claims it.
SPINE_KAFKA	localhost:9092	The events rail — Kafka, where facts are published and replayed. A box reaches it as events:29092.
SPINE_SCOPE	u:dev	The universe this process belongs to. Every row on the ground wears it.
SPINE_QUEUE_NS	(empty)	The namespace for a cell's benches and topics, so two cells on one broker never share a queue.
SPINE_CELL	local	The name of the cell this kernel keeps. A universe's home is settled on the ground at light.
SPINE_PEERS	—	The cells this kernel names, as name=door pairs (two=http://127.0.0.1:4602). Named peers speak over the signed seam.
SPINE_POOL	16	The most lines to the ground a kernel holds open at once; a knock past the ceiling waits for one.
SPINE_OUTBOX_KEEP_DAYS	7	How long published facts stay in the outbox before the hourly prune removes them.

The door

Dial	Default	Governs
SPINE_BRIDGE_PORT	4600 (the reference: 4601)	The port the kernel's door answers on.
SPINE_BIND	127.0.0.1 (the image: 0.0.0.0)	The address the door binds. Loopback on a host; every interface inside a box so the published port reaches it.
SPINE_HUMAN_ZONE	America/Denver	The ground's default time zone for a person who has not told it theirs.
SPINE_MASTERS	—	Person DIDs declared masters at birth, comma-separated. A master's seat can govern.
SPINE_SEAT_HOURS	24	How long a person's seat lasts before they prove a code again.
SPINE_CEILING_RATE	20	Knocks a second one person (or one address at an open door) may make before the door says it is busy.
SPINE_CEILING_BURST	60	How many knocks the ceiling lets through at once before the rate applies.

The crew and the desk

Dial	Default	Governs
SPINE_BODIES	crew	Whether this kernel seats the crew as processes (crew) or none — none beside a lit reference that already seats them.
SPINE_CREW	spine/crew.v0.json	Another crew manifest to seat instead of the standard one.
SPINE_PYTHON	the spine's own venv	The Python interpreter that runs a body.
SPINE_JOIN_LEASE_DAYS	30	How long a body's lease lasts before it re-joins through the desk.
SPINE_LEASE_USD	1.0	A body's fuel allowance in dollars per window, written into its lease.
SPINE_LEASE_RENEW_DAYS	1	The window the fuel allowance renews in.
SPINE_KERNEL_DOOR	set by the kernel	Where a spawned body streams its words as they form — the kernel's own door. Set for the body, not by you.
SPINE_SPAWN_TICKET	set by the kernel	The one-time ticket a spawned body carries to the desk so the crew is admitted on the manifest without a click.
SPINE_BODY_EPHEMERAL	—	Tests only: a body with a throwaway self.
SPINE_FAKE_REPLY	—	Proofs only: the one line the fake mind says while the gateway is dark.

The gateway, the Stable and the shelf

Dial	Default	Governs
SPINE_GATEWAY	http://127.0.0.1:4604	Where the gateway (LiteLLM) answers. Every thought goes through it.
SPINE_GATEWAY_KEY	sk-orreth-dev	The gateway's master key, which the kernel uses to mint each body its own virtual key with its budget.
SPINE_OLLAMA_BASE	http://host.docker.internal:11434	Where Ollama on your machine is reached from a box, for a mind registered with the ollama provider.
SPINE_MIND_CHECK_S	600	The stablekeeper's cadence: how often every mind is pinged and its price and end-of-life read.
SPINE_EOL_HORIZON_DAYS	30	How far ahead the stablekeeper looks for a mind's announced retirement before proposing a swap.
SPINE_TOOL_CHECK_S	300	The toolkeeper's cadence: how often every service on the shelf is probed.
SPINE_TOOL_UNHEALTHY_STRIKES	3	Unhealthy probes in a row before the keeper proposes a retire — it never retires alone.
SPINE_SERVICES_HOME	ORRETH_HOME/services	Where the services' own seeds live, so a tool keeps the same self every life.
SPINE_MCP_REF · SPINE_MCP_REF_TOOLS	—	The reference MCP server (a clock) a proof stands on the shelf, and the tools it lists.
SPINE_METAL	cpu	The metal this ground offers to placement; a template that needs more is refused at birth with the reason recorded.

Homes

Dial	Default	Governs
ORRETH_HOME	~/.orreth (the image: /var/lib/orreth)	Where every seed lives — the kernel's self, the crew's, the services'. Keep it on a volume: it is what makes a self survive the process.
SPINE_KERNEL_HOME	ORRETH_HOME/kernel	The directory holding the kernel's own seed.
ORRETH_SPINE	beside the kernel (the image: /opt/orreth/spine)	The spine home: the crew manifest, the templates, the tool and lever declarations, the guide, the policy.
ORRETH_GLASS	spine/glass/index.html	The one page the kernel serves.
SPINE_PROFILE	release	dev.sh only: which cargo profile the walk kernel is built with (debug keeps the quick build for a code loop).

Where the values were read

This table was collected by hand from the code that reads each dial — the kernel crate (backend/plane/crates/orreth-spine/src), the reference (spine/orreth_spine), the rig (scripts/dev.sh), the compose file and the Dockerfile — at kernel 0.1.0. When a dial moves, the table moves with the release.