> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://boinc-ai.gitbook.io/hub-python-library/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://boinc-ai.gitbook.io/hub-python-library/reference/environment-variables.md).

# Environment variables

## Environment variables

`boincai_hub` can be configured using environment variables.

If you are unfamiliar with environment variable, here are generic articles about them [on macOS and Linux](https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-set-and-list-environment-variables-in-linux/) and on [Windows](https://phoenixnap.com/kb/windows-set-environment-variable).

This page will guide you through all environment variables specific to `boincai_hub` and their meaning.

### Generic

#### HF\_ENDPOINT

To configure the Hub base url. You might want to set this variable if your organization is using a [Private Hub](https://huggingface.co/platform).

Defaults to `"https://boincai.com"`.

#### HF\_INFERENCE\_ENDPOINT

To configure the inference api base url. You might want to set this variable if your organization is pointing at an API Gateway rather than directly at the inference api.

Defaults to `"https://api-inference.boincai.com"`.

#### HF\_HOME

To configure where `boincai_hub` will locally store data. In particular, your token and the cache will be stored in this folder.

Defaults to `"~/.cache/boincai"` unless [XDG\_CACHE\_HOME](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/package_reference/environment_variables#xdgcachehome) is set.

#### BOINC\_AI\_HUB\_CACHE

To configure where repositories from the Hub will be cached locally (models, datasets and spaces).

Defaults to `"$HF_HOME/hub"` (e.g. `"~/.cache/boincai/hub"` by default).

#### BOINC\_AI\_ASSETS\_CACHE

To configure where [assets](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/guides/manage-cache#caching-assets) created by downstream libraries will be cached locally. Those assets can be preprocessed data, files downloaded from GitHub, logs,…

Defaults to `"$HF_HOME/assets"` (e.g. `"~/.cache/boincai/assets"` by default).

#### BOINC\_AI\_HUB\_TOKEN

To configure the User Access Token to authenticate to the Hub. If set, this value will overwrite the token stored on the machine (in `"$HF_HOME/token"`).

See [login reference](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/package_reference/login) for more details.

#### BOINC\_AI\_HUB\_VERBOSITY

Set the verbosity level of the `boincai_hub`’s logger. Must be one of `{"debug", "info", "warning", "error", "critical"}`.

Defaults to `"warning"`.

For more details, see [logging reference](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/package_reference/utilities#huggingface_hub.utils.logging.get_verbosity).

#### HF\_HUB\_LOCAL\_DIR\_AUTO\_SYMLINK\_THRESHOLD

Integer value to define under which size a file is considered as “small”. When downloading files to a local directory, small files will be duplicated to ease user experience while bigger files are symlinked to save disk usage.

For more details, see the [download guide](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/guides/download#download-files-to-local-folder).

### Boolean values

The following environment variables expect a boolean value. The variable will be considered as `True` if its value is one of `{"1", "ON", "YES", "TRUE"}` (case-insensitive). Any other value (or undefined) will be considered as `False`.

#### HF\_HUB\_OFFLINE

If set, no HTTP calls will me made when trying to fetch files. Only files that are already cached will be accessed. This is useful in case your network is slow and you don’t care about having absolutely the latest version of a file.

**Note:** even if the latest version of a file is cached, calling `hf_hub_download` still triggers a HTTP request to check that a new version is not available. Setting `HF_HUB_OFFLINE=1` will skip this call which speeds up your loading time.

#### HF\_HUB\_DISABLE\_IMPLICIT\_TOKEN

Authentication is not mandatory for every requests to the Hub. For instance, requesting details about `"gpt2"` model does not require to be authenticated. However, if a user is [logged in](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/package_reference/login), the default behavior will be to always send the token in order to ease user experience (never get a HTTP 401 Unauthorized) when accessing private or gated repositories. For privacy, you can disable this behavior by setting `HF_HUB_DISABLE_IMPLICIT_TOKEN=1`. In this case, the token will be sent only for “write-access” calls (example: create a commit).

**Note:** disabling implicit sending of token can have weird side effects. For example, if you want to list all models on the Hub, your private models will not be listed. You would need to explicitly pass `token=True` argument in your script.

#### HF\_HUB\_DISABLE\_PROGRESS\_BARS

For time consuming tasks, `boincai_hub` displays a progress bar by default (using tqdm). You can disable all the progress bars at once by setting `HF_HUB_DISABLE_PROGRESS_BARS=1`.

#### HF\_HUB\_DISABLE\_SYMLINKS\_WARNING

If you are on a Windows machine, it is recommended to enable the developer mode or to run `boincai_hub` in admin mode. If not, `boincai_hub` will not be able to create symlinks in your cache system. You will be able to execute any script but your user experience will be degraded as some huge files might end-up duplicated on your hard-drive. A warning message is triggered to warn you about this behavior. Set `HF_HUB_DISABLE_SYMLINKS_WARNING=1`, to disable this warning.

For more details, see [cache limitations](https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/guides/manage-cache#limitations).

#### HF\_HUB\_DISABLE\_EXPERIMENTAL\_WARNING

Some features of `boincai_hub` are experimental. This means you can use them but we do not guarantee they will be maintained in the future. In particular, we might update the API or behavior of such features without any deprecation cycle. A warning message is triggered when using an experimental feature to warn you about it. If you’re comfortable debugging any potential issues using an experimental feature, you can set `HF_HUB_DISABLE_EXPERIMENTAL_WARNING=1` to disable the warning.

If you are using an experimental feature, please let us know! Your feedback can help us design and improve it.

#### HF\_HUB\_DISABLE\_TELEMETRY

By default, some data is collected by HF libraries (`transformers`, `datasets`, `gradio`,..) to monitor usage, debug issues and help prioritize features. Each library defines its own policy (i.e. which usage to monitor) but the core implementation happens in `boincai_hub` (see `send_telemetry`).

You can set `HF_HUB_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1` as environment variable to globally disable telemetry.

#### HF\_HUB\_ENABLE\_HF\_TRANSFER

Set to `True` for faster uploads and downloads from the Hub using `hf_transfer`.

By default, `boincai_hub` uses the Python-based `requests.get` and `requests.post` functions. Although these are reliable and versatile, they may not be the most efficient choice for machines with high bandwidth. [`hf_transfer`](https://github.com/huggingface/hf_transfer) is a Rust-based package developed to maximize the bandwidth used by dividing large files into smaller parts and transferring them simultaneously using multiple threads. This approach can potentially double the transfer speed. To use `hf_transfer`, you need to install it separately [from PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/hf-transfer/) and set `HF_HUB_ENABLE_HF_TRANSFER=1` as an environment variable.

Please note that using `hf_transfer` comes with certain limitations. Since it is not purely Python-based, debugging errors may be challenging. Additionally, `hf_transfer` lacks several user-friendly features such as progress bars, resumable downloads and proxies. These omissions are intentional to maintain the simplicity and speed of the Rust logic. Consequently, `hf_transfer` is not enabled by default in `boincai_hub`.

### From external tools

Some environment variables are not specific to `boincai_hub` but are still taken into account when they are set.

#### NO\_COLOR

Boolean value. When set, `boincai-cli` tool will not print any ANSI color. See [no-color.org](https://no-color.org/).

#### XDG\_CACHE\_HOME

Used only when `HF_HOME` is not set!

This is the default way to configure where [user-specific non-essential (cached) data should be written](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/XDG_Base_Directory) on linux machines.

If `HF_HOME` is not set, the default home will be `"$XDG_CACHE_HOME/boincai"` instead of `"~/.cache/boincai"`.