Frontend Configuration

The frontend is configured through environment variables. The canonical list and defaults live in frontend/.env.example.

Build-time vs runtime

This is the most important distinction:

• VITE_* variables are inlined at build time. They are baked into the JavaScript bundle when vite build runs. In practice you set them in frontend/.env for local development (the Vite dev server reads them); the published image bakes only deployment-neutral values.
• Deploy-time values come from the runtime /config.js. In production the backend renders /config.js from its frontend.* configuration (see Backend Configuration), setting window.__VIBEXP_ENV__ before the SPA bundle runs. Branding, site links, MCP endpoint, and analytics are all injected this way — changing them needs a restart, not a rebuild. In local dev there is no backend-rendered /config.js (the request 404s harmlessly) and the app falls back to the build-time import.meta.env values.

Why the API base URL is relative

The published image is built with VITE_API_BASE_URL=/api/v1 so requests are same-origin — the backend serves the SPA and the API from the same port. Do not hardcode a backend origin into the build. See Building & Serving.

Backend API

Variable	Default	Notes
VITE_API_BASE_URL	/api/v1 (image build)	Backend API base, including version prefix. Leave empty/relative for same-origin requests (the combined image). The local-dev .env.example points it at http://localhost:8080/api/v1, targeting make backend-run-dev.

Release stamps

Build-time only, set by the release pipeline (build args in backend/Dockerfile); shown in the UI for support/debugging.

Variable	Default	Notes
VITE_RELEASE_SHA	dev	Commit SHA of the build. release.yml passes github.sha.
VITE_RELEASE_DATE	unknown	Build date stamp.

Branding / site links

All optional, with neutral defaults. In production these come from the backend’s frontend.* config via /config.js; the VITE_* forms apply in local dev.

Variable	Notes
VITE_SITE_NAME	Product / brand display name.
VITE_SITE_LEGAL_NAME	Legal entity name in copyright notices (defaults to VITE_SITE_NAME).
VITE_SITE_URL	Public marketing / home site URL.
VITE_TERMS_URL	Terms & Conditions page (defaults to <VITE_SITE_URL>/terms-and-conditions).
VITE_PRIVACY_URL	Privacy Policy page (defaults to <VITE_SITE_URL>/privacy-policy).
VITE_SUPPORT_EMAIL	Support contact email.
VITE_BRAND_LOGO_URL	Absolute URL to the brand logo (OpenGraph image on shared pages).

MCP

Variable	Notes
VITE_MCP_ENDPOINT	The MCP endpoint advertised in client-setup snippets, e.g. https://<your-mcp-host>/mcp/v1/common. Runtime-injectable via frontend.mcp_endpoint.

Error reporting / problem details

Variable	Notes
VITE_ERROR_TYPE_BASE_URI	Base URI for building RFC 9457 problem-detail type fields client-side (e.g. <base>/errors/UNKNOWN). Empty falls back to about:blank.

Analytics (Google Tag Manager / GA4)

Off by default: set a container ID to opt in. Runtime-injectable via the backend’s frontend.gtm_id / frontend.ga4_measurement_id config.

Variable	Default	Notes
VITE_GTM_ID	—	GTM container ID (e.g. GTM-XXXXXXX). Setting it is the opt-in: GTM loads only when it is non-empty. There is no separate enable flag.
VITE_GA4_MEASUREMENT_ID	—	GA4 Measurement ID (e.g. G-XXXXXXXXXX) for client-ID capture.

VibeXP ships no cookie-consent gate of its own: once an ID is set, the tag loads unconditionally. If your deployment needs Consent Mode, configure it inside your own GTM container.

Web push (removed)

Browser push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging) were removed in v0.9.0 along with the seven VITE_FIREBASE_* variables. src/utils/serviceWorker.ts and public/{sw,dev-sw}.js still exist solely to evict legacy workers from returning browsers.

Related

• Frontend Overview
• Building & Serving
• Backend Configuration