Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env. Key settings:

Variable	Default	Purpose
DATABASE_URL	sqlite:///./dev.db	General DB URL (Postgres/Azure SQL in prod)
TRACKING_DB_URL	falls back to DATABASE_URL	Escalation-tracking store
AZURE_TEXT_ANALYTICS_ENDPOINT / _KEY	unset	Optional NLP amplification
TAXONOMY_CONFIG_PATH	packaged taxonomy_v1.yaml	Override with a custom taxonomy
BENCHMARK_TEMPLATES_PATH	packaged benchmark_templates.yaml	Override with custom benchmark cases
PATTERNS_DIR	packaged data/patterns/	Override with your own per-language vocabulary files
DOGWHISTLES_PATH	packaged dogwhistles.yaml	Override with a custom coded-language lexicon
I18N_SMOKE_TESTS_PATH	packaged i18n_smoke_tests.yaml	Override with your own per-language smoke tests

Serverless / ephemeral filesystems

If you deploy the API on a platform with a read-only or ephemeral filesystem (e.g. Vercel serverless functions), point DATABASE_URL/TRACKING_DB_URL at a real hosted Postgres instance — SQLite needs a writable, persistent file, which those platforms don't provide between invocations. /classify, /validate, and /benchmark/run are all stateless and work fine regardless; only the /tracking/* endpoints touch the database.