Agent Backlog — Configuration Reference

All MCP server environment variables. Can be set in any config file or as shell environment variables.

Config file locations

File	Scope	Notes
`~/.config/agent-backlog/config.json`	All projects, all users	Global fallback
`{project_root}/.backlog.json`	One project	Safe to commit (keep secrets out)
`{project_root}/.backlog.local.json`	One project	Add to `.gitignore` — for secrets

Precedence (highest → lowest): shell env vars → .backlog.local.json → .backlog.json → config.json

Any string key/value pair is valid in the JSON files. Example .backlog.json:

{
  "BACKLOG_API_URL": "http://your-server:4000"
}

Example .backlog.local.json:

{
  "BACKLOG_API_KEY": "sk-proj-abc123"
}

Variable	Default	Description
`BACKLOG_API_URL`	—	Remote API server URL. Enables team mode when set together with `BACKLOG_API_KEY`
`BACKLOG_API_KEY`	—	Remote API server key
`BACKLOG_PROJECT_ROOT`	auto-detected	Override the project root directory
`BACKLOG_FILE`	`{project_root}/.backlog.db`	Override the local SQLite database path
`BACKLOG_UI_PORT`	`3456`	Port for the kanban UI
`BACKLOG_LOG_DIR`	`~/.config/agent-backlog/logs`	Log file directory
`LOG_LEVEL`	`info`	Log level: `trace`, `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`
`BACKLOG_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS`	`10000`	Remote API request timeout in milliseconds

These apply to the separately-run api-server.js process only.

Variable	Default	Description
`BACKLOG_API_PORT`	`4000`	Port the API server listens on
`BACKLOG_API_DATA_DIR`	`~/.config/agent-backlog-server`	Directory for per-project SQLite databases