Environment Variables

spore.host tools read configuration from environment variables and ~/.spawn/config.yaml. Environment variables take precedence over config file values.

AWS credentials

spore.host uses the standard AWS credential chain — no custom variables required. The recommended way to populate it is aws login (AWS CLI v2.32.0+); the variables below are for profile selection or the static-key fallback.

Variable	Description
AWS_PROFILE	AWS CLI profile to use (recommended over static keys)
AWS_REGION	Default AWS region
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID	Static access key — fallback only; prefer aws login / profiles
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	Static secret key (fallback)
AWS_SESSION_TOKEN	Temporary session token (for assumed roles)

spore.host config

The suite-wide sporeconfig layer (all CLIs), resolved flag > env > ~/.config/spore/config.toml > default:

Variable	Description
SPORE_PROFILE	AWS profile for spore.host tools (overrides AWS_PROFILE for them)
SPORE_REGION	Default region for spore.host tools
SPORE_ACCOUNT	Expected AWS account ID (guards against launching in the wrong account)

# Use a named profile
export AWS_PROFILE=research-account

# Or override region for one command
AWS_REGION=eu-west-1 spawn launch --name eu-test

Slack and Teams integration

Variable	Description
SLACK_CLIENT_ID	OAuth client ID for spore-bot Slack app
SLACK_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth client secret for spore-bot Slack app
SPORE_BOT_NOTIFY_URL	Webhook URL for lifecycle notifications (overrides config)

Configuration file location

By default spore.host looks for config at ~/.spawn/config.yaml. Override with:

SPAWN_CONFIG=/path/to/config.yaml spawn launch ...

Debugging

# Enable verbose AWS SDK logging
AWS_SDK_LOAD_CONFIG=1

# See what credentials are being used
aws sts get-caller-identity

Per-command overrides

Most configuration can be passed as flags rather than environment variables:

# Region, profile, and TTL as flags
spawn launch \
  --region us-west-2 \
  --profile research-account \
  --ttl 4h \
  --name my-instance

See spawn launch --help for the complete flag reference.