Watt ServiceNet is configured entirely through environment variables. Set them before starting the node to control persistence, security, gateway policy, and P2P networking. No configuration file is required — every option can be expressed as an environment variable passed to the process or injected via Docker, systemd, or your deployment platform.
Core
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SERVICENET_HTTP_ADDR | 127.0.0.1:8042 | Address the HTTP server binds to. Set to 0.0.0.0:8042 to accept external connections. |
Storage
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SERVICENET_DATABASE_URL | (none) | PostgreSQL connection URL. When set, the node uses PostgreSQL for all registry, receipt, health, trust, auth-context, and audit storage. |
SERVICENET_DATABASE_SCHEMA | public | PostgreSQL schema name. Use this to isolate multiple ServiceNet instances on the same database server. |
SERVICENET_REGISTRY_FILE | (none) | Path to a JSON file for file-backed persistence. Created automatically if it does not exist. Ignored when DATABASE_URL is set. |
SERVICENET_DATABASE_URL nor SERVICENET_REGISTRY_FILE is set, the node uses in-memory storage and all state is lost on restart. See Storage Backends for a full comparison.
Security
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SERVICENET_SECRET_BROKER_KEY | (required in DB mode) | Base64-encoded 32-byte key used to encrypt auth-context secrets at rest. Required whenever SERVICENET_DATABASE_URL is set. |
SERVICENET_REQUIRE_PROVIDER_OWNERSHIP_CHALLENGES | true in DB mode, false otherwise | Set to 1 to require a signed ownership challenge before a provider can register or rotate its key. Automatically enabled in PostgreSQL mode. |
SERVICENET_PROVIDER_CHALLENGE_TTL_SECS | 300 | How long (in seconds) an ownership challenge token remains valid before it expires. |
SERVICENET_REQUIRE_ADMIN_APPROVE | (disabled) | Set to 1 to disable auto-approval of agent submissions. Submissions that pass all checks will remain in a pending state until an admin explicitly approves them. |
Generating a Secret Broker Key
Generate a cryptographically random key before your first PostgreSQL-backed deployment:
# Generate a random 32-byte key and base64-encode it
openssl rand -base64 32
# Example output: BwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwcHBwc=
SERVICENET_SECRET_BROKER_KEY:
SERVICENET_DATABASE_URL=postgres://servicenet:password@localhost:5432/watt-servicenet \
SERVICENET_SECRET_BROKER_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 32) \
cargo run -p watt-servicenet-node
Never use the placeholder key (BwcHBwcH...) shown in example configs in a production deployment. Generate a unique key for every deployment and store it in a secrets manager. Rotating this key after auth-context secrets have been written will make those secrets unreadable.
Gateway Policy
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SERVICENET_GATEWAY_MAX_COST_UNITS | (none) | Default cost cap for all agent invocations routed through the gateway. Agent invocations whose declared cost exceeds this value are rejected at the policy preflight stage. |
P2P Networking
The variables below control the Iroh-backed P2P sync layer. P2P is disabled by default.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|
SERVICENET_P2P_ENABLED | (disabled) | Set to 1, true, or yes to enable P2P gossip and backfill. |
SERVICENET_P2P_NETWORK_ID | (required if enabled) | Network identifier string. Only nodes sharing the same NETWORK_ID exchange records with each other. |
SERVICENET_P2P_LISTEN_ADDRS | (auto) | Comma-separated listen addresses for the Iroh QUIC transport, e.g. 0.0.0.0:4101. |
SERVICENET_P2P_BOOTSTRAP_PEERS | (none) | Comma-separated bootstrap peer addresses in <endpoint_id>@<addr> format. |
SERVICENET_P2P_STATE_DIR | .servicenet-p2p-state | Directory used to persist the node seed file (node_seed.hex) so the node’s EndpointId stays stable across restarts. |
SERVICENET_FEDERATION_MODE | open | Set to trusted to restrict inbound registry gossip/backfill to explicitly listed peers. |
SERVICENET_FEDERATION_TRUSTED_PEERS | (none) | Comma-separated Iroh EndpointId values of trusted peers. Only used when FEDERATION_MODE=trusted. |