---
title: Environment Variables Overview
description: An overview of configuration environment variables for self-hosted n8n. 
contentType: overview
tags:
  - environment variables
hide:
  - toc
  - tags
---

# Environment variables overview

This section lists the environment variables that you can use to change n8n's configuration settings when self-hosting n8n.

/// note | File-based configuration
You can provide a [configuration file](/hosting/configuration/configuration-methods.md) for n8n. You can also append `_FILE` to certain variables to provide their configuration in a separate file. 
///

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