`useRuntimeConfig`

The useRuntimeConfig composable is used to expose config variables within your app.

Usage

app.vue

<script setup lang="ts">
const config = useRuntimeConfig()
</script>

server/api/foo.ts

export default defineEventHandler((event) => {
  const config = useRuntimeConfig()
})

Define Runtime Config

The example below shows how to set a public API base URL and a secret API token that is only accessible on the server.

We should always define runtimeConfig variables inside nuxt.config.

nuxt.config.ts

export default defineNuxtConfig({
  runtimeConfig: {
    // Private keys are only available on the server
    apiSecret: '123',

    // Public keys that are exposed to the client
    public: {
      apiBase: process.env.NUXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE || '/api'
    }
  }
})

Variables that need to be accessible on the server are added directly inside runtimeConfig. Variables that need to be accessible on both the client and the server are defined in runtimeConfig.public.

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Access Runtime Config

To access runtime config, we can use useRuntimeConfig() composable:

server/api/test.ts

export default async () => {
  const config = useRuntimeConfig()

  // Access public variables
  const result = await $fetch(`/test`, {
    baseURL: config.public.apiBase,
    headers: {
      // Access a private variable (only available on the server)
      Authorization: `Bearer ${config.apiSecret}`
    }
  })
  return result
}

In this example, since apiBase is defined within the public namespace, it is universally accessible on both server and client-side, while apiSecret is only accessible on the server-side.

Environment Variables

It is possible to update runtime config values using a matching environment variable name prefixed with NUXT_.

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Using the `.env` File

We can set the environment variables inside the .env file to make them accessible during development and build/generate.

.env

NUXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE = "https://api.localhost:5555"
NUXT_API_SECRET = "123"

Any environment variables set within .env file are accessed using process.env in the Nuxt app during development and build/generate.

In production runtime, you should use platform environment variables and .env is not used.

When using git, make sure to add .env to the .gitignore file to avoid leaking secrets to the git history.

`app` namespace

Nuxt uses app namespace in runtime-config with keys including baseURL and cdnURL. You can customize their values at runtime by setting environment variables.

This is a reserved namespace. You should not introduce additional keys inside app.

`app.baseURL`

By default, the baseURL is set to '/'.

However, the baseURL can be updated at runtime by setting the NUXT_APP_BASE_URL as an environment variable.

Then, you can access this new base URL using config.app.baseURL:

/plugins/my-plugin.ts

export default defineNuxtPlugin((NuxtApp) => {
  const config = useRuntimeConfig()

  // Access baseURL universally
  const baseURL = config.app.baseURL
})

`app.cdnURL`

This example shows how to set a custom CDN url and access them using useRuntimeConfig().

You can use a custom CDN for serving static assets inside .output/public using the NUXT_APP_CDN_URL environment variable.

And then access the new CDN url using config.app.cdnURL.

server/api/foo.ts

export default defineEventHandler((event) => {
  const config = useRuntimeConfig()

  // Access cdnURL universally
  const cdnURL = config.app.cdnURL
})

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