Environment Variables

dmx reads configuration from environment variables at startup. Pass them in your IDE's MCP server config or as shell environment variables when running dmx directly.

DMX_SKILLS_DIR

Type: String (path)
Default: None (only bundled skills are loaded)

Path to a directory of custom skill .md files. dmx loads all .md files from this directory recursively and merges them with the bundled skills.

If a custom skill has the same name as a bundled skill, the custom one wins.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dmx": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "deepmodel-dmx", "dmx", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "DMX_SKILLS_DIR": "/path/to/your/skills"
      }
    }
  }
}

DMX_RULES_DIR

Type: String (path)
Default: None (only bundled rules are loaded)

Path to a directory of custom rule .md files. Rules are always-apply instructions injected into the AI's system context.

{
  "env": {
    "DMX_RULES_DIR": "/path/to/your/rules"
  }
}

REQUIRE_API_KEY / MCP_API_KEY

Type: String
Default: None (authentication disabled)

Bearer token auth for HTTP+SSE transport. Set REQUIRE_API_KEY=true and MCP_API_KEY={token} to require Authorization: Bearer {token} on all HTTP requests. dmx exits at startup if REQUIRE_API_KEY=true but MCP_API_KEY is unset.

Only relevant when running with --http. Ignored for stdio transport.

REQUIRE_API_KEY=true MCP_API_KEY=your-secret-token uvx --from deepmodel-dmx dmx serve --http --port 8080

CLI arguments

These are passed as arguments to dmx serve (i.e. after uvx --from deepmodel-dmx dmx serve), not as environment variables:

Argument	Default	Description
--http	off (stdio)	Use HTTP+SSE transport instead of stdio
--port	8080	Port for HTTP+SSE transport (--http only)
--skills-dir	bundled skills	Override the bundled skills directory (same as DMX_SKILLS_DIR, takes precedence)
--rules-dir	bundled rules	Override the bundled rules directory (same as DMX_RULES_DIR, takes precedence)
--watch	off	Hot-reload on file change (requires the watch extra)

The HTTP+SSE transport binds 0.0.0.0 on the given --port.

IDE config example (all options)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dmx": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "deepmodel-dmx", "dmx", "serve"],
      "env": {
        "DMX_SKILLS_DIR": "/path/to/custom/skills",
        "DMX_RULES_DIR": "/path/to/custom/rules"
      }
    }
  }
}

For HTTP transport:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dmx": {
      "url": "http://your-dmx-server:8080/sse",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer your-token"
      }
    }
  }
}