Environment variables

dclient supports several environment variables for convenient access to Datasette instances.

DATASETTE_URL

Set this to the base URL of your Datasette instance. It is used as a fallback when no instance is specified via -i and no default instance is configured:

export DATASETTE_URL=https://my-instance.datasette.cloud

Then you can omit the -i flag:

dclient databases
dclient query data "select * from my_table limit 10"

Aliases and the -i flag always take priority over DATASETTE_URL.

DATASETTE_DATABASE

Set this to a default database name. It is used as a fallback when no database is specified via -d and the current instance has no default_database configured:

export DATASETTE_DATABASE=data

Then you can use the bare SQL shortcut:

dclient "select * from my_table limit 10"

DATASETTE_TOKEN

Set this to an API token:

export DATASETTE_TOKEN=dstok_abc123

The token will be used automatically for any request that doesn’t have a more specific token configured.

The precedence order for tokens is:

1. --token CLI flag (highest priority)

2. Stored token from auth.json (matched by alias name, then URL prefix)

3. DATASETTE_TOKEN environment variable (lowest priority)

DCLIENT_CONFIG_DIR

Override the config directory (default ~/.config/io.datasette.dclient or platform equivalent):

export DCLIENT_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/config

This is useful for testing or running multiple configurations side by side.

Using them together

These variables work well together for quick access to a single instance:

export DATASETTE_URL=https://my-instance.datasette.cloud
export DATASETTE_DATABASE=data
export DATASETTE_TOKEN=dstok_abc123

# Query
dclient "select * from my_table"

# Insert
cat records.json | dclient insert data my_table - --json

# Check your actor identity
dclient actor