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When self-hosting Meilisearch, you can configure your instance at launch with command-line options, environment variables, or a configuration file. These startup options affect your entire Meilisearch instance, not just a single index. For settings that affect search within a single index, see index settings.

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Configuration methods

Meilisearch supports three configuration methods. When used simultaneously, command-line options take the highest precedence, followed by environment variables, and finally the configuration file.

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Command-line options and flags

Pass command-line options and their respective values when launching a Meilisearch instance: 
./meilisearch --db-path ./meilifiles --http-addr 'localhost:7700'
Meilisearch also has command-line flags that don’t take values. If a flag is given, it activates and changes default behavior: 
./meilisearch --no-analytics
All command-line options and flags are prepended with --. They take precedence over environment variables.

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Environment variables

Set environment variables prior to launching the instance: 
export MEILI_DB_PATH=./meilifiles
export MEILI_HTTP_ADDR=localhost:7700
./meilisearch
Environment variables for flags accept n, no, f, false, off, and 0 as false. An absent environment variable is also considered false. Any other value is considered true. Environment variables are always identical to the corresponding command-line option, but prepended with MEILI_ and written in all uppercase.

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Configuration file

Meilisearch accepts a configuration file in .toml format. Configuration files can be easily shared, versioned, and allow you to define multiple options. Download a default configuration file: 
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/meilisearch/meilisearch/latest/config.toml > config.toml
By default, Meilisearch looks for a config.toml file in the working directory. You can override this with the MEILI_CONFIG_FILE_PATH environment variable or the --config-file-path CLI option: 
./meilisearch --config-file-path="./config.toml"
In configuration files, options must be written in snake case. For example, --import-dump would be written as import_dump.
Specifying the config_file_path option within the configuration file will throw an error.

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Configuring cloud-hosted instances

To configure Meilisearch with command-line options in a cloud-hosted instance, edit its service file. The default location of the service file is /etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service. To configure Meilisearch with environment variables in a cloud-hosted instance, modify Meilisearch’s env file. Its default location is /var/opt/meilisearch/env. After editing your configuration options, relaunch the Meilisearch service: 
systemctl restart meilisearch
Meilisearch Cloud offers an optimal pre-configured environment. You do not need to use any of the configuration options listed here when hosting your project on Meilisearch Cloud.

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Next steps

Configuration reference

Complete list of all instance configuration options.

Index settings

Configure search behavior for individual indexes.