Configuration & Environment Variables

Most settings (SMTP credentials, webhook URL/secret, DeepL API key, company data, cookie banner text, accent color, etc.) are project-scoped and live in the SQLite database — they’re managed exclusively through the settings UI in the admin area, not via environment variables or config files.

Only the following values actually come from files instead of the database:

File / Variable	Purpose
`config.php` (auto-generated)	Admin password hash (legacy login) and the cron secret. Created by the setup wizard, do not edit manually. Optional: `project_limit` (int) caps the number of `projects` rows for this instance — if the key is absent (default), there’s no limit. Intended for operators running Paragrafy behind their own SaaS/billing layer with one instance per account/plan.
`.env` / `.env.local` (optional)	`DEEPL_API_KEY=...` as a cross-project fallback if a project doesn’t have its own DeepL key configured. Both files are optional — everything works without them except this fallback.
`PARAGRAFY_DATA_DIR` (environment variable)	Only relevant for Docker: moves `config.php`, the SQLite database, `/backups`, and `.env.local` into a persistent directory. See Installation: Docker.

API Access & Authentication

The public JSON API (/api/:lang/:slug) is intentionally unauthenticated and read-only — legal texts should be retrievable from any connected website without credentials. There is no way to write or change content through this API.
Editing legal texts is only possible via the logged-in /admin session (password or multi-user login) — there is no separate API with bearer tokens or API keys for write access.
Cron endpoints (/api/cron/...) require a ?secret= query parameter (or an active admin session) and trigger server actions (backup, webhook delivery, go-live, audit email) — but they never expose content or credentials. See Cron Jobs for details.