Configuration

The elsai ARMS SDK needs different environment variables depending on whether you use the managed cloud backend or a self-hosted deployment.

Variable	SaaS	On-Prem
ELSAI_ARMS_API_KEY	Required	Required
API_BASE_URL	Not needed	Required
ARMS_MASTER_KEY	Not needed	Required
Database vars	Not needed	One of MongoDB, DynamoDB, ClickHouse, or SQLite

Quick start

Get your API key

SaaS

1. Sign up at arms.elsaifoundry.ai
2. Create or join an organization
3. Generate an API key from the dashboard

On-Prem

1. Sign in to your on-prem ARMS console
2. Open API Keys in the sidebar
3. Create a key and copy the plaintext value

Set environment variables

SaaS

export ELSAI_ARMS_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

On-Prem

export ELSAI_ARMS_API_KEY=arms-1234567890abcdef
export API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8001
export ARMS_MASTER_KEY=your-master-key
export MONGO_URI=mongodb://localhost:27017
export MONGO_DB_NAME=elsai_arms_db

Integrate ARMS into your code

Add monitoring decorators and callbacks to your application. See the User Guide and Tutorial.

View metrics

SaaS

Open the cloud dashboard at arms.elsaifoundry.ai/dashboard

On-Prem

Open your self-hosted dashboard (default http://localhost:3000 after setup)

SaaS configuration

elsai ARMS API Key

Required

ELSAI_ARMS_API_KEYarms-1234567890abcdef

This API key authenticates your application with elsai ARMS cloud services. No database or API_BASE_URL configuration is required.

See SaaS product overview for signup, dashboard features, and when to choose cloud deployment.

On-prem configuration

Common Configuration

Required

ELSAI_ARMS_API_KEYarms-1234567890abcdef

API_BASE_URLhttp://localhost:8001

ARMS_MASTER_KEYyour-master-key

Note: ARMS_MASTER_KEY is your license key.

Database Configuration

Choose One

Select MongoDB, DynamoDB, ClickHouse, or SQLite as your database backend:

MongoDB

MONGO_URImongodb://localhost:27017

MONGO_DB_NAMEelsai_arms_db

DynamoDB

Choose one authentication method:

Method 1: AWS Credentials

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_IDAKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE

AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYwJalrXUtnFEMI/K7MDENG/bPxRfiCYEXAMPLEKEY

AWS_SESSION_TOKENAQoEXAMPLEH4aoAH0gNCAPyJxz4BlCFFxWNE2OPTk=

Method 2: Cognito Identity

AWS_COGNITO_IDENTITYus-east-1:12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012

AWS_REGIONus-east-1

DYNAMODB_TABLE_NAMEarms-metrics

ClickHouse

CLICKHOUSE_HOSTclickhouse

CLICKHOUSE_PORT8123

CLICKHOUSE_USERNAMEdefault

CLICKHOUSE_PASSWORDclickhouse123

CLICKHOUSE_DATABASEarms

CLICKHOUSE_CONNECT_TIMEOUT10

CLICKHOUSE_SEND_RECEIVE_TIMEOUT300

SQLite

SQLITE_DB_PATH/data/arms.db

Note: SQLite is embedded in the ARMS backend. Set SQLITE_DB_PATH to the database file location — no separate database service or container is required.

See On-Prem product overview for dashboard deployment, Docker setup, and detailed environment variable reference.

Next steps

• Installation — install the elsai-arms package
• User Guide — integrate monitoring into your application
• Tutorial — end-to-end sample code