Environment Variables¶

Configure recurl behavior through environment variables.

Available Variables¶

RECURL_STRICT¶

Enable strict mode (no fallback).

# Enable strict mode
export RECURL_STRICT=1

# All recurl commands now run in strict mode
recurl https://example.com

Equivalent to --recurl-strict flag.

Values¶

• 1, true, yes - Enable
• 0, false, no, (unset) - Disable

RECURL_DEBUG¶

Enable debug output.

# Enable debug output
export RECURL_DEBUG=1

# See escalation steps
recurl https://protected-site.com
# [recurl] curl_engine: 403 Cloudflare
# [recurl] Escalating: impersonation
# ...

Equivalent to --recurl-debug flag.

Values¶

• 1, true, yes - Enable
• 0, false, no, (unset) - Disable

RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS¶

Set the daemon idle timeout in milliseconds.

# Keep daemon alive for 5 minutes
export RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS=300000

# Run JS preflight requests
recurl --recurl-js https://example.com

The daemon shuts down after this period of inactivity.

Default¶

• 60000 (60 seconds)

Recommendations¶

RECURL_POOL_MIN / RECURL_POOL_MAX¶

Control the headless Chromium pool size maintained by recurld. The daemon keeps at least RECURL_POOL_MIN browser instances warm and grows up to RECURL_POOL_MAX under load.

# Keep two browsers warm at all times, allow up to six concurrent
export RECURL_POOL_MIN=2
export RECURL_POOL_MAX=6

Defaults: RECURL_POOL_MIN=1, RECURL_POOL_MAX=3.

RECURL_ENGINE_PATH¶

Override the lookup path for the underlying curl engine. recurl normally searches the bundled install location and $PATH; set this to point at a specific curl binary.

export RECURL_ENGINE_PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin/curl
recurl https://example.com

If the engine cannot be located, recurl exits with an error suggesting that this variable be set.

RECURL_VERSION / RECURL_INSTALL_DIR¶

Used by the official install.sh / install.ps1 shell installers:

• RECURL_VERSION – pin to a specific release tag (e.g. v0.1.2); defaults to latest.
• RECURL_INSTALL_DIR – override the install prefix (default is chosen based on whether the script is run as root).

RECURL_VERSION=v0.1.2 RECURL_INSTALL_DIR=/opt/recurl \
    curl -fsSL https://recurl.dev/install.sh | bash

Usage Examples¶

Shell Profile¶

Add to your shell profile for persistent configuration:

# recurl configuration
export RECURL_DEBUG=0
export RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS=120000

# recurl configuration
export RECURL_DEBUG=0
export RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS=120000

# recurl configuration
$env:RECURL_DEBUG = "0"
$env:RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS = "120000"

Per-Command¶

Set for a single command:

# Debug this request only
RECURL_DEBUG=1 recurl https://example.com

# Strict mode for this request
RECURL_STRICT=1 recurl https://example.com

Script Usage¶

#!/bin/bash

# Enable debug for the entire script
export RECURL_DEBUG=1

# Increase daemon timeout for batch processing
export RECURL_DAEMON_IDLE_MS=300000

# Multiple requests
for url in "${urls[@]}"; do
    recurl --recurl-js "$url" -o "output_$(basename $url).html"
done

Priority¶

Command-line flags take priority over environment variables:

# RECURL_DEBUG=1 is set
# But --recurl-debug is not passed
recurl https://example.com  # Debug enabled (from env)

# Flag overrides environment
RECURL_DEBUG=1 recurl --recurl-strict https://example.com  # No debug (strict mode)

Checking Current Settings¶

# Show all recurl environment variables
env | grep RCURL

# Test with debug to see behavior
recurl --recurl-debug https://httpbin.org/get 2>&1 | head -5