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Configuration Reference

Complete guide to all environment variables for BetTrack MCP Server and Dashboard.

Table of Contents

MCP Server Configuration

Environment variables for the BetTrack MCP Server running in Claude Desktop.

Required Variables

ODDS_API_KEY

Type: String
Required: Yes
Description: API key from The Odds API for accessing live betting odds

How to get:

  1. Visit https://the-odds-api.com
  2. Sign up for a free account
  3. Copy your API key from the account dashboard
  4. Free tier: 500 requests per month

Example:

ODDS_API_KEY=abc123def456ghi789jkl012mno345

Optional Variables

BOOKMAKERS_FILTER

Type: Comma-separated string
Required: No
Default: All bookmakers included
Description: Filter odds results to only specific sportsbooks

Common bookmakers:

  • draftkings - DraftKings
  • fanduel - FanDuel
  • betmgm - BetMGM
  • caesars - Caesars Sports
  • barstool - Barstool Sports
  • pointsbet - PointsBet
  • bet365 - Bet365
  • bovada - Bovada
  • williamhill - William Hill

Example:

# Focus on major US sportsbooks
BOOKMAKERS_FILTER=draftkings,fanduel,betmgm

Note: Filtering reduces API quota usage and focuses results on your preferred books.

BOOKMAKERS_LIMIT

Type: Integer
Required: No
Default: 5
Description: Maximum number of bookmakers to include in odds results per game

Example:

BOOKMAKERS_LIMIT=3

Use case: Show only top 3 bookmakers to keep API response sizes small.

LOG_LEVEL

Type: String
Required: No
Default: INFO
Description: Logging verbosity level

Valid values:

  • DEBUG - Detailed debug information
  • INFO - General information (default)
  • WARNING - Warning messages only
  • ERROR - Error messages only
  • CRITICAL - Critical errors only

Example:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG  # For troubleshooting

Dashboard Backend Configuration

Environment variables for the Node.js backend server.

Database Configuration

Database Connection (Option A: Composite)

Use individual variables to build the connection string:

DATABASE_TYPE=postgresql
DATABASE_HOST=localhost
DATABASE_PORT=5432
DATABASE_NAME=sports_betting_dashboard
DATABASE_USER=sports_user
DATABASE_PASSWORD=sports_password_change_in_production

Priority: If DATABASE_URL is set, these variables are ignored.

Database Connection (Option B: Direct URL)

Provide a complete connection string:

DATABASE_URL=postgresql://sports_user:sports_password@localhost:5432/sports_betting_dashboard

Format: postgresql://username:password@host:port/database

Note: Use this option for cloud-hosted databases (Heroku, AWS RDS, Railway, etc.)

API Integration

ODDS_API_KEY

Type: String
Required: Yes (for odds sync jobs)
Description: Same as MCP server - required for backend to fetch and sync odds

ODDS_API_KEY=your_odds_api_key_here

API_SPORTS_KEY

Type: String
Required: No
Description: Optional API key for API-Sports (alternative sports data source)

API_SPORTS_TIER

Type: String
Default: pro
Valid values: basic, pro, advanced
Description: API-Sports subscription tier (if using API_SPORTS_KEY)

Server Configuration

PORT

Type: Integer
Required: No
Default: 3001
Description: Port for Express server to listen on

PORT=3001

NODE_ENV

Type: String
Default: development
Valid values: development, production, test
Description: Environment mode for optimizations and logging

BASE_URL

Type: String
Required: Yes
Description: Public base URL for the backend server

Examples:

# Development
BASE_URL=http://localhost:3001

# Production
BASE_URL=https://api.bettrack.example.com

CORS_ORIGIN

Type: String
Required: Yes (for frontend requests)
Description: URL of the frontend application (for CORS headers)

Examples:

# Development
CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost:5173

# Production
CORS_ORIGIN=https://bettrack.example.com

Authentication

AUTH_MODE

Type: String
Default: none
Valid values: none, oauth2
Description: Authentication strategy

Options:

  • none - Standalone mode, no user authentication
  • oauth2 - Multi-user with OAuth2 (requires Microsoft/Google config)

SESSION_SECRET

Type: String
Required: Yes (if AUTH_MODE=oauth2)
Description: Secret key for session encryption

Generate a secure value:

openssl rand -hex 32

JWT_SECRET

Type: String
Required: Yes (if using API token authentication)
Description: Secret key for JWT token signing

Generate a secure value:

openssl rand -hex 32

OAuth2 Configuration (Optional)

Only required if AUTH_MODE=oauth2.

Microsoft Azure AD

MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret
MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID=common

Google OAuth2

GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id
GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your_client_secret

Real-time Updates

ENABLE_WEBSOCKETS

Type: Boolean
Default: true
Description: Enable WebSocket connections for real-time game updates

STATS_POLL_INTERVAL_MS

Type: Integer
Default: 15000
Description: Interval in milliseconds for polling live game stats

STATS_POLL_INTERVAL_MS=15000  # 15 seconds

Background Jobs

ODDS_SYNC_INTERVAL

Type: Integer
Unit: Minutes
Default: 10
Description: How often to sync fresh odds from The Odds API

ODDS_SYNC_INTERVAL=10  # Sync every 10 minutes

AUTO_MIGRATE

Type: Boolean
Default: false
Description: Automatically run database migrations on startup

Use cases:

  • Docker deployments where migrations should auto-run
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Development environments
AUTO_MIGRATE=true

Caching (Optional)

REDIS_URL

Type: String
Required: No
Description: Redis connection URL for caching and session storage

Format:

REDIS_URL=redis://localhost:6379

Dashboard Frontend Configuration

Environment variables for the React application.

API Configuration

VITE_API_URL

Type: String
Required: Yes
Description: Base URL for backend API requests

Examples:

# Development
VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3001/api

# Production
VITE_API_URL=https://api.bettrack.example.com/api

Note: Must include /api path; frontend appends routes to this URL.

Configuration by Deployment Type

1. MCP Server Only (Claude Desktop)

Minimum required:

ODDS_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Optional:

BOOKMAKERS_FILTER=draftkings,fanduel
BOOKMAKERS_LIMIT=3
LOG_LEVEL=INFO

2. Dashboard with Docker Compose

Backend .env:

DATABASE_HOST=postgres
DATABASE_PORT=5432
DATABASE_NAME=bettrack
DATABASE_USER=bettrack_user
DATABASE_PASSWORD=secure_password
ODDS_API_KEY=your_odds_api_key
SESSION_SECRET=<openssl rand -hex 32>
JWT_SECRET=<openssl rand -hex 32>
NODE_ENV=production
BASE_URL=http://localhost
CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost
AUTO_MIGRATE=true
PORT=3001

Frontend .env:

VITE_API_URL=http://localhost/api

3. Production Deployment with Secrets

Use Docker secrets for sensitive values:

Create secrets:

mkdir -p secrets
echo -n "your_odds_api_key" > secrets/odds_api_key.txt
echo -n "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > secrets/session_secret.txt
echo -n "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > secrets/jwt_secret.txt

Backend .env:

DATABASE_HOST=postgres
DATABASE_NAME=bettrack
DATABASE_USER=bettrack_user
NODE_ENV=production
BASE_URL=https://api.example.com
CORS_ORIGIN=https://example.com
AUTO_MIGRATE=false
# Secrets are loaded automatically from /run/secrets/

Priority order:

  1. Docker secrets (/run/secrets/*)
  2. Environment variables
  3. .env file values

Common Issues

Issue: "ODDS_API_KEY not configured"

Cause: Missing or incorrectly set API key

Solutions:

  1. Verify key is set in your .env file (no trailing spaces)
  2. For MCP: Check config directory path matches your OS
  3. Restart Claude Desktop after changing .env
  4. Get a new key from the-odds-api.com

Issue: "Database connection failed"

Cause: Incorrect DATABASE_URL or database not running

Solutions:

  1. Verify PostgreSQL is running: psql -U postgres
  2. Check DATABASE_URL format is correct
  3. Ensure database user exists: CREATE USER sports_user WITH PASSWORD 'password';
  4. Create database: CREATE DATABASE sports_betting_dashboard;

Issue: CORS errors in dashboard

Cause: CORS_ORIGIN doesn't match frontend URL

Solutions:

  1. Check CORS_ORIGIN matches exactly (including protocol and port)
  2. Frontend at http://localhost:5173 → set CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost:5173
  3. Restart backend after changing CORS_ORIGIN

Issue: "Rate limit exceeded" from Odds API

Cause: Free tier limit (500 requests/month) reached

Solutions:

  1. Upgrade to paid tier at the-odds-api.com/pricing
  2. Increase ODDS_SYNC_INTERVAL to sync less frequently
  3. Use BOOKMAKERS_FILTER to reduce response size and requests

Next Steps

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