[FEAT]: adjustable .env file location about anything-llm HOT 5 OPEN

I'm not familiar with AWS CDK or ECS, specifically, but Docker supports an env_file attribute using docker run --env-file ... or by adding the attribute to a Docker Compose file.

It looks like you can pass a list of files to environmentFiles in an ECS task definition: "This parameter maps to the --env-file option to docker run."

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Yes @timothycarambat you hit it right on the head. Apologies if not entirely clear on my end @ethyoo.

Based on @timothycarambat & @ethyoo's discussion would it be worth reframing the goal of this issue towards separating environment variables/files (defined as those that must be set at time of deployment and remain constant throughout a deployment) from application configuration variables/files (defined as those set or changed during application usage).

In other words, what if we move all of the configurations that are either set during the initial setup walkthrough screens or when users make changes to admin settings away from writing to the .env file and into a configuration file inside of /app/storage?

Slightly echoing what @timothycarambat mentioned earlier is that I think the core problem I am trying to solve for here is that anythingllm is writing back to that .env file which is creates a more difficult situation to try to build around.

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@ethyoo I think that CLI arg only specifies a file for which docker to load ENVs from, which in general would work, but the issue would be persistence since the system does write back changes in ENV params from the app back to a file - which i believe if the primary ask. The changes are written, but the changes are then destroyed when the ephemeral container storage is killed.

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I think that goes back to best practices for persistent storage and choosing storage options for Amazon ECS tasks.

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Among other places where the ENV is loaded we can start with modifications here:

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