Configuration

The Sentry CLI can be configured through config files, environment variables, and a local database. Most users don't need to set any of these — the CLI auto-detects your project from your codebase and stores credentials locally after sentry auth login.

Environment Variables

SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN

Authentication token for the Sentry API. This is the primary way to authenticate in CI/CD pipelines and scripts where interactive login is not possible.

You can create auth tokens in your Sentry account settings. When set, this takes precedence over any stored OAuth token from sentry auth login.

export SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN=sntrys_YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

SENTRY_TOKEN

Legacy alias for SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN. If both are set, SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN takes precedence.

SENTRY_FORCE_ENV_TOKEN

When set, environment variable tokens (SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN / SENTRY_TOKEN) take precedence over the stored OAuth token from sentry auth login. By default, the stored OAuth token takes priority because it supports automatic refresh. Set this if you want to ensure the environment variable token is always used, which is useful for self-hosted setups or CI environments.

export SENTRY_FORCE_ENV_TOKEN=1

SENTRY_ORG

Default organization slug. Skips organization auto-detection.

export SENTRY_ORG=my-org

SENTRY_PROJECT

Default project slug. Can also include the org in org/project format.

When using the org/project combo format, SENTRY_ORG is ignored.

export SENTRY_PROJECT=my-org/my-project

SENTRY_DSN

Sentry DSN for project auto-detection. This is the same DSN you use in Sentry.init(). The CLI resolves it to determine your organization and project.

The CLI also detects DSNs from .env files and source code automatically — see DSN Auto-Detection.

export SENTRY_DSN=https://key@o123.ingest.us.sentry.io/456

SENTRY_HOST

Base URL of your Sentry instance. Only needed for self-hosted Sentry. SaaS users (sentry.io) should not set this.

When set, all API requests (including OAuth login) are directed to this URL instead of https://sentry.io. The CLI also sets this automatically when you pass a self-hosted Sentry URL as a command argument.

SENTRY_HOST takes precedence over SENTRY_URL. Both work identically — use whichever you prefer.

export SENTRY_HOST=https://sentry.example.com

SENTRY_URL

Alias for SENTRY_HOST. If both are set, SENTRY_HOST takes precedence.

SENTRY_CLIENT_ID

Client ID of a public OAuth application on your Sentry instance. Required for self-hosted Sentry (26.1.0+) to use sentry auth login with the device flow. See the Self-Hosted guide for how to create one.

export SENTRY_CLIENT_ID=your-oauth-client-id

SENTRY_CONFIG_DIR

Override the directory where the CLI stores its database (credentials, caches, defaults). Defaults to ~/.sentry/.

export SENTRY_CONFIG_DIR=/path/to/config

SENTRY_INSTALL_DIR

Override the directory where the CLI binary is installed. Used by the install script and sentry cli upgrade to control the binary location.

export SENTRY_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin

SENTRY_VERSION

Pin a specific version for the install script. Accepts a version number (e.g., 0.19.0) or nightly. The --version flag takes precedence if both are set.

This is useful in CI/CD pipelines and Dockerfiles where you want reproducible installations without inline flags.

export SENTRY_VERSION=nightly

SENTRY_INIT

Used with the install script. When set to 1, the installer runs sentry init after installing the binary to guide you through project setup.

export SENTRY_INIT=1

SENTRY_PLAIN_OUTPUT

Force plain text output (no colors or ANSI formatting). Takes precedence over NO_COLOR.

export SENTRY_PLAIN_OUTPUT=1

NO_COLOR

Standard convention to disable color output. See no-color.org. Respected when SENTRY_PLAIN_OUTPUT is not set.

export NO_COLOR=1

FORCE_COLOR

Force color output on interactive terminals. Only takes effect when stdout is a TTY. Set to 0 to force plain output, 1 to force color. Ignored when stdout is piped.

export FORCE_COLOR=1

SENTRY_OUTPUT_FORMAT

Force the output format for all commands. Currently only json is supported. This is primarily used by the library API (createSentrySDK()) to get JSON output without passing --json flags.

export SENTRY_OUTPUT_FORMAT=json

SENTRY_LOG_LEVEL

Controls the verbosity of diagnostic output. Defaults to info.

Valid values: error, warn, log, info, debug, trace

Equivalent to passing --log-level debug on the command line. CLI flags take precedence over the environment variable.

export SENTRY_LOG_LEVEL=debug

SENTRY_CLI_NO_TELEMETRY

Disable CLI telemetry (error tracking for the CLI itself). The CLI sends anonymized error reports to help improve reliability — set this to opt out.

export SENTRY_CLI_NO_TELEMETRY=1

SENTRY_CLI_NO_UPDATE_CHECK

Disable the automatic update check that runs periodically in the background.

export SENTRY_CLI_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1

SENTRY_NO_CACHE

Disable API response caching. When set, the CLI will not cache API responses and will always make fresh requests.

export SENTRY_NO_CACHE=1

SENTRY_MAX_PAGINATION_PAGES

Cap the maximum number of pages fetched during auto-pagination. Useful for limiting API calls when using large --limit values.

export SENTRY_MAX_PAGINATION_PAGES=10

SENTRY_CLI_NO_AUTO_REPAIR

Disable automatic database schema repair. By default, the CLI automatically repairs its SQLite database when it detects schema drift. Set this to 1 to prevent auto-repair.

export SENTRY_CLI_NO_AUTO_REPAIR=1

Configuration File (.sentryclirc)

The CLI supports a .sentryclirc config file using standard INI syntax. This is the same format used by the legacy sentry-cli tool, so existing config files are automatically picked up.

How It Works

The CLI looks for .sentryclirc files by walking up from your current directory toward the filesystem root. If multiple files are found, values from the closest file take priority, with ~/.sentryclirc serving as a global fallback.

[defaults]
org = my-org
project = my-project

[auth]
token = sntrys_...

Supported Fields

Section	Key	Description
[defaults]	org	Default organization slug
[defaults]	project	Default project slug
[defaults]	url	Sentry base URL (for self-hosted)
[auth]	token	Auth token (mapped to SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN)

Monorepo Setup

In monorepos, place a .sentryclirc at the repo root with your org, then add per-package configs with just the project:

my-monorepo/
  .sentryclirc              # [defaults] org = my-company
  packages/
    frontend/
      .sentryclirc          # [defaults] project = frontend-web
    backend/
      .sentryclirc          # [defaults] project = backend-api

When you run a command from packages/frontend/, the CLI resolves org = my-company from the root and project = frontend-web from the closest file.

Resolution Priority

When the CLI needs to determine your org and project, it checks these sources in order:

1. Explicit CLI arguments — sentry issue list my-org/my-project
2. Environment variables — SENTRY_ORG / SENTRY_PROJECT
3. .sentryclirc config file — walked up from CWD, merged with ~/.sentryclirc
4. Persistent defaults — set via sentry cli defaults
5. DSN auto-detection — scans source code and .env files
6. Directory name inference — matches your directory name against project slugs

The first source that provides both org and project wins. For org-only commands, only the org is needed.

Backward Compatibility

If you previously used the legacy sentry-cli and have a ~/.sentryclirc file, the new CLI reads it automatically. The [defaults] and [auth] sections are fully compatible. The [auth] token value is mapped to the SENTRY_AUTH_TOKEN environment variable internally (only if the env var is not already set).

Persistent Defaults

Use sentry cli defaults to set persistent defaults for organization, project, URL, and telemetry. These are stored in the CLI's local database and apply to all commands.

sentry cli defaults org my-org           # Set default organization
sentry cli defaults project my-project   # Set default project
sentry cli defaults url https://...      # Set Sentry URL (self-hosted)
sentry cli defaults telemetry off        # Disable telemetry
sentry cli defaults                      # Show all current defaults
sentry cli defaults org --clear          # Clear a specific default

See sentry cli defaults for full usage.

Global Options

These flags are accepted by every command. They are not shown in individual command --help output, but are always available.

--log-level <level>

Set the log verbosity level. Accepts: error, warn, log, info, debug, trace.

sentry issue list --log-level debug
sentry --log-level=trace cli upgrade

Overrides SENTRY_LOG_LEVEL when both are set.

--verbose

Shorthand for --log-level debug. Enables debug-level diagnostic output.

sentry issue list --verbose

Note

The sentry api command also uses --verbose to show full HTTP request/response details. When used with sentry api, it serves both purposes (debug logging + HTTP output).

Credential Storage

We store credentials and caches in a SQLite database (cli.db) inside the config directory (~/.sentry/ by default, overridable via SENTRY_CONFIG_DIR). The database file and its WAL side-files are created with restricted permissions (mode 600) so that only the current user can read them. The database also caches:

• Organization and project defaults
• DSN resolution results
• Region URL mappings
• Project aliases (for monorepo support)

See Credential Storage in the auth command docs for more details.