Enterprise Configuration Reference

Enterprise adds several environment variables for controlling features, caching behavior, and performance tuning. These variables are read at server startup and apply to all requests.

Feature activation

Variable	Default	Description
`TERMINUSDB_ENTERPRISE`	`false`	Set to `true` to enable enterprise features. In Docker enterprise images, this is set automatically.

Context caching

These variables control how remote JSON-LD contexts are cached and resolved. See Context Cache for architecture details.

Variable	Default	Description
`TERMINUSDB_CONTEXT_CACHE_PATH`	`<storage_dir>/context_cache`	Directory for the context cache. Contains the catalog subdirectory (plain files) and the HTTP cache subdirectory for processing JSON-LD. The default is derived from the parent of the database path. This enables to have known good contexts and avoid dynamic resolution which both increases latency and can increase the attack surface where 3rd party HTTP connections are made.
`TERMINUSDB_ALLOW_REMOTE_CONTEXT`	`false`	When `true`, cache misses for remote URL contexts trigger an HTTP fetch. When `false`, only pre-seeded and previously cached contexts are available. Set to `false` in production for deterministic behavior.

Context cache path resolution

The default cache path is computed as follows:

If TERMINUSDB_CONTEXT_CACHE_PATH is set, use it directly
Otherwise, take the database path (from TERMINUSDB_SERVER_DB_PATH, default ./storage/db)
Go up one directory to the storage root (e.g., ./storage/)
Append context_cache (e.g., ./storage/context_cache)

Inside the cache directory, two subdirectories are created automatically:

catalog/ — plain inspectable files, index, and SGML catalog
http-cache/ — RFC-compliant HTTP response cache

Seed file directory

The context cache looks for pre-seeded context files at startup. It searches for a data/context-seeds/ directory relative to the enterprise module path. In Docker, this is terminusdb-enterprise/data/context-seeds/. Seed files are copied into the catalog directory on first use.

LRU cache tuning

The LRU cache manages eviction of graph layers from memory. These variables control its behavior.

Variable	Default	Description
`TERMINUSDB_LRU_CACHE_SIZE`	`1073741824` (1 GB)	Maximum size in bytes for the in-memory layer cache. Layers beyond this limit are evicted least-recently-used first.
`TERMINUSDB_LRU_EVICTION_PERCENT`	`10`	Percentage of the cache to evict when the limit is reached. A higher value means fewer but larger eviction passes. Enterprise default is 10%.

Tuning guidance

Small datasets, fast queries — keep the default. 1 GB is generous for most workloads.
Large datasets, memory pressure — reduce TERMINUSDB_LRU_CACHE_SIZE to leave headroom for the Prolog stack and OS caches.
Many concurrent databases — increase the cache size if you see frequent evictions in the Prometheus metrics (terminusdb_lru_cache_used_bytes staying near terminusdb_lru_cache_limit_bytes).
Eviction granularity — the default 10% eviction percentage is a good balance. Lower values (e.g., 5%) mean more frequent but smaller evictions and a leaner memory usage.

Metrics prefix

Variable	Default	Description
`TERMINUSDB_METRICS_PREFIX`	`terminusdb`	Prefix for all Prometheus metric names. Change this if you run multiple TerminusDB instances and want to distinguish them in your monitoring stack.

Standard TerminusDB variables

Enterprise inherits all standard TerminusDB environment variables. The most commonly used ones alongside enterprise features:

Variable	Default	Description
`TERMINUSDB_SERVER_DB_PATH`	`./storage/db`	Database storage path. Also determines the default context cache path.
`TERMINUSDB_SERVER_PORT`	`6363`	HTTP server port.
`TERMINUSDB_ADMIN_PASS`	`root`	Admin user password for basic authentication.
`TERMINUSDB_JWT_ENABLED`	`true` (Docker)	Enable JWT authentication. Set to `false` for local development with basic auth only.
`TERMINUSDB_PLUGINS_PATH`	`<storage_dir>/plugins`	Directory for server plugins (e.g., auto-optimize).

Example: production configuration

A typical production setup with all enterprise variables:

Example: Bash

export TERMINUSDB_ENTERPRISE=true
export TERMINUSDB_SERVER_DB_PATH=/data/terminusdb/db
export TERMINUSDB_SERVER_PORT=6363
export TERMINUSDB_CONTEXT_CACHE_PATH=/data/terminusdb/context_cache
export TERMINUSDB_ALLOW_REMOTE_CONTEXT=false
export TERMINUSDB_LRU_CACHE_SIZE=2147483648  # 2 GB
export TERMINUSDB_LRU_EVICTION_PERCENT=10
export TERMINUSDB_ADMIN_PASS=your-secure-password

Example: Docker Compose

Example: YAML

services:
  terminusdb:
    image: terminusdb/terminusdb:enterprise
    ports:
      - "6363:6363"
    environment:
      TERMINUSDB_ENTERPRISE: "true"
      TERMINUSDB_ADMIN_PASS: "your-secure-password"
      TERMINUSDB_LRU_CACHE_SIZE: "2147483648"
      TERMINUSDB_ALLOW_REMOTE_CONTEXT: "false"
    volumes:
      - terminusdb-data:/app/terminusdb/storage

volumes:
  terminusdb-data: