# Creating the .env file

`.env` are a way to make certain values accessible to an application running in a container. We'll use the `.env` file to configure the node with the information that is specific to your node (like private key, seed key, and server name).

{% hint style="info" %}
If you haven't created your private key and seed information yet, please see the step-by-step instructions on [GeordieR's guide](https://cotidocs.geordier.co.uk/wallet-and-kyc/generating-your-seed).
{% endhint %}

## Creating the .env file

From within the `coti-node` directory, create a new file called `.env`. To do this in `vim`, for example, one could run

```bash
vim .env
```

After creating the `.env` file, copy the following contents into the file, replacing everything in the angle brackets (<>), including the angle brackets themselves, with the information for your node.

<pre class="language-bash" data-title=".env" data-line-numbers><code class="lang-bash"><strong>ACTION="&#x3C;mainnet or testnet>"
</strong>SERVERNAME="&#x3C;Your desired mainnet or testnet URL>"
PKEY="&#x3C;Your private key>"
SEED="&#x3C;Your seed key>"
EMAIL="&#x3C;Your email address>"
</code></pre>

### Example .env file

Here is an example `.env` file for a fictional testnet node called "my-coti-node.xyz", with a private key of 1234567890, and a seed key of ABCDEFGHIJ.

{% code title=".env (example)" lineNumbers="true" %}

```bash
ACTION="testnet"
SERVERNAME="my-coti-node.xyz"
PKEY="1234567890"
SEED="ABCDEFGHIJ"
EMAIL="info@my-coti-node.xyz"
```

{% endcode %}

## Optional Variables

An optional, but useful environment variable, is `VERSION`. This controls which version of the coti-node software that Docker will run.&#x20;

If you want to run the latest version (which is generally suitable for testnet node operators), then you don't need to specify the `VERSION` environment variable.

On the other hand, if you want to run a particular version of the Coti node, this can be done by adding the following line to your `.env` file

```bash
VERSION="X.Y.Z"
```

where `X.Y.Z` is the release tag of the version you wish to run. A list of the available versions can be found [here](https://hub.docker.com/r/atomnode/coti-node/tags), which correspond to the [official releases](https://github.com/coti-io/coti-node/releases) made available by Coti.

## Summary

At this point, you have done all of the hard work needed to set up your node. The next step shows how to launch the node with Docker.


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