Environment Variables

pgxcli reads several environment variables to fill in connection defaults and configure behavior. You never have to set any of them — but they're useful for scripting or when you connect to the same server repeatedly.

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pgxcli-Specific

These take priority over the standard PostgreSQL variables:

Variable	Description
PGXUSER	Default username for connections
PGXPASSWORD	Password used when --no-password (-w) is set

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Standard PostgreSQL

pgxcli also respects the standard libpq environment variables:

Variable	Description
PGUSER	Default username (used if PGXUSER is not set)
PGPASSWORD	Default password (used if PGXPASSWORD is not set)
PGHOST	Default host address
PGPORT	Default port number
PGDATABASE	Default database name
PGCONNECT_TIMEOUT	Connection dialer timeout in seconds

These work exactly like they do with psql or any other libpq-based tool.

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Pager

Variable	Description
PAGER	Custom pager command (default: less on Linux/macOS, more on Windows)

If PAGER is not set, pgxcli uses less with -SRFX flags on Unix systems.

tip

Set PAGER="less -S" to disable line wrapping in paged output — useful for wide tables.

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Resolution Priority

When multiple sources provide the same value, pgxcli resolves them in this order (highest priority first):

Username

1. --username / -u / --user / -U flag
2. Positional argument
3. PGXUSER environment variable
4. PGUSER environment variable
5. Current OS username

Password

1. Interactive form input (with -i)
2. --password / -W prompt
3. PGXPASSWORD environment variable
4. PGPASSWORD environment variable
5. Auto-prompt on authentication failure (unless -w is set)