Open WebUI ConfigVar Cheat Sheet

Open WebUI persists connection settings in webui.db → config table as ConfigVar values. After first launch, env vars are ignored — the DB is authoritative. Changing -e OPENAI_API_BASE_URL=... and restarting does nothing.

Config Table Schema

The config table is key-value with JSON values:

SELECT key, value FROM config WHERE key LIKE '%ollama%' OR key LIKE '%openai%';

Connection Keys (as of Jul 2026)

Ollama Connection

Key	Type	Example
`ollama.enable`	bool	`true` / `false`
`ollama.base_urls`	JSON array	`["http://ollama:11434"]`
`ollama.api_configs`	JSON object	`{"0": {"enable": true, "tags": [], "prefix_id": "", "model_ids": [], "connection_type": "local", "auth_type": "bearer", "key": ""}}`

OpenAI Connection (used for admin-ai / LiteLLM)

Key	Type	Example
`openai.enable`	bool	`true` / `false`
`openai.api_base_urls`	JSON array	`["https://admin-ai.itpropartner.com/v1"]`
`openai.api_keys`	JSON array	`["sk-lg_..."]`
`openai.api_configs`	JSON object	`{"0": {"enable": true, "tags": [], "prefix_id": "", "model_ids": [], "connection_type": "external", "auth_type": "bearer"}}`

RAG / Embeddings

Key	Type	Example
`rag.ollama.base_url`	string	`"http://host.docker.internal:11434"`
`rag.ollama.api_key`	string	`""`
`rag.openai.api_base_url`	string	`"http://litellm:4000/v1"`
`rag.openai.api_key`	string	`"sk-..."`

Audio (TTS/STT)

Key	Type	Example
`audio.tts.openai.api_base_url`	string	`"http://litellm:4000/v1"`
`audio.tts.openai.api_key`	string	`"sk-..."`
`audio.stt.openai.api_base_url`	string	`"http://litellm:4000/v1"`
`audio.stt.openai.api_key`	string	`"sk-..."`

Image Generation

Key	Type	Example
`image_generation.openai.api_base_url`	string	`"http://127.0.0.0:4000/v1"`
`image_generation.openai.api_key`	string	`"sk-..."`

Common Operations

Disable Ollama (stop pointing to Ollama)

sqlite3 /var/lib/docker/volumes/openwebui_data/_data/webui.db \
  "UPDATE config SET value = 'false' WHERE key = 'ollama.enable';"
sqlite3 /var/lib/docker/volumes/openwebui_data/_data/webui.db \
  "UPDATE config SET value = json_set(value, '\$.\"0\".enable', json('false')) WHERE key = 'ollama.api_configs';"
docker restart openwebui

Change OpenAI base URL (switch admin-ai endpoint)

sqlite3 /var/lib/docker/volumes/openwebui_data/_data/webui.db \
  "UPDATE config SET value = json_set(value, '\$[0]', 'https://new-url/v1') WHERE key = 'openai.api_base_urls';"
docker restart openwebui

Verify changes took effect

sqlite3 /var/lib/docker/volumes/openwebui_data/_data/webui.db \
  "SELECT key, value FROM config WHERE key IN ('ollama.enable', 'openai.api_base_urls', 'ollama.api_configs');"

sqlite3 /var/lib/docker/volumes/openwebui_data/_data/webui.db \
  "SELECT key, value FROM config WHERE key LIKE '%ollama%' OR key LIKE '%openai%' ORDER BY key;"

Pitfalls

OLLAMA_BASE_URL=/ollama is baked into the image — omitting the env var doesn't clear it; the image default applies. After first launch, it's persisted in ollama.base_urls in the DB.
ENABLE_PERSISTENT_CONFIG=false disables ALL UI settings persistence — use only for one-off fixes, not as permanent config.
The container image doesn't include sqlite3 — install on the host: apt-get install -y sqlite3.
After DB changes, docker restart is required — the config is read at startup.
JSON path syntax is strict — \$.\"0\".enable for object keys that start with digits (SQLite's json_set requires double-quoted keys for numeric-looking keys).

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