Environment Variables
Environment variables can be used to supply any Butler Sheet Icons (BSI) command-line parameter. This helps keep secrets out of commands/scripts, enables reusable setups, and (significantly!) shortens long commands.
Naming pattern
Each CLI parameter has a matching environment variable using this pattern:
BSI_<COMMAND>_<SUBCOMMAND_ABBREVIATION>_<PARAMETER_NAME>
Commands are:
QSEOW— Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows (client-managed)QSCLOUD— Qlik Sense CloudBROWSER— Embedded browser management options
Subcommand abbreviations:
| Used for commands | Subcommand name | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| qseow, qscloud | create-sheet-thumbnails | CST |
| qscloud | remove-sheet-icons | RSI |
| qscloud | list-collections | LC |
| browser | list-installed | LI |
| browser | list-available | LA |
| browser | install | I |
| browser | uninstall | UI |
| browser | uninstall-all | UIA |
Finally, take the command-line parameter name, convert it to uppercase, and append it. Example: --host becomes _HOST, --apiuserdir becomes _API_USER_DIR.
Environment variables are also listed when running BSI with --help (scroll right to see the variable names):
Usage: butler-sheet-icons qscloud create-sheet-thumbnails|create-sheet-icons [options]
Create thumbnail images based on the layout of each sheet in Qlik Sense Cloud applications.
Multiple apps can be updated with a single command, using a Qlik Sense collection to identify which apps will be updated.
Options:
--loglevel, --log-level <level> Log level (choices: "error", "warn", "info", "verbose", "debug", "silly", default: "info", env: BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_LOG_LEVEL)
--schemaversion <version> Qlik Sense engine schema version (choices: "12.170.2", "12.612.0", "12.936.0", "12.1306.0", "12.1477.0", "12.1657.0", "12.1823.0", "12.2015.0", default: "12.612.0", env: BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_SCHEMAVERSION)
--tenanturl <url> URL or host of Qlik Sense cloud tenant. Example: "https://tenant.eu.qlikcloud.com" or "tenant.eu.qlikcloud.com" (env: BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_TENANTURL)
--apikey <key> API key used to access the Sense APIs (env: BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APIKEY)
--skip-login [true|false] Skip QS login page, go directly to the tenant URL. Use this if you are automatically logged in to Qlik Sense.
With this set, --logonuserid and --logonpwd are not needed. (default: false, env: BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_SKIP_LOGIN)
...
...Examples
QSEoW
# Set environment variables for QSEoW
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_HOST = 'qlikserver.example.com'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_APP_ID = '12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_API_USER_DIR = 'INTERNAL'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_API_USER_ID = 'sa_api'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_USER_DIR = 'INTERNAL'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_USER_ID = 'userID'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_PWD = 'password'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_PREFIX = 'form'
$env:BSI_QSEOW_CST_CONTENT_LIBRARY = 'Butler sheet thumbnails'
# Minimal command once variables are set
butler-sheet-icons qseow create-sheet-thumbnails# Set environment variables for QSEoW
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_HOST='qlikserver.example.com'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_APP_ID='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_API_USER_DIR='INTERNAL'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_API_USER_ID='sa_api'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_USER_DIR='INTERNAL'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_USER_ID='userID'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_LOGON_PWD='password'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_PREFIX='form'
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_CONTENT_LIBRARY='Butler sheet thumbnails'
# Minimal command once variables are set
butler-sheet-icons qseow create-sheet-thumbnailsQS Cloud
# Set environment variables for QS Cloud
$env:BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_TENANTURL = 'tenant.eu.qlikcloud.com'
$env:BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APIKEY = 'eyJhbGciOiJFUzM4NCIsImtpZCI6IjM...'
$env:BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_LOGON_USER_ID = 'user@example.com'
$env:BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_LOGON_PWD = 'password'
$env:BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APP_ID = '12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'
# Minimal command once variables are set
butler-sheet-icons qscloud create-sheet-thumbnails# Set environment variables for QS Cloud
export BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_TENANTURL='tenant.eu.qlikcloud.com'
export BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APIKEY='eyJhbGciOiJFUzM4NCIsImtpZCI6IjM...'
export BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_LOGON_USER_ID='user@example.com'
export BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_LOGON_PWD='password'
export BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APP_ID='12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012'
# Minimal command once variables are set
butler-sheet-icons qscloud create-sheet-thumbnailsVariables holding more than one value
Two kinds of option take a list, and they behave differently in an environment variable.
App IDs take a comma-separated list. BSI_QSEOW_CST_APP_ID and BSI_QSCLOUD_CST_APP_ID each accept several, which is how you name a fixed set of apps without tagging them in Qlik Sense first:
export BSI_QSEOW_CST_APP_ID='a3e0f5d2-000a-464f-998d-33d333b175d7,9f8e7d6c-aaaa-bbbb-cccc-ddddeeeeffff'Requires BSI 5.0.0 or later
Earlier versions accepted exactly one app ID.
Sheet numbers take exactly one. BSI_QSEOW_CST_EXCLUDE_SHEET_NUMBER and the blur equivalent hold a single number, and a value containing more than one is rejected at startup. To select several sheets, pass the option on the command line instead — see Listing several sheet numbers.
A variable that is set but empty counts as unset. A bare BSI_QSEOW_CST_APP_ID= line in a systemd unit file or a Docker environment file means no app was named, rather than one app with a blank ID.
Behavior and security
- With environment variables set, you can run BSI with minimal parameters.
- Command-line parameters override environment variables if both are provided.
- On shared systems, avoid system-wide secrets in env vars; consider a proper secrets manager in production.
Output and interaction
These do not configure a command — they control how Butler Sheet Icons presents itself.
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
NO_COLOR (any value) | Never colour the log output, even in a terminal |
FORCE_COLOR=1 | Always colour it, even when redirecting to a file |
FORCE_COLOR=0 | Never colour it — the same as NO_COLOR |
BSI_LOG_TIMESTAMPS=false | Remove the timestamp prefix from every log line |
BSI_NO_INTERACTIVE=1 | Refuse to prompt, even in a terminal. See Interactive Mode |
BSI_ASCII_ONLY=1 | Use plain ASCII instead of Unicode symbols in interactive mode and on the contact sheet |
BSI_OUTPUT=board|plain|off | Override the automatic run-output selection. See The Contact Sheet |
Colour codes in captured logs
Requires BSI 4.1.0 or later
In earlier versions, colour instructions were written whether or not the output was going to a screen.
Butler Sheet Icons colours its log output so that info, warn and error lines are easy to tell apart. Until 4.1.0 it did that always — so if you redirected output to a file, piped it into another tool, or let a scheduler capture it, the colour instructions were captured too:
2026-06-24T10:30:45.123Z ←[32minfo←[39m: App version: 4.0.0instead of:
2026-06-24T10:30:45.123Z info: App version: 4.0.0From 4.1.0 the check is automatic: colour goes to a terminal, and nothing else. Interactive sessions are unchanged; redirected output, pipes, docker logs and scheduler transcripts are now clean.
This is not only cosmetic. Colour codes in a captured log break things that read it afterwards: a search for info: does not match ←[32minfo←[39m:, and log shippers that parse a level field — Splunk, Elastic, Grafana Loki — see unexpected characters in it.
If you were stripping these characters yourself with a sed filter, a PowerShell replace, or a log-shipper rule, that workaround is no longer needed. Leaving it in place does no harm.
Use FORCE_COLOR=1 if you deliberately want a coloured transcript — for example when capturing output with a tool that renders colour back to you later.
$env:FORCE_COLOR = "1"
butler-sheet-icons.exe browser list-installed > coloured.logFORCE_COLOR=1 butler-sheet-icons browser list-installed > coloured.logA terminal reporting itself as TERM=dumb is also treated as unable to show colour.
Timestamps in log output
Requires BSI 5.0.0 or later
In earlier versions the timestamp prefix cannot be turned off.
Every log line Butler Sheet Icons writes starts with a timestamp and a log level:
2026-08-17T09:14:22.105Z info: Starting creation of thumbnails for Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows (QSEoW)That prefix is about 31 characters before any content. It is useful when the console is the only record of when something happened — and pure duplication when something else already records the time, which is the case in most scheduled setups:
- Docker / Kubernetes — the container runtime stamps every line (
docker logs -t,kubectl logs --timestamps) - systemd / journald — the journal stamps every line
- Most log shippers — the collector adds its own receive time
In those environments each line effectively carries two timestamps, and the one Butler Sheet Icons adds is the less trustworthy of the two.
Set the environment variable BSI_LOG_TIMESTAMPS to false, 0, no, or off (any capitalisation; surrounding whitespace is ignored) and the prefix is dropped:
info: Starting creation of thumbnails for Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows (QSEoW)The log level and the message are unchanged — only the timestamp goes away. Any other value, and an unset variable, leave timestamps on.
Set it anywhere Butler Sheet Icons reads its environment:
$env:BSI_LOG_TIMESTAMPS = 'false'
.\butler-sheet-icons.exe qseow create-sheet-thumbnails ...BSI_LOG_TIMESTAMPS=false ./butler-sheet-icons qseow create-sheet-thumbnails ...In Docker, pass it with -e BSI_LOG_TIMESTAMPS=false. It also works from a .env file next to where you run Butler Sheet Icons, together with your other BSI_ settings.
The run card — the plan, progress and verdict blocks a thumbnail run prints — is aligned for reading with this prefix off, so scheduled setups that already timestamp their logs get the tidiest transcripts by setting it.
If you are unsure whether the variable is reaching Butler Sheet Icons — or whether the value you set was understood — run butler-sheet-icons interactive --self-test: the Logging rows show the raw value received and whether timestamps are on or off as a result.
What it does not affect. This switch applies to log lines only. Output that never carried a timestamp is unchanged: the JSON document from doctor check --outputformat json, the interactive wizard's prompts and tables, and --help/--version text. --log-level filtering and the messages themselves are also unchanged.
If you parse Butler Sheet Icons log output: nothing changes unless you set the variable. With it set, anything matching on the leading timestamp (log filters, monitoring rules, scripts using the timestamp column) will need adjusting — log lines then start directly with the level, e.g. info: or error:.
Related: Proxy environment variables
When behind a proxy, set standard proxy variables (Linux/macOS example):
export http_proxy='http://username:password@proxy.example.com:port'
export https_proxy='http://username:password@proxy.example.com:port'These are honored when BSI downloads a browser or otherwise needs outbound network access.