How to pass environment variables to use them inside an IDE when connecting via Toolbox SSH

October 27, 2026 05:44 Updated

Question

How can I use the environment variables defined for my Linux user, such as proxy settings or PATH.

Answer

When connecting via SSH, Toolbox uses a non-interactive session and doesn't inherit variables defined in shell dot files. To work around this, you can define (ex. export TEST_VAR = 42) the needed env vars in one of the following locations that Toolbox will check on startup:

~/.config/JetBrains/ToolboxSshDeploy/env.sh (for the current user)
/etc/xdg/JetBrains/ToolboxSshDeploy/env.sh (system-wide)
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/JetBrains/ToolboxSshDeploy/env.sh (only if the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set)