diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..15bb94a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+# DeutschLernen Environment Configuration
+# Copy this file to .env and fill in your actual values
+# This file is in .gitignore and will NOT be committed to git
+
+# ============================================
+# JWT Configuration
+# ============================================
+JWT_KEY=your-super-secret-key-at-least-32-characters-long
+JWT_ISSUER=DeutschLernen
+JWT_AUDIENCE=DeutschLernen
+JWT_EXPIREHOURS=24
+
+# ============================================
+# Mistral AI Configuration
+# Use the API key from appsettings.Development.json
+# ============================================
+MISTRAL_APIKEY=YOUR_MISTRAL_API_KEY_HERE
+MISTRAL_BASEURL=https://api.mistral.ai/v1/
+MISTRAL_DEFAULTMODEL=mistral-medium
+MISTRAL_TIMEOUTSECONDS=30
+MISTRAL_MAXRETRIES=3
+MISTRAL_RATELIMITPERMINUTE=10
+MISTRAL_ENABLECACHING=true
+MISTRAL_CACHETTLMINUTES=60
+MISTRAL_CIRCUITBREAKERFAILURETHRESHOLD=5
+MISTRAL_CIRCUITBREAKERRESETMINUTES=1
+
+# ============================================
+# Vosk Speech Recognition Configuration
+# ============================================
+VOSK_PYTHONPATH=python3
+VOSK_MODELPATH=./models/vosk-model-de-0.22
+VOSK_SAMPLERATE=16000
+VOSK_TIMEOUTSECONDS=30
+VOSK_BEAMWIDTH=20
+
+# ============================================
+# Coqui TTS Configuration
+# ============================================
+COQUI_PYTHONPATH=python3
+COQUI_MODELNAME=tts_models/de/deu/fairseq/vits
+COQUI_AUDIOSTORAGEPATH=./tmp/tts-audio
+COQUI_MAXTEXTLENGTH=5000
+COQUI_TIMEOUTSECONDS=60