# Unable to disable APM via environment variable **URL:** \ **Category:** APM\ **Tags:** java\ **Created:** [May 10, 2019, 12:35pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-disable-apm-via-environment-variable/180558 "2019-05-10T12:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![Eyal\_Koren](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/eyal_koren/32/36830_2.png) [@Eyal\_Koren](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Eyal_Koren)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-disable-apm-via-environment-variable/180558/4 "2019-05-13T13:13:55Z")
The `active` and `instrument` flags are mostly used to disable instrumentation. In this case, the agent still tries to establish a connection with the APM server and collect and send metrics. I believe this shouldn't affect your dev env, it only writes to the log. If you add `ELASTIC_APM_METRICS_INTERVAL: 0s` (see [config option documentation](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/apm/agent/java/current/config-reporter.html#config-metrics-interval)), metrics collection will be disabled. In addition, you can add `ELASTIC_APM_LOG_LEVEL: ERROR` to remove agent loggings. This doesn't mean no agent code will run at all, for that you need to remove the agent altogether. However, it may be enough for your purpose. I hope this helps. Eyal. --- _[View the full topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/unable-to-disable-apm-via-environment-variable/180558)._