Question: I tried to export a settings.json as documented in the meteor.js documentation in order to connect my Meteor.js app with an external MongoHQ database :

```
{
    "env": {
        "MONGO_URL" : "mongodb://xxx:xxxx@troup.mongohq.com:10037/xxx"
    }
}

```

with the command : 

```
mrt deploy myapp.meteor.com --settings settings.json

```

It doesn't even work, My app continue to connect the local database provided with the Meteor.app !
My MONGO\_URL env variable didnt changed.

Is there any solution to export my MONGO\_URL env variable to connect an external MongoDB database ? 

I saw that is possible to change it while using heroku or modulus, what about the standard deploying meteor.com solution ?

Answer: 
The application-configuration package (built in meteor package) contains the code to set mongo\_url. See my answer here <https://stackoverflow.com/a/23485319/2391620>
Regarded to the Unoficial Meteor.js FAQ, thats not possible to do it easily, that might be tricky.

So i signed up for a modulus Account, with MongoHQ Database.
It works right now.