diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index bf2569b8..cb9642e9 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ MESSAGING_RATE_WINDOW=1
 # Voice Note Transcription (transformers Whisper; install with: uv sync --extra voice)
 VOICE_NOTE_ENABLED=false
 # WHISPER_MODEL: Hugging Face ID or short name (tiny, base, small, medium, large-v2, large-v3, large-v3-turbo)
-WHISPER_MODEL=base
+WHISPER_MODEL="base"
 # WHISPER_DEVICE: "cpu" | "cuda"
-WHISPER_DEVICE=cpu
+WHISPER_DEVICE="cpu"
 HF_TOKEN=""