diff --git a/services/json2capnp/Cargo.lock b/services/json2capnp/Cargo.lock
index ffe72424d..bb84b245f 100644
--- a/services/json2capnp/Cargo.lock
+++ b/services/json2capnp/Cargo.lock
@@ -304,12 +304,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "winapi",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "dotenv"
-version = "0.15.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "77c90badedccf4105eca100756a0b1289e191f6fcbdadd3cee1d2f614f97da8f"
-
 [[package]]
 name = "filetime"
 version = "0.2.13"
@@ -476,15 +470,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "libc",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "home"
-version = "0.5.3"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "2456aef2e6b6a9784192ae780c0f15bc57df0e918585282325e8c8ac27737654"
-dependencies = [
- "winapi",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "httparse"
 version = "1.3.4"
@@ -529,11 +514,9 @@ name = "json2capnp"
 version = "0.2.0"
 dependencies = [
  "capnp",
- "dotenv",
  "geo",
  "geobuf",
  "geojson",
- "home",
  "json",
  "polyline",
  "pretty_assertions",
diff --git a/services/json2capnp/Cargo.toml b/services/json2capnp/Cargo.toml
index 5e302f1f5..1c1d5c860 100644
--- a/services/json2capnp/Cargo.toml
+++ b/services/json2capnp/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@ capnp = "0.14"
 rouille = "3.0"
 serde_json = "1.0"
 uuid = "0.8"
-dotenv = "0.15"
-home = "0.5"
 polyline = "0.9"
 geo = "0.17.0"
 geojson = "0.22.0"
diff --git a/services/json2capnp/src/main.rs b/services/json2capnp/src/main.rs
index fafc5e490..2743a8ced 100644
--- a/services/json2capnp/src/main.rs
+++ b/services/json2capnp/src/main.rs
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@
  *
  */
 
-use dotenv;
-use home;
 use rouille::Request;
 use rouille::Response;
 use std::fs;
@@ -61,15 +59,9 @@ fn main() {
 
     println!("Starting json2capnp server...");
 
-    // setup dotenv:
-    let my_env_path = home::home_dir()
-        .and_then(|a| Some(a.join("/../../../.env")))
-        .unwrap();
-    dotenv::from_path(my_env_path.as_path()).ok();
-    let project_shortname = dotenv::var("PROJECT_SHORTNAME").unwrap();
-    let project_cache_directory_path_str = cache_directory.unwrap_or(format!(
-        "../../projects/{}/cache/{}", project_shortname, project_shortname
-    ));
+    // TODO For now, the project cache directory must be set on the command line. It can come from config when config is json or yml (#415)
+    let project_shortname = "default";
+    let project_cache_directory_path_str = cache_directory.unwrap_or_else(|| { panic!("Cache directory must be set on the command line (eg cargo run -- 2000 path/to/cache/dir)") } );
     println!("Using {} as cache directory",
         project_cache_directory_path_str
     );