diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2f22b38d4..3a0161fca 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -63,6 +63,12 @@ TIBANNA_AWS_REGION  # aws region (e.g. us-east-1)
 AWS_ACCOUNT_NUMBER  # aws account number
 ```
 
+If you're using a forked repo or want to use a specific branch set the following variables accordingly and export them. If you're using default (4dn-dcic/tibanna, master), no need to set these variables.
+```
+export TIBANNA_REPO_NAME=4dn-dcic/tibanna
+export TIBANNA_REPO_BRANCH=master
+```
+
 Then, set up user group and permission on AWS by using `invoke setup_tibanna_env`.
 ```
 invoke setup_tibanna_env --buckets=<bucket1>,<bucket2>,...   # add all the buckets your input/output files and log files will go to. The buckets must already exist.
diff --git a/core/run_task_awsem/event.json b/core/run_task_awsem/event.json
index 7c3cff7bb..b955570b7 100644
--- a/core/run_task_awsem/event.json
+++ b/core/run_task_awsem/event.json
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@
     "instance_type": "",
     "copy_to_s3": true,
     "launch_instance": true,
-    "password": "dragonfly",
+    "password": "",
     "log_bucket": "tibanna-output",
-    "key_name": ""
+    "key_name": "4dn-encode"
   }
 }
diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
index be203fa5b..24632414c 100644
--- a/tasks.py
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@
 NEGATIVE = 'https://gist.github.com/j1z0/bbed486d85fb4d64825065afbfb2e98f/raw/negative.txt'
 AMI_ID_CWL_V1 = 'ami-31caa14e'
 AMI_ID_CWL_DRAFT3 = 'ami-cfb14bb5'
-TIBANNA_REPO_NAME = '4dn-dcic/tibanna'
-TIBANNA_REPO_BRANCH = 'master'
+TIBANNA_REPO_NAME = os.environ.get('TIBANNA_REPO_NAME', '4dn-dcic/tibanna')
+TIBANNA_REPO_BRANCH = os.environ.get('TIBANNA_REPO_BRANCH', 'master')
 
 
 def get_random_line_in_gist(url):