Configuration Reference

Complete reference for all CommandLane configuration options.

Configuration File

CommandLane uses pkb.config.json in your project or home directory. The file is created automatically on first run.

File Locations

Configuration is loaded in this order (later overrides earlier):

1. ./pkb.config.json (project directory)
2. ~/.cmdlane/pkb.config.json (user config)
3. Environment variables (highest priority)

Core Settings

General

Option	Type	Default	Description
enable_ai	boolean	true	Enable AI features
log_level	string	"INFO"	Logging level: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR

Watcher

Background context monitoring settings:

Option	Type	Default	Description
watcher_enabled_by_default	boolean	false	Auto-start watcher with app
watcher_show_toggle_in_ui	boolean	true	Show watcher toggle in UI
watcher_interval_seconds	number	3	Context polling frequency
watcher_cooldown_seconds	number	300	Min time between popovers
watcher_max_items	number	5	Max items per popover

AI & Classification

Classification Engine

Option	Type	Default	Description
ai_classification_use_tinybert	boolean	false	Use local TinyBERT model
ai_classification_model_path	string	".models/tinybert-tasknote/"	Path to TinyBERT model
ai_classification_provider	string	"local"	Provider: local, openai, anthropic, ollama
ai_classification_api_model	string	varies	Model ID when using API provider
ai_classification_temperature	number	0.0	Output determinism (0.0-1.0)
ai_classification_num_predict	number	150	Max tokens for classification
ai_rule_confidence_threshold	number	0.8	Rule-based classifier threshold

AI Fallback

Option	Type	Default	Description
ai_classification_use_llm	boolean	false	Enable LLM fallback
ai_classification_llm_model	string	"phi3:mini"	Ollama model for fallback

Storage

SQLite Backend

Option	Type	Default	Description
storage.backend	string	"sqlite"	Storage backend type
storage.sqlite_db_path	string	"pkb_data.db"	Database file location
storage.enable_fts5	boolean	true	Enable full-text search
storage.enable_vector_search	boolean	true	Enable semantic search
storage.sqlite_cache_size	number	2000	SQLite cache pages
storage.sqlite_journal_mode	string	"WAL"	Journal mode
storage.sqlite_synchronous	string	"NORMAL"	Sync mode

Export

Option	Type	Default	Description
storage.export_enabled	boolean	false	Enable automatic exports
storage.export_path	string	"exports/"	Export directory
storage.export_frequency	string	"manual"	realtime, daily, manual

UI Settings

Capture Window

Option	Type	Default	Description
ui_enabled	boolean	true	Enable UI features
ui_hotkey_keys	array	["ctrl", "shift", "space"]	Capture window hotkey
ui_dashboard_hotkey_keys	array	["ctrl", "shift", "d"]	Dashboard hotkey
ui_window_width	number	600	Window width (pixels)
ui_window_height	number	80	Window height (pixels)
ui_window_alpha	number	0.95	Window transparency (0.0-1.0)
ui_animation_duration_ms	number	150	Animation speed

Launcher

Option	Type	Default	Description
launcher_show_developer_tools	boolean	false	Show dev tools in launcher

Search Settings

Hybrid Search

Option	Type	Default	Description
search.hybrid_weights	array	[0.3, 0.7]	[keyword, semantic] weights
search.rrf_k	number	50	Reciprocal Rank Fusion k
search.max_results	number	50	Max results per backend

Integrations

Ollama

Option	Type	Default	Description
integrations.ollama.config.base_url	string	"http://localhost:11434"	Ollama server URL
integrations.ollama.connected	boolean	false	Connection status

Notion

Option	Type	Default	Description
integrations.notion.connected	boolean	false	Connection status
integrations.notion.config.tasks_database_id	string	null	Tasks database ID
integrations.notion.config.notes_database_id	string	null	Notes database ID

OpenAI / Anthropic

API keys are stored encrypted in the config file. Set via environment variables or dashboard.

Security

Option	Type	Default	Description
security.max_text_length	number	10000	Max input text length
security.validate_inputs	boolean	true	Enable input validation
security.atomic_writes	boolean	true	Use atomic file writes

Environment Variables

All configuration options can be overridden with environment variables using the PKB_ prefix:

# Naming convention: PKB_<OPTION_NAME> (uppercase, underscores)
$env:PKB_LOG_LEVEL = "DEBUG"
$env:PKB_WATCHER_INTERVAL_SECONDS = "5"
$env:PKB_UI_HOTKEY_KEYS = "ctrl,alt,space"
$env:PKB_AI_CLASSIFICATION_TEMPERATURE = "0.1"

# Nested options use underscores
$env:PKB_STORAGE_SQLITE_DB_PATH = "custom.db"
$env:PKB_SEARCH_HYBRID_WEIGHTS = "0.4,0.6"

API Keys

$env:OPENAI_API_KEY = "sk-..."
$env:ANTHROPIC_API_KEY = "sk-ant-..."

Example Configurations

Minimal (Offline)

{
  "ai_classification_use_tinybert": true,
  "ai_classification_use_llm": false,
  "watcher_enabled_by_default": false,
  "enable_ai": true
}

Performance Optimized

{
  "ai_classification_use_tinybert": true,
  "storage": {
    "sqlite_cache_size": 10000,
    "sqlite_journal_mode": "WAL",
    "sqlite_synchronous": "NORMAL"
  },
  "search": {
    "hybrid_weights": [0.4, 0.6],
    "rrf_k": 30
  }
}

Always-On Background

{
  "watcher_enabled_by_default": true,
  "watcher_interval_seconds": 5,
  "watcher_cooldown_seconds": 180,
  "watcher_max_items": 3,
  "ui_enabled": true
}

Custom Hotkeys

{
  "ui_hotkey_keys": ["ctrl", "alt", "c"],
  "ui_dashboard_hotkey_keys": ["ctrl", "alt", "d"]
}

Large Database

{
  "storage": {
    "sqlite_cache_size": 20000,
    "sqlite_journal_mode": "WAL",
    "sqlite_synchronous": "NORMAL",
    "enable_fts5": true,
    "enable_vector_search": true
  },
  "search": {
    "max_results": 100
  }
}

Validation

Test your configuration:

# Show merged configuration
pkb --show-config

# Validate configuration file
pkb --validate-config

Hot Reloading

Most configuration changes take effect immediately. Some require restart:

• Hotkey changes
• Storage backend changes
• AI model path changes