Configuration

Coraline Configuration Reference

Coraline stores its configuration in .coraline/config.toml within each project. All settings are optional — a missing or empty file uses sensible defaults.

File Locations

Full Default Configuration

# Coraline project configuration
# All settings are optional — defaults are shown below.

[indexing]
max_file_size = 1048576   # 1 MB — skip files larger than this
batch_size    = 100       # Files processed per batch
include_patterns = [
  "**/*.rs", "**/*.ts", "**/*.tsx", "**/*.js", "**/*.jsx",
  "**/*.py", "**/*.go", "**/*.java", "**/*.cs", "**/*.cpp",
  "**/*.c", "**/*.h", "**/*.rb", "**/*.php", "**/*.swift",
  "**/*.kt", "**/*.razor",
]
exclude_patterns = [
  "**/.git/**", "**/target/**", "**/node_modules/**",
  "**/dist/**", "**/build/**", "**/.coraline/**",
]

[context]
max_nodes          = 20    # Max graph nodes in context output
max_code_blocks    = 5     # Max code snippets to attach
max_code_block_size = 1500 # Max chars per code block
traversal_depth    = 1     # Graph hops from entry nodes

[sync]
git_hooks_enabled        = true   # Auto-sync on git commit
watch_mode               = false  # Watch for file changes (not yet implemented)
debounce_ms              = 500    # Watch mode debounce delay
auto_sync_interval_secs  = 120    # MCP background sync interval (0 = disabled)

[vectors]
enabled    = false                  # Requires ONNX model (see below)
model      = "nomic-embed-text-v1.5"
dimension  = 384
batch_size = 32

[indexing] Section

Controls which files are indexed and how.

max_file_size

Files larger than this are skipped during indexing.

• Type: integer (bytes)
• Default: 1048576 (1 MB)

[indexing]
max_file_size = 524288   # 512 KB

batch_size

Number of files processed per indexing batch.

• Type: integer
• Default: 100

include_patterns

Glob patterns for files to include. Uses ** for recursive matching.

• Type: array of strings
• Default: Common source file extensions for 18+ languages

[indexing]
include_patterns = [
  "**/*.rs",
  "**/*.ts",
  "**/*.tsx",
  "src/**/*.js",
]

exclude_patterns

Glob patterns for paths to exclude. Matched against the full relative file path.

• Type: array of strings
• Default: Build artifacts, package caches, generated files, IDE directories

[indexing]
exclude_patterns = [
  "**/.git/**",
  "**/node_modules/**",
  "**/target/**",
  "**/dist/**",
  "tests/fixtures/**",  # custom exclusion
]

Tip: The default exclusion list is extensive. You typically only need to add project-specific paths.

Python virtualenvs: The defaults cover .venv/, venv/, env/, and named venvs matching *_venv/ or *-venv/ (e.g. cluster_venv/, memory_venv/). If you use a different naming convention, add it explicitly:

exclude_patterns = ["**/my_custom_env/**"]

[context] Section

Controls the output of coraline context (CLI) and coraline_context (MCP).

max_nodes

Maximum number of graph nodes to include in a context response.

• Type: integer
• Default: 20

max_code_blocks

Maximum number of source code snippets to attach.

• Type: integer
• Default: 5

max_code_block_size

Maximum characters per code block. Larger bodies are truncated.

• Type: integer
• Default: 1500

traversal_depth

How many graph hops to follow from the initial matching nodes.

• Type: integer
• Default: 1

[context]
max_nodes          = 40
max_code_blocks    = 10
max_code_block_size = 2000
traversal_depth    = 2

[sync] Section

Controls incremental sync behavior and git hook integration.

git_hooks_enabled

Whether coraline init installs a post-commit hook that automatically runs coraline sync after each commit.

• Type: boolean
• Default: true

Note: This only determines whether coraline init auto-installs the hook. To manage the hook manually, use coraline hooks install|remove|status.

watch_mode

Enable file-system watch mode (re-index on changes). Not yet implemented.

• Type: boolean
• Default: false

debounce_ms

Debounce delay for watch mode in milliseconds.

• Type: integer
• Default: 500

auto_sync_interval_secs

Interval in seconds for the MCP server's background auto-sync thread. The thread periodically checks whether the index is stale and performs an incremental sync when files have changed. When embeddings are enabled and an ONNX model is present, newly-added nodes are automatically embedded after each sync.

• Type: integer (seconds)
• Default: 120 (2 minutes)
• Set to 0 to disable background auto-sync entirely.

[sync]
auto_sync_interval_secs = 60   # check every minute

Note: The first check is delayed by the configured interval to avoid racing with any initial indexing that may still be in progress when the MCP server starts.

[vectors] Section

Controls vector embedding generation for semantic search.

Status: Infrastructure is in place. Full semantic search with ONNX model embeddings is pending availability of a stable ort 2.0 API. Setting enabled = true currently has no effect.

enabled

Enable vector embedding generation.

• Type: boolean
• Default: false

model

Embedding model identifier.

• Type: string
• Default: "nomic-embed-text-v1.5"

dimension

Embedding vector dimension. Must match the selected model.

• Type: integer
• Default: 384

batch_size

Number of symbols embedded per batch.

• Type: integer
• Default: 32

CLI Configuration Commands

Read the full config:

coraline config

Read a specific section:

coraline config --section context
coraline config --section indexing

Output as JSON:

coraline config --json

Update a value:

coraline config --set context.max_nodes=30
coraline config --set indexing.batch_size=50
coraline config --set indexing.max_file_size=524288
coraline config --set vectors.enabled=true

The --set flag accepts section.key=value syntax. Values are parsed as JSON when possible (for booleans, numbers, and arrays), otherwise treated as strings.

MCP Configuration Tools

The same operations are available via MCP:

coraline_get_config          → returns full config as JSON
coraline_update_config       → updates a single key
  key: "context.max_nodes"
  value: 30

Example: Focused TypeScript Project

[indexing]
include_patterns = [
  "src/**/*.ts",
  "src/**/*.tsx",
  "tests/**/*.ts",
]
exclude_patterns = [
  "**/node_modules/**",
  "**/dist/**",
  "**/.next/**",
  "src/**/*.d.ts",
]

[context]
max_nodes = 30
max_code_blocks = 8
traversal_depth = 2

Example: Large Rust Workspace

[indexing]
max_file_size = 2097152   # 2 MB for generated code
batch_size = 200
include_patterns = [
  "crates/**/*.rs",
]
exclude_patterns = [
  "**/target/**",
  "**/.git/**",
]

[context]
max_nodes = 50
traversal_depth = 3