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

File	Purpose
`.coraline/config.toml`	User-editable configuration (all settings)
`.coraline/coraline.db`	SQLite knowledge graph (do not edit)
`.coraline/memories/`	Project memory files (Markdown)
`.coraline/logs/`	Daily-rotating log files

Migration from v0.3.x or earlier: If you have a legacy config.json file, run coraline config --migrate to convert it to config.toml. The old file will be backed up as config.json.backup.

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

[vectors]
enabled    = false                  # Requires ONNX model (see below)
model      = "nomic-embed-text-v1.5" # or "jina-embeddings-v2-base-code"
dimension  = 768
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

`[vectors]` Section

Controls vector embedding generation for semantic search (coraline embed, the coraline_semantic_search MCP tool). Requires a build with the embeddings or embeddings-dynamic feature.

`enabled`

Enable vector embedding generation.

Type: boolean
Default: false

`model`

Which embedding model to use. Run coraline model list to see every supported model with its dimension and description.

Type: string
Default: "nomic-embed-text-v1.5" — general-purpose English text embeddings.
Also supported: "jina-embeddings-v2-base-code" — code-specialised embeddings, opt-in.

Model files live in a shared directory (~/.config/coraline/models/<model>/, or model_dir below), not per-project — every project on the machine reuses the same downloaded weights for a given model. Run coraline model download (add --model <name> to target a non-default model) to fetch it.

Switching models: changing model on a project that already has embeddings does not retroactively re-embed existing nodes. Every read path (coraline_semantic_search, coraline doctor’s coverage probe, staleness checks) filters by the configured model, so a switch makes every node look unembedded for the new model until you re-run coraline embed. This is a real (if usually quick) re-embedding pass, not instant.

`dimension`

Embedding vector dimension. Must match the selected model — both currently supported models emit 768-dim vectors.

Type: integer
Default: 768

`batch_size`

Number of symbols embedded per batch.

Type: integer
Default: 32

`model_dir`

Override the on-disk model directory. Unset by default — Coraline resolves it from model (~/.config/coraline/models/<model>/).

Type: string (path), optional

`model_file`

Pin a specific ONNX filename instead of auto-detecting the best available variant for the configured model.

Type: string, optional

`max_seq_len`

Maximum sequence length in tokens fed to the model.

Type: integer
Default: 512

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.

Migrate from legacy config.json:

coraline config --migrate

This converts an old config.json file to the new config.toml format and backs up the original as config.json.backup.

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

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