Config & Environment Reference

DO NOT EDIT — this file is auto-generated from the Council CLI’s Zod config schema by pnpm --filter @council-ai/site docs:generate:config. Run that command to regenerate it, and pnpm --filter @council-ai/site docs:check:config to verify it is in sync.

Every Council configuration key and environment variable, generated from the CLI’s own Zod config schema so this reference can never drift from the code.

Configuration keys

Settings live in ~/.council/config.yaml. All keys are optional and fall back to the defaults below. Use the dot-path with council config set <key> <value>.

defaults

Global defaults applied to every panel unless overridden per-panel or per-command.

Key	Type	Default	Description
defaults.model	string	claude-sonnet-4.5	Provider-agnostic model identifier used when a panel does not specify one.
defaults.engine	copilot | mock | openai | anthropic	copilot	Engine used when the —engine flag is not passed on the command line.
defaults.maxRounds	integer (1–20)	4	Maximum number of debate rounds per panel.
defaults.maxExperts	integer (2–8)	3	Maximum number of experts per panel.
defaults.maxWordsPerResponse	integer (50–2000)	250	Soft per-expert response cap, measured in words.

telemetry

Opt-in, anonymous usage telemetry.

Key	Type	Default	Description
telemetry.enabled	boolean	false	Enable anonymous usage telemetry (command names only, never panel content).

providers

Per-provider settings for engines that authenticate with a standalone API key. Only the NAME of the environment variable holding the key is stored here, never the key value itself.

Key	Type	Default	Description
providers.openai.apiKeyEnvVar	string	—	Name of the environment variable holding the OpenAI API key, never the key value itself.
providers.anthropic.apiKeyEnvVar	string	—	Name of the environment variable holding the Anthropic API key, never the key value itself.

expert

Expert-library settings governing document ingestion and memory decay.

Key	Type	Default	Description
expert.recencyHalfLifeDays	integer (1–365)	90	Number of days until an expert’s memory weights decay by half.
expert.supportedFormats	string[]	[".md",".txt",".html",".pdf",".csv",".tsv",".rtf",".docx",".pptx",".xlsx",".xls",".odt",".ods",".odp"]	File extensions eligible for expert document ingestion.

documents

Document-extraction settings, including the optional AI-extraction fallback and the file-size ceiling.

Key	Type	Default	Description
documents.aiExtraction	off | ask | auto	off	AI-based text-extraction fallback for unknown or unsupported file formats.
documents.aiExtractionAllowedExtensions	string[]	[]	Whitelist of extensions eligible for AI extraction; an empty list means every extension is eligible.
documents.maxFileSizeMB	number (1–500)	50	Maximum file size accepted by the document extractor, measured in megabytes.

chat

Chat-mode context management and summarization.

Key	Type	Default	Description
chat.recentTurnCount	integer (5–50)	10	Number of recent chat turns kept verbatim before summarization.
chat.summaryMaxWords	integer (100–2000)	500	Maximum length, in words, of the rolling chat-history summary.
chat.longConversationWarning	integer (50–10000)	500	Warn the user once a chat exceeds this many turns.

conclude

Synthesis settings for the council conclude command.

Key	Type	Default	Description
conclude.maxTranscriptChars	integer (1000–1000000)	50000	Character budget for transcript content in the synthesis prompt; older turns are dropped beyond it.

qualityGate

Anti-sycophancy quality gate governing whether expert responses that fail the heuristic quality check are flagged or regenerated before they enter the transcript.

Key	Type	Default	Description
qualityGate.mode	off | warn | regenerate	warn	Quality-gate behavior: off disables it, warn flags failing responses without regenerating, regenerate re-prompts them up to maxRegenerations (each re-prompt incurs an extra premium request).
qualityGate.maxRegenerations	integer (0–3)	1	Maximum regeneration attempts per response when mode is regenerate.

paths

User-facing data directory locations.

Key	Type	Default	Description
paths.dataHome	string	~/Council	Directory holding user-facing expert and panel YAML files.

Environment variables

Environment variables override configuration at runtime and tune rendering and integration behavior.

Variable	Purpose	Default
COUNCIL_HOME	Override the runtime directory that stores Council’s database, logs, and config.yaml. Used by —ephemeral mode and tests to isolate state.	~/.council/
COUNCIL_DATA_HOME	Override the data directory for expert and panel YAML files. Takes precedence over paths.dataHome.	~/Council/
NO_COLOR	Disable ANSI color output when set to any non-empty value (follows the NO_COLOR standard).	(unset)
COUNCIL_ASCII	Force an ASCII-only charset (set to 1), disabling Unicode box-drawing characters and emoji.	(unset)
COPILOT_CLI_PATH	Override the auto-detected path to the GitHub Copilot CLI loader.	auto-detected
TERM	Standard terminal type; the value dumb switches Council to ASCII-only, no-color output.	auto-detected
CI	When set to true or 1, forces non-interactive rendering with no prompts or spinners.	(unset)
ACCESSIBILITY	When set to 1, forces non-interactive, screen-reader-friendly rendering.	(unset)
VISUAL	Editor launched by council config edit and other edit commands; checked before EDITOR.	(unset)
EDITOR	Fallback editor launched by edit commands when VISUAL is unset.	(unset)

Related

• Configuration — narrative guide to editing config.yaml.
• Environment Variables — detailed environment-variable guide.
• Data Locations — directory structure and file locations.