Configuration

Configuration hierarchy, secrets management, and environment variables.

Overview

Tars uses a layered configuration system. Values are resolved in this priority order:

1. Environment variables (highest priority)
2. config.json settings
3. Built-in defaults (lowest priority)

Config File

Located at ~/.tars/config.json:

{
    "assistantName": "Tars",
    "discordToken": "...",
    "geminiModel": "auto",
    "heartbeatIntervalSec": 60
}

This file is created by tars setup and can be edited manually.

All Configuration Fields

Derived Paths

These are computed automatically from the home directory (~/.tars):

Secrets Management

Tars stores sensitive values in ~/.tars/.env with 0o600 file permissions (owner read/write only).

CLI Interface

# Store a secret
tars secret set GITHUB_TOKEN ghp_abc123

# List stored secret keys (values are never shown)
tars secret list

# Remove a secret
tars secret remove GITHUB_TOKEN

How Secrets Are Loaded

At startup, the Config constructor:

1. Instantiates SecretsManager with the home directory path
2. Reads all key-value pairs from ~/.tars/.env
3. Loads them into process.env so they’re available globally
4. The Gemini Engine (and integrated Core library) utilizes these environment variables

File Format

The .env file uses standard dotenv format:

GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_abc123"
DISCORD_TOKEN="MTI..."

Values with special characters are automatically escaped.

Singleton Pattern

Config uses a singleton pattern via Config.getInstance(). It’s instantiated once and shared across all services (Supervisor, HeartbeatService, DiscordBot, MemoryManager).