Configuration

How configuration works

Settings resolve in this order, first match wins:

a per-call override,
the workspace config (~/.pmb/workspaces/<name>/config.yaml),
the global config (~/.pmb/config.yaml),
the built-in schema default.

pmb config list             # common keys: value, source, default
pmb config list --pro       # everything, including advanced knobs
pmb config get <key>
pmb config set <key> <value>
pmb config set <key> <val>  # or the dashboard Settings tab

Recall quality

Key	Default	What it does
`recall.top_k`	`5`	How many results recall returns.
`recall.bm25_weight`	`0.7`	Lexical vs semantic balance (1.0 = pure BM25).
`recall.recency_half_life_days`	`30`	How fast a memory’s recency boost decays.
`recall.keyed_fact_boost`	`0.35`	Extra weight for current keyed facts (e.g. your city).
`recall.ppr_enabled`	`true`	Use the entity graph to spread relevance to related memory.
`recall.rerank`	`false`	Run a slower cross-encoder reranker on results.

The read hook (auto-recall)

Key	Default	What it does
`auto_recall.enabled`	`true`	Inject relevant memory before the model thinks.
`auto_recall.budget_chars`	`4000`	Size cap on the injected block.
`auto_recall.correction_capture`	`true`	On pushback, record a DRAFT lesson on the first complaint.
`auto_recall.repeat_guard`	`true`	Surface an existing rule LOUD when a message strongly overlaps it.

Daemon & connect

Key	Default	What it does
`connect.default_daemon`	`true`	Point JSON hosts at the one shared daemon.
`daemon.autostart`	`true`	Start a daemon in the background when a cold hook runs.
`daemon.idle_exit_min`	`120`	Exit after N idle minutes (connecting pins this to 0).
`daemon.tool_profile`	(set by connect)	MCP tool profile: minimal / lean / default / full.

Ambient auto-write

Key	Default	What it does
`autowrite.enabled`	`true`	Journal a turn the agent didn’t record itself.
`autowrite.min_importance`	`0.45`	Quality bar a turn must clear to be journaled.
`autowrite.synthesizer`	`template`	`template` needs no model; an LLM backend gives richer summaries.

Agent logging (active mode)

Key	Default	What it does
`agent.active_mode`	`false`	Install proactive-logging rules by default.
`agent.apply_lessons`	`true`	The self-improvement loop: recall + follow lessons before a task.
`agent.context_continuity`	`true`	Re-orient after a long session with `session_brief`.

Background brain & maintenance

Key	Default	What it does
`consolidate.auto_trigger`	`false`	Run sleep-stage consolidation automatically.
`decay.factor_per_day`	`0.985`	The forgetting curve applied by `pmb decay`.
`dedup.enable`	`true`	Deduplicate near-identical memories.
`graph.extractor`	`regex`	How entities are pulled from text (`regex` / `spacy` / `llm:*`).
`embedding.model`	multilingual MiniLM	The embedder. Change with `pmb model` (re-embeds for you).

There are ~150 advanced “pro” knobs (pmb config list --pro). They’re advanced on purpose - defaults are ablation-tuned and a blocking CI gate protects recall quality, so changing them is opt-in and rarely needed.

Get started

Guides

Concepts

CLI reference

MCP & agents

Contributing

Configuration

How configuration works

Recall quality

The read hook (auto-recall)

Daemon & connect

Ambient auto-write

Agent logging (active mode)

Background brain & maintenance

​How configuration works

​Recall quality

​The read hook (auto-recall)

​Daemon & connect

​Ambient auto-write

​Agent logging (active mode)

​Background brain & maintenance

How configuration works

Recall quality

The read hook (auto-recall)

Daemon & connect

Ambient auto-write

Agent logging (active mode)

Background brain & maintenance