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 tune # interactive editor
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.
