Configuration

Config file location

Cortask stores its data in ~/.cortask/ (or the path set by the CORTASK_DATA_DIR environment variable). The main config file is:

~/.cortask/config.yaml

YAML is the default format. JSON is also supported -- just name the file config.json instead.

Environment variable substitution

You can reference environment variables anywhere in the config file using ${VAR_NAME} syntax:

server:
  port: ${CORTASK_PORT}

If the variable is not set, it resolves to an empty string.

Config sections

providers

Choose the default LLM provider and optionally set a model override per provider.

providers:
  default: anthropic
  anthropic:
    model: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929
  openai:
    model: gpt-4o
  google:
    model: gemini-2.0-flash-exp

Supported providers: anthropic, openai, google, moonshot, grok, openrouter, minimax, ollama.

agent

Controls the agent runner behaviour.

agent:
  maxTurns: 25        # 1--200, default 25
  temperature: 0.7    # 0--2, default 0.7
  maxTokens: 4096     # optional, positive integer

server

server:
  port: 3777          # 1--65535, default 3777
  host: 127.0.0.1     # default 127.0.0.1

spending

Optional guardrails for token and cost usage.

spending:
  enabled: true
  maxTokens: 1000000
  maxCostUsd: 20.00
  period: monthly      # daily | weekly | monthly

memory

Configure the embedding backend for memory features.

memory:
  embeddingProvider: local   # local | openai | google | ollama
  embeddingModel: ""         # optional, provider-specific model name

skills

Add custom skill directories in addition to the built-in skills/ folder.

skills:
  dirs:
    - /home/me/my-skills

workspace

workspace:
  defaultDir: /home/me/projects

Credential store

API keys and other secrets are kept in an encrypted credential store at ~/.cortask/credentials.json, not in the config file.

Master key

On first run, Cortask generates a random master key at ~/.cortask/master.key (file permissions 0600). All credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a key derived from this master key via scrypt.

You can supply your own master key through the CORTASK_SECRET environment variable instead of using the generated file.

Setting provider API keys

The easiest way to add an API key is through the onboarding wizard in the UI. You can also use the CLI:

cortask config set-key anthropic sk-ant-...

Keys are stored under namespaced entries like provider.anthropic inside the encrypted store.