Configuration

PMB works well with no configuration. Every setting has a sensible, ablation tuned default. This page lists the knobs you are most likely to touch. For the full set, including the advanced "pro" knobs, run pmb config list --pro.

How configuration works

Settings resolve in this order, first match wins:

1. a per call override (passed in code or by a tool),
2. the workspace config (~/.pmb/workspaces/<name>/config.yaml),
3. the global config (~/.pmb/config.yaml),
4. the built in schema default.

View and change settings:

pmb config list             # the common keys, with value, source, and default
pmb config list --pro       # everything, including advanced knobs
pmb config get <key>        # one value
pmb config set <key> <value>   # write to the global config
pmb tune                    # interactive editor for all settings

A value set globally applies to every workspace, which is what the daemon and each agent read.

Memory model

Key	Default	What it does
embedding.model	multilingual MiniLM	the embedder that turns text into vectors. Change it with pmb model, which also re-embeds your memory.
embedding.backend	sentence-transformers	the embedding backend.

Switching the model by hand needs a reindex, so prefer pmb model <light\|balanced\|best>, which downloads, re-embeds, and restarts the daemon in one step.

Recall quality

Key	Default	What it does
recall.top_k	5	how many results recall returns by default.
recall.bm25_weight	0.7	balance between the lexical and the semantic channel.
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 (for example 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.
recall.crosslingual_bm25_damp	0.3 (pro)	down weight the lexical channel when the query words are out of vocabulary, so cross language queries are decided by meaning.

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	the size cap on the injected block.

The precision gates that keep the read path quiet (an absolute evidence floor, a specificity check, a conversational filter) are pro knobs under auto_recall.*. The defaults are tuned, so you rarely need to touch them.

Shared daemon and connect

Key	Default	What it does
connect.default_daemon	true	pmb connect and pmb setup point JSON hosts at the one shared daemon instead of a per client server.
daemon.autostart	true	when a cold hook runs and no daemon is live, start one in the background for the next message.
daemon.idle_exit_min	120	exit after this many idle minutes so a forgotten daemon does not hold memory forever. 0 means never. Connecting pins this to 0 so the connection stays warm.
daemon.tool_profile	(set by connect)	the MCP tool profile the daemon serves: minimal, lean, default, or full.

Ambient auto write

Key	Default	What it does
autowrite.enabled	true	journal a turn the agent did not record itself.
autowrite.min_importance	0.45	the quality bar a turn must clear to be journaled.
autowrite.synthesizer	template	how the entry is written. template needs no model; set an LLM backend for richer summaries.

Agent logging (active mode)

Key	Default	What it does
agent.active_mode	false	install proactive logging rules by default (the agent records its own decisions and lessons). Turned on by pmb setup --active.
agent.log_decisions / log_completed / log_lessons / log_failures / log_goals	true	which categories the agent logs in active mode.
agent.apply_lessons	true	the self improvement loop: recall lessons at the start of a task and follow them.
agent.context_continuity	true	re-orient after a long session with session_brief.

Background brain and maintenance

Key	Default	What it does
consolidate.auto_trigger	false	run sleep stage consolidation automatically.
consolidate.backend	auto (pro)	the offline LLM tier: auto, claude, ollama, or anthropic. Background only, never on the read path.
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 for the graph.

See everything

pmb config list --pro

There are around 150 advanced knobs. They are advanced on purpose: the defaults are tuned, and a blocking eval gate protects recall quality, so changing them is opt in and rarely needed.