Configuration Manager

The mycroft-config utility simplifies management of the the various configuration files that control Mycroft. Commands include: edit, show, get, set, reload.

About Mycroft Configurations

Mycroft configurations are stored in mycroft.conf files. These exist in four locations:

  • Default - mycroft-core/mycroft/configuration/mycroft.conf

  • Remote - Home.Mycroft.ai

  • System - /etc/mycroft/mycroft.conf

  • User - $HOME/.mycroft/mycroft.conf

When the configuration loader starts, it looks in these locations in this order, and loads all configurations. Keys that exist in multiple configuration files will be overridden by the last file to contain the value.

For example, if your account settings at Home.Mycroft.ai set the date_format variable to MDY, but the User configuration file on your device contains a date_format value of DMY, the loaded configuration will be DMY and dates will be provided in the format "29-11-2018".

This process results in a minimal amount being written for a specific device and user, without modifying default distribution files.

Why a configuration manager?

When directly editing configuration files it is very easy for even the most careful person to make a minor syntax error. In the past, this has been an extremely common cause of problems. A small error such as a comma in the wrong place breaks your configuration and results in "Mycroft not working".

We strongly recommend that you use the configuration manager rather than directly editing mycroft.conf files.

Available commands

Get a configuration value

mycroft-config get <var>

To display the requested value, this command first loads the mycroft.conf stack, then outputs the effective value(s).

The variable is specified using jq-style specifiers. For example:

Display a specific value mycroft-config get location.timezone.code

Display all values in the location block mycroft-config get location

Display all loaded configuration values mycroft-config get

Set a configuration value

mycroft-config set <var> <value>

Set the given variable in the User configuration file. For example:

Set language to es-es" mycroft-config set lang "es-es"

Set the Mimic1 voice to "Alan Pope" aka British Male mycroft-config set tts.mimic.voice "ap"

Edit a configuration file

mycroft-config edit (default|remote|system|user)

Open the requested file in an editor (nano by default), performing JSON validation warnings to minimize accidental edit errors.

Show the contents of a configuration file

mycroft-config show (default|remote|system|user)

Display the contents of the selected configuration file.

Reload configuration values

mycroft-config reload

Sends a signal on the messagebus telling services to reload the configuration. This automatically occurs after a set or edit command.

Further information

For more information on the configuration options available, continue to the mycroft.conf documentation.

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