Configuration

Per-vault settings live in <vault>/config.yml. The file is created with sensible defaults by parc init. Every field is optional.

# Default config

# user: alice            # used in created_by field; defaults to system user
# editor: vim            # defaults to $EDITOR
default_tags: []         # auto-applied to new fragments
date_format: relative    # relative | iso | short
id_display_length: 8     # ULID chars shown in listings
color: auto              # auto | always | never

aliases:
  n: note
  t: todo
  d: decision
  r: risk
  i: idea

server:
  transport: stdio       # stdio | socket
  # socket_path: null    # defaults to <vault>/server.sock

resurfacing:
  stale_days: 30           # cutoff for `parc stale` (and the stale section in `parc review`)
  review_window: this-week # default --since window for `parc review`
  today_section_limit: 10  # max rows per section in `parc today`

plugins:                 # per-plugin configuration, passed at init
  # my-plugin:
  #   setting: value

# Field reference

# user

String. Used in the created_by field on new fragments. If unset, parc falls back to $USER (or $USERNAME on Windows). Set this when you want fragments to attribute to a name that differs from your system login — useful in shared vaults.

# editor

String. Path to the editor parc invokes for parc new (without an inline title) and parc edit. If unset, parc reads $EDITOR, then $VISUAL, then falls back to nano on Unix and notepad on Windows.

# default_tags

List of strings. Tags automatically added to every new fragment created in this vault. Useful for tagging an entire local vault by project: default_tags: [api] will add #api to every fragment automatically.

# date_format

How parc renders dates in human output:

Machine output (--json) always uses ISO 8601 regardless of this setting.

# id_display_length

Integer. How many characters of the ULID to show in listings. Default 8. Smaller is more readable, larger reduces ambiguity in vaults with many fragments. Internally parc always works with full IDs.

# color

auto (default) detects whether stdout is a TTY and respects NO_COLOR and --no-color. always forces colour even when piped. never disables colour entirely.

# aliases

A map from short name → type. The defaults give you n / t / d / r / i for the five built-ins. Add your own:

aliases:
  m: meeting
  b: bookmark
  q: question

After this, parc m "1:1 with carla" is equivalent to parc new meeting "1:1 with carla".

# server

JSON-RPC server defaults. See JSON-RPC server.

server:
  transport: socket
  socket_path: /tmp/parc.sock

# resurfacing

Defaults for the resurfacing commands (CLI reference).

resurfacing:
  stale_days: 14
  review_window: 14-days-ago
  today_section_limit: 5

# plugins

Per-plugin configuration, keyed by plugin name. parc passes the matching subtree to each plugin's init callback at load time. The shape is plugin-specific — see each plugin's manifest.

# Environment variables

These take precedence over config.yml for the duration of a single command.

parc update check is the only built-in CLI command that makes a network request; it queries the latest GitHub release when run explicitly.

# Schema overrides

You can also override the built-in schemas by dropping a file with the same name in <vault>/schemas/. parc resolves schemas with vault-local overrides taking precedence over built-ins. Use this carefully — fragments created with one schema and read against another can fail validation.