configuration

Configuration

This page lists every setting in Memo's config file and every environment variable Memo reads. Use it to look up a setting; you rarely need to edit the file by hand. memo folders add adds a folder and memo auto start turns the timer on for you. Edit the file yourself for files to skip, mail accounts and where exported notes go.

The file is ~/.config/cli-memo/config.json. It is a JSON file: keep the quotes, commas and braces as in the example.

{
  "notes": {
    "folders": [{ "id": "1", "path": "/path/to/vault", "format": "obsidian" }],
    "ignore": ["Journal/Private.md", "Archive", "**/Private*"],
    "embed": true,
    "export": { "dir": "/path/to/vault/memo", "format": "obsidian" }
  },
  "mail": {
    "accounts": [{ "name": "work", "address": "you@example.com" }],
    "max_body_chars": 1000000,
    "max_attachment_chars": 200000
  },
  "auto": { "enabled": true, "every": "5m" }
}

notes

Key	Meaning
folders	Your note folders. Each has the id the local store gave it, its path on this computer and its format: obsidian (the default) or markdown. memo folders add writes an entry; an entry with no id is refused by import. See Markdown or Obsidian.
ignore	Files and folders that import skips: a path inside the folder, a folder, or a pattern such as **/Private*. --ignore adds rules for one run.
embed	false keeps notes out of search by meaning.
export	dir and format for memo notes export and --export when you give no folder.

The folder id is the same on every computer; the path is different on each. See use the same notes on another computer.

mail

accounts lists the mail accounts to import. Each account has:

Key	Meaning
name	The account's name in Himalaya, and the name memo sync --account takes.
address	The email address.
mode	gmail (the default), imap, or mbox for a Google Takeout file.
path	For mbox: the Takeout file, such as ~/Takeout/Mail/All mail Including Spam and Trash.mbox.
folders	For imap: the mail folders to read, such as ["INBOX", "Archive"].
embed	false keeps this account's mail out of search by meaning.
rules	Read only to move them into the store: since 0.32.0 rules live there, managed by memo mail rules. See Mail.

Next to accounts:

Key	Meaning
max_body_chars	How many characters of each email are kept. Default 1,000,000.
max_attachment_chars	How many characters of each attachment's text are kept. Default 200,000.

Settings are named in snake_case; a camelCase name is refused.

See Mail.

auto

Key	Meaning
enabled	true when the import timer is on.
every	How often it runs: 90s, 5m, 1h; one minute or more.
places	The variables that move memo's folders and the store (MEMO_CONFIG_DIR, MESSAGING_STORE…), as they were at memo auto start; every timer run gets them.

memo auto start and memo auto stop write these. If you edit them by hand, the timer follows at its next run. See importing on a timer.

update_check

false stops the once-a-day check for a newer memo. MEMO_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 does the same for one shell.

Environment variables

Variable	Meaning
MEMO_CONFIG_DIR	The folder that holds config.json.
MEMO_STATE_DIR	Memo's state folder: what each folder looked like at the last import.
MEMO_MODELS_ANALYSIS_PROVIDER, MEMO_MODELS_ANALYSIS_MODEL	The AI provider and the model identifier (the name the provider uses for it) that memo ask --analyze calls.
MEMO_MODELS_ANALYSIS_BASE_URL	Optional: the provider's address.
MEMO_MODEL_API_KEY	The provider's key.

Memo calls a provider outside your computer only when memo ask has both --analyze and --allow-remote. See give your agent the sources.