Configuration

Configuration

All configuration funnels through resolveConfig() in src/lib/config.ts, which returns a ChronovaConfig:

interface ChronovaConfig {
  apiKey: string;
  apiUrl: string;
  port: number;
  configSource: "env" | "chronova.cfg" | "wakatime.cfg" | "none";
}

configSource records which source supplied the API key, used by startServer() to print a diagnostic to stderr (only when the source is not env, to avoid leaking).

Resolution order

Config is resolved first match wins, with apiKey as the gating value:

1. Environment variable CHRONOVA_API_KEY — if present, the entire config is built from env:
   • apiKey = CHRONOVA_API_KEY
   • apiUrl = CHRONOVA_API_URL ?? "https://chronova.dev/api/v1"
   • port = PORT ? Number(PORT) : 3001
   • configSource = "env"
2. ~/.chronova.cfg — INI-like file; if it has an api_key entry:
   • apiKey = chronovaCfg.api_key
   • apiUrl = CHRONOVA_API_URL env ?? chronovaCfg.api_url ?? default
   • port = PORT env ?? 3001
   • configSource = "chronova.cfg"
3. ~/.wakatime.cfg — same shape as above (WakaTime-compatible), configSource = "wakatime.cfg".
4. None — apiKey = "", configSource = "none". API requests will fail with 401.

Note: apiUrl and port can be overridden by env vars even when the key comes from a config file — env CHRONOVA_API_URL and PORT take precedence over the config-file api_url in the cfg branches.

Config file format

The parser in src/lib/config.ts reads any line matching key = value. Lines that are blank or start with [, #, or ; are ignored, so section headers have no semantic effect. The README and .env.example use a [settings] section; keys can live under it or at the top level:

[settings]
api_key = waka_your-api-key-here
api_url = https://chronova.dev/api/v1

CLI flags (HTTP entrypoint only)

src/index.ts parses a small flag set before calling startServer(). These override the equivalent env vars (they set process.env directly), so they win over config files too:

Flag	Effect
--port <number>	Sets PORT
--api-url <url>	Sets CHRONOVA_API_URL
--help	Prints help text and exits 0

Unknown flags exit 1 with the help text. --port/--api-url missing their value also exit 1.

The stdio entrypoint (src/stdio.ts) does not parse these flags — stdio clients pass config via env (typical for MCP client env blocks).

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
CHRONOVA_API_KEY	Yes*	—	Chronova API key (*or from a config file)
CHRONOVA_API_URL	No	https://chronova.dev/api/v1	Chronova API base URL
PORT	No	3001	HTTP listen port

.env.example ships with CHRONOVA_API_URL=https://chronova.dev/api/v1, matching the runtime default.

Testability

resolveConfig accepts an optional ResolveConfigOptions:

interface ResolveConfigOptions {
  readFile?: (path: string) => Record<string, string> | null;
  getHomeDir?: () => string;
  env?: NodeJS.ProcessEnv;
}

This lets tests inject a fake file reader, a fake home dir, and a fake process.env without touching the real filesystem — used by tests/integration/config.test.ts.