Configuration Reference¶

Vandelay stores its configuration in ~/.vandelay/config.json. Settings are loaded with the following priority (highest wins):

1. Environment variables (VANDELAY_ prefix)
2. .env file (~/.vandelay/.env)
3. config.json (~/.vandelay/config.json)
4. Defaults (defined in code)

Generate a default config interactively:

vandelay onboard

Top-Level Settings¶

model¶

LLM provider and model selection.

safety¶

Shell command safety guardrails.

channels¶

Messaging channel configuration.

heartbeat¶

Proactive wake / heartbeat settings.

server¶

HTTP server (FastAPI) settings.

knowledge¶

Knowledge / RAG settings.

Anthropic has no embedding API. When using Anthropic as the model provider, the embedder auto-falls back to fastembed (local, no API key needed).

google¶

Google services settings.

team¶

Agent team (supervisor mode) settings.

Named preset¶

One string shortcut is supported:

MemberConfig schema¶

For full control, use objects instead of strings:

{
  "name": "my-specialist",
  "role": "Description of what this member does",
  "tools": ["shell", "file", "python"],
  "model_provider": "",
  "model_id": "",
  "instructions": ["Extra inline instructions"],
  "instructions_file": "my-specialist.md"
}

Template bootstrap¶

Members whose names match a starter template (e.g. vandelay-expert, cto, devops) automatically have their template .md copied to ~/.vandelay/members/ on first use. This gives the member rich persona instructions out of the box. The file is yours to edit afterward.

deep_work¶

Autonomous background execution settings.

Environment Variables¶

Secret values should be stored in ~/.vandelay/.env, not in config.json. Vandelay automatically migrates any secrets found in config.json to .env on startup.

All VANDELAY_* variables override the corresponding settings from config.json.

Example Configs¶

Minimal¶

{
  "agent_name": "Art",
  "user_id": "you@example.com",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "enabled_tools": ["shell", "file", "python", "tavily", "camoufox"],
  "model": {
    "provider": "anthropic",
    "model_id": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
  },
  "team": {
    "enabled": true,
    "members": ["vandelay-expert"]
  }
}

Full¶

{
  "agent_name": "Art",
  "user_id": "you@example.com",
  "timezone": "Europe/London",
  "enabled_tools": ["shell", "file", "python", "tavily", "gmail", "googlecalendar", "camoufox"],
  "model": {
    "provider": "anthropic",
    "model_id": "claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929"
  },
  "safety": {
    "mode": "tiered"
  },
  "channels": {
    "telegram_enabled": true,
    "telegram_chat_id": "123456789"
  },
  "heartbeat": {
    "enabled": true,
    "interval_minutes": 60,
    "active_hours_start": 9,
    "active_hours_end": 21,
    "timezone": "Europe/London"
  },
  "team": {
    "enabled": true,
    "members": [
      "vandelay-expert",
      "browser",
      "system",
      {
        "name": "my-researcher",
        "role": "Deep research specialist",
        "tools": ["tavily", "crawl4ai"],
        "instructions_file": "my-researcher.md"
      }
    ]
  }
}