config

tinystore config shows a config as the store keeps it and changes its live settings from a shell, with no SDK: turn a limit up while the program runs, or see why a setting has the value it has.

tinystore config ./data explain chat
tinystore config ./data update chat model.max_tokens=2048
tinystore config ./data reset chat model.max_tokens

#What the store knows

A store keeps two things of a config: the last declaration a program opened it with, and the changes made to its live settings since. The program's own files and environment it never sees, so config works with what the store knows:

• the declaration's defaults and rules;
• the changes, each with its version and time;
• a required setting, which the program gives from its files or environment, shown as such, without a value.

A config no program has opened in this store is refused: there is no declaration to read.

#Explain

tinystore config ./data explain chat

config chat · version 3
  model.max_tokens  2048     a change, version 3, 2026-10-26 14:03:05 UTC  over 1024 from the declaration
  model.name        "small"  the declaration
  model.window      30s      the declaration
  region: required, given by the program alone

• It reads beside the program or server that holds the directory.
• A secret shows as ***.
• --json gives {"name", "version", "settings": [{"path", "value", "from", "over"}], "notes"}.

#Update live settings

tinystore config ./data update chat model.max_tokens=2048
tinystore config ./data update chat limits.window=30s 'model.stop:=["\n"]'

updated config chat to version 4: model.max_tokens=2048

• path=value is read by the setting's kind, as an environment variable is: 2048 an integer, 30s a span, a,b a list. path:=json gives JSON as it is.
• Only a setting the declaration marks live changes, and its rules check the value. A setting that isn't live is refused, and so is a misspelt one, with its nearest:

tinystore config update: config chat: no setting model.max_tokns; did you mean model.max_tokens?

• It goes through the server that holds the directory, or a sidecar it starts, so every program holding the config takes the change at once, as config.update in a program does.

#Reset

tinystore config ./data reset chat model.max_tokens
tinystore config ./data reset chat

A setting it resets goes back to what each program's declaration, files and environment give. Without a path it drops every change of the config.

#See also

• config: declarations, layers, secrets and live settings from a program.