lingtai-ai Psyche settings reference
This page owns settings grammar and application details; the public settings
action remains SHOW-only.
Settings SHOW
psyche(action="settings", input={}, reasoning="inspect Psyche prompt configuration")
The result has exactly eight rows in this order: pad, pad_file,
base_prompt, base_prompt_file, covenant, covenant_file, comment,
comment_file. Every row has exactly key, current, default, configurable, and comment; both values are always <redacted>, including
empty/null defaults. It reports the last successfully applied reconstruction,
not ambient edits. All eight rows are configurable, but SHOW is not a content
comparison: even after a successful change it remains fully redacted. A failed
reconstruction preserves that snapshot; provider failure returns only the fixed
SETTINGS_UNAVAILABLE failure, never partial rows or parser details. The complete
SHOW response also has the generic 65,536-byte UTF-8 bound.
Owner document
settings/psyche.json is optional. If present, it is a stable-read UTF-8 JSON
object beginning {"schema_version": 1, ...} with only the six string fields
base_prompt, base_prompt_file, covenant, covenant_file, comment, and
comment_file. Duplicate/unknown keys, wrong versions/types, invalid
UTF-8/JSON, Boolean versions, symlinks/non-regular files, reads over 64 KiB, races, and I/O
failures reject the candidate before prompt publication. There is no environment
layer, mutation action, migration, or writeback.
For each pair, a readable *_file wins; a missing file falls back to inline.
~ expands and relative pointers resolve against the agent workdir. Edit this
owner with file.write/file.edit, then apply atomically with context.rebuild
(or refresh/molt), after explicit configuration authorization. Legacy top-level
init spellings for these six fields are inert; external writers must emit
this owner document. Before an authorized upgrade/reconstruction, preserve and
transfer any still-needed legacy values into it: the runtime never migrates them.
Base/covenant may fall back to existing mirrors, while comment has no mirror and
is removed when absent. Invalid owner input is rejected before refresh teardown;
failed final publication restores the prior prompt generation, mirrors and SHOW.
Pad seeds are different: top-level init.json pad/pad_file remain their owner;
they are not fields in settings/psyche.json (which rejects them). There is no
environment layer for them. Edit the authorized seed source or its referenced
file; full reconstruction resolves it again. To change a nonempty durable Pad,
edit system/pad.md instead—changing its configured seed will not overwrite it.
Setting pad
Configured initial Pad seed; default "". pad_file wins when readable,
otherwise inline pad; reconstruction seeds system/pad.md only when missing or
empty and never overwrites a nonempty durable Pad.
Setting pad file
Initial Pad pointer; default null, resolved against workdir. It is still only a
seed for a missing/empty Pad.
Setting base prompt
Optional third-party prompt body; default ""; nonempty content mirrors to
system/base_prompt.md.
Setting base prompt file
Optional pointer; default null; a readable file wins over inline.
Setting covenant
Optional protected operator contract; default ""; nonempty content mirrors to
system/covenant.md.
Setting covenant file
Optional pointer; default null; a readable file wins over inline.
Setting comment
Optional unprotected comment; default ""; unlike the other prompt bodies it has
no system/*.md mirror.
Setting comment file
Optional pointer; default null; a readable file wins over inline and remains
redacted.