Configuration

Cerebro reads a config.toml file. The CLI and TUI use the XDG default ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cerebro/config.toml, or ~/.config/cerebro/config.toml if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset — same on every platform). The MCP server uses CORTEX_PATH to locate the cortex data directory (falls back to ~/Projects/cortex).

Where the config is loaded from

Priority:

--config <path> CLI flag (explicit override)
XDG config dir ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cerebro/config.toml, falling back to $HOME/.config/cerebro/config.toml) — the default
CORTEX_PATH env var (legacy fallback for users who colocate config with their cortex data dir)
./config.toml in the current working directory (last-resort fallback)

Example Configuration

[settings]
opencode_db_path = "~/.local/share/opencode/opencode.db"
pi_sessions_path = "~/.pi/agent/sessions"
output_dir = "./content"

[[projects]]
name = "my-project"
repo_path = "~/Projects/my-project"
active = true

Settings

Setting	Required	Description	Default
`output_dir`	No	Where to write the generated dashboard	`./content`
`opencode_db_path`	No	Path to OpenCode’s session database. Only needed if you want OpenCode session history.	None
`pi_sessions_path`	No	Path to Pi’s sessions directory. Only needed if you want Pi session history.	None

Project Configuration

Define each project with:

Setting	Description	Required
`name`	Project name	Yes
`repo_path`	Path to git repository	Yes
`active`	Include in dashboard generation	Yes

Manual notes

Manual notes aren’t configured per-project. They live directly in your cortex:

Path	Purpose	Edited by
`content/intent/`	Goals for daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly periods	Human only
`content/notes/`	Evergreen notes and documentation	Human only
`content/SUMMARY.md`	Navigation structure	Human only

An AGENTS.md file in your cortex defines the boundary between auto-generated and manual content. Cerebro only writes to content/index.md, content/projects/, content/journal/, content/today.md, and content/this-week.md.