Configuration¶

summon-claude is configured entirely through environment variables with the SUMMON_ prefix. You can set them in a config file, a .env file in your working directory, or directly in your shell environment.

Config file location¶

summon follows the XDG Base Directory spec:

Variable	Config path
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME` set	`$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/summon/config.env`
Default	`~/.config/summon/config.env`
Fallback (if `~/.config` missing)	`~/.summon/config.env`

Data (database, logs) follows the same pattern under XDG_DATA_HOME / ~/.local/share/summon.

Use summon config path to print the exact config file path in use.

Loading priority¶

Settings are resolved in this order (later overrides earlier):

Config file (~/.config/summon/config.env or XDG override)
.env file in the current working directory
Shell environment variables

The --config PATH flag on the summon command overrides the config file path.

Initial setup¶

Use the interactive setup wizard to create your configuration:

summon init

See Configuring Summon for the full wizard walkthrough and credential setup details.

The three required Slack credentials are covered in Slack Setup.

Configuration options¶

For the complete list of all configuration options with config keys, environment variables, types, defaults, and descriptions, see the Configuration Reference.

Config subcommands¶

summon config show¶

summon config show

Displays all configuration options organized by section (Slack Credentials, Session Defaults, Scribe, Scribe Google, Scribe Slack, Global PM, Display, Behavior, Thinking, Auto Mode). Each option shows a source indicator:

(set) — explicitly configured in the config file
(default) — using the built-in default value
(not set) — a required value that is missing
(optional) — an optional secret that has not been configured

Disabled sections (e.g., Scribe Google when scribe_google_enabled is false) are shown dimmed with a "disabled" label.

  Slack Credentials
    SUMMON_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN                   configured                     (set)
    SUMMON_SLACK_APP_TOKEN                   configured                     (set)
    SUMMON_SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET              configured                     (set)

  Session Defaults
    SUMMON_DEFAULT_MODEL                     claude-opus-4-6                (set)
    SUMMON_DEFAULT_EFFORT                    high                           (default)
    SUMMON_CHANNEL_PREFIX                    summon                         (default)

  Scribe: disabled

  GitHub
    GitHub: configured (OAuth)

summon config path¶

summon config path

Prints the absolute path to the config file in use.

summon config set¶

summon config set SUMMON_DEFAULT_MODEL claude-opus-4-6
summon config set SUMMON_CHANNEL_PREFIX my-team
summon config set SUMMON_SCRIBE_ENABLED true

Sets a single key in the config file. Creates the file if it does not exist. The key must be a valid SUMMON_* configuration variable — unknown keys are rejected with an error listing all valid options.

Boolean values are normalized: true, false, yes, no, on, off, 1, and 0 are all accepted and stored as true or false. Choice-type options (like SUMMON_DEFAULT_EFFORT) are validated against their allowed values.

summon config edit¶

summon config edit

Opens the config file in $EDITOR. If $EDITOR is not set, falls back to vi.

summon config check¶

summon config check

Validates configuration and tests connectivity. See Configuring Summon for detailed output interpretation.

For external Slack workspace commands (browser-based monitoring), see Scribe.

Example config file¶

# ~/.config/summon/config.env

# Required: Slack credentials
SUMMON_SLACK_BOT_TOKEN=xoxb-your-bot-token
SUMMON_SLACK_APP_TOKEN=xapp-your-app-token
SUMMON_SLACK_SIGNING_SECRET=your-signing-secret

# Optional: model and behavior
SUMMON_DEFAULT_MODEL=claude-opus-4-6
SUMMON_DEFAULT_EFFORT=high
SUMMON_CHANNEL_PREFIX=ai

# Optional: disable update checks
# SUMMON_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=true

Secret management

The config file is created with 0600 permissions by summon init. For team environments or CI, prefer injecting secrets via environment variables rather than committing a config file.