Configure

Phonton reads ~/.phonton/config.toml. You can also set provider keys as environment variables.

Minimal config

[provider]
name = "deepseek"
model = "deepseek-v4-flash"

[budget]
max_tokens = 120000
max_usd_cents = 200

Never paste keys into the goal bar. Use config or env vars:

export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="your-key"
# or OpenAI-compatible providers:
export OPENAI_API_KEY="..."
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="..."

Windows PowerShell:

$env:DEEPSEEK_API_KEY = "your-key"

Set keys in the TUI with /settings or edit ~/.phonton/config.toml directly.

phonton doctor
phonton doctor --provider
phonton config show

[budget]
max_tokens = 120000
max_usd_cents = 200

[permissions]
mode = "ask"

Permission modes: ask, read-only, workspace-write, full-access. In the TUI: /permissions set read-only.

Default semantic search uses local HNSW — no extra setup.

For an existing Qdrant instance:

[index]
backend = "qdrant"
qdrant_url = "http://127.0.0.1:6333"
qdrant_collection = "phonton-code"

Desktop uses the same config via phonton serve. Keep CLI and Desktop on v0.21.0+ for compatible RPC.