Configuration

Configuration

This page lists every config file key CRIEW currently accepts, how defaults and fallbacks are resolved, and which minimal settings fit the common lore, IMAP, reply, and code-browser workflows.

Default paths

• Preferred config file: ~/.criew/criew-config.toml
• On first run, CRIEW writes a minimal file there if neither ~/.criew/criew-config.toml nor the older ~/.criew/config.toml exists.
• Normal runtime root: ~/.criew/
• Relative paths in the config file resolve from the config file directory, not from the shell's current working directory.
• CRIEW creates missing runtime directories on startup.

Start with one of these

Lore only

Use this when you only sync lore mailboxes:

[source]
mailbox = "io-uring"

Run:

criew sync
criew tui

IMAP plus reply plus code browser

Use this when you want My Inbox, reply sending, and a local kernel tree:

[source]
mailbox = "io-uring"

[imap]
email = "you@example.com"
user = "you@example.com"
pass = "app-password"
server = "imap.example.com"
serverport = 993
encryption = "ssl"

[kernel]
tree = "/path/to/linux"

Run:

criew doctor
criew sync --mailbox INBOX
criew tui

Resolution rules

• Omitted storage paths are derived from storage.data_dir.
• b4.path wins over every fallback. If it is unset, CRIEW tries CRIEW_B4_PATH, ./vendor/b4/b4.sh, the embedded runtime copy under <data_dir>/vendor/b4/b4.sh, and then b4 in PATH.
• imap.user falls back to imap.email.
• imap.proxy falls back to CRIEW_IMAP_PROXY, ALL_PROXY, all_proxy, HTTPS_PROXY, https_proxy, HTTP_PROXY, and http_proxy, in that order.
• imap.mailbox is still accepted as a historical alias for source.mailbox, but new config should use source.mailbox.
• When IMAP config is complete, CRIEW can use INBOX as the default active mailbox. Without complete IMAP config, CRIEW falls back to source.mailbox.
• ui.keymap = "custom" currently changes only the displayed scheme label. Navigation still follows the default layout.
• kernel.tree is loaded first. Entries from kernel.trees are appended after it, and duplicate resolved paths are removed.

Full config reference

[storage]

• storage.data_dir: Optional path. Default is ~/.criew/. This is the runtime root used by the derived defaults for the database, raw mail cache, patch output, logs, and embedded vendor assets.
• storage.database: Optional path. Default is <data_dir>/db/criew.db. This SQLite database stores synced mail, threads, patch metadata, and reply send state.
• storage.raw_mail_dir: Optional path. Default is <data_dir>/mail/raw. CRIEW stores raw .eml files here for preview rendering, reply draft seeding, and fallback recovery when parsed state is incomplete.
• storage.patch_dir: Optional path. Default is <data_dir>/patches. b4 downloads and patch workflow output are written here.

[logging]

• logging.dir: Optional path. Default is <data_dir>/logs. CRIEW writes criew.log and error.log here.
• logging.filter: Optional string. Default is info. CRIEW passes this to tracing's filter parser. Simple values such as trace, debug, info, warn, and error are the safest choices.

[b4]

• b4.path: Optional path. Use this when you want CRIEW to call one specific b4 binary or wrapper instead of the normal fallback chain.

[source]

• source.mailbox: Optional string. Default is linux-kernel. This is the lore mailbox used by criew sync when you do not pass --mailbox. It is also the fallback active mailbox when IMAP is not fully configured.
• source.lore_base_url: Optional string. Default is https://lore.kernel.org. Use this only when you need a different lore base URL.

[imap]

This section is optional unless you want real IMAP INBOX sync. CRIEW treats the IMAP config as complete only when the login identity, password, server, port, and encryption mode are all present.

• imap.mailbox: Historical compatibility alias for source.mailbox. Supported for reading and config get/set, but not recommended for new files.
• imap.email: Optional string. CRIEW uses this as your self address for mail matching. It also becomes the login identity when imap.user is omitted. criew doctor uses it before git config user.email when resolving the self address, and reply composition keeps it as an additional self address for recipient filtering.
• imap.user: Optional string. Alias: imapuser. This is the IMAP login account. Gmail usually expects the full email address here. If omitted, CRIEW falls back to imap.email.
• imap.pass: Optional string. Alias: imappass. This is the IMAP password or app password.
• imap.server: Optional string. Alias: imapserver. This is the IMAP server host name.
• imap.serverport: Optional integer. Alias: imapserverport. Required for real IMAP sync. Valid values are 1 through 65535. 0 is rejected.
• imap.encryption: Optional string. Alias: imapencryption. Accepted values are tls, ssl, starttls, and none. ssl is accepted as the same runtime mode as tls.
• imap.proxy: Optional string. Supported schemes are http://, socks5://, and socks5h://. When omitted, CRIEW falls back to the proxy environment variables listed above.

[ui]

• ui.startup_sync: Optional boolean. Default is true. When enabled, CRIEW auto-syncs enabled subscriptions after the TUI starts.
• ui.keymap: Optional string. Default is default. Supported values are default, vim, and custom. default uses j/l for focus and i/k for movement. vim uses h/l for focus and j/k for movement, plus gg, G, and qq. custom currently keeps the default navigation behavior.
• ui.inbox_auto_sync_interval_secs: Optional integer. Default is 30. This controls the delay between My Inbox background sync runs while the TUI stays open. The value must be greater than 0.

[kernel]

• kernel.tree: Optional path. One kernel tree root shown in the code browser pane.
• kernel.trees: Optional TOML array of paths. Additional kernel tree roots shown as top-level entries in the code browser. Use this when you want to switch between multiple working trees.

Edit config from the TUI

Open the command palette with :, then use one of these commands:

• config show opens the visual config editor.
• config show <key> shows the current file value, or the effective runtime fallback when the key is unset.
• config get <key> is the same read-only lookup form.
• config edit [key] opens the visual editor, optionally focused on one supported field.
• config set <key> <value> writes a TOML literal back to the config file and reloads runtime config.

Examples:

config get source.mailbox
config set ui.keymap vim
config set kernel.trees ["/path/to/linux", "/path/to/linux-next"]

config.path is a runtime-only value exposed by config get. It reports the active config file path, but it is not a file key you set in TOML.

Constraints

• v0.0.1 and later support only the CRIEW naming set: criew, ~/.criew/, criew-config.toml, criew.db, CRIEW_B4_PATH, and CRIEW_IMAP_PROXY.
• Courier-era names such as ~/.courier, courier-config.toml, courier.db, COURIER_B4_PATH, and COURIER_IMAP_PROXY are intentionally unsupported.
• git send-email is required only for reply sending.
• The kernel tree is optional, but code browsing and patch context are much more useful when it is set.

See also

• Install and Setup
• Sync and TUI
• Patch and Reply
• Keybindings