configuration.md

Configuration

Distill reads configuration from CLI flags, environment variables, and a config file (~/.distill.yaml).

Precedence

CLI flags > environment variables > config file > defaults.

Config file

# ~/.distill.yaml
embedding:
  provider: openai        # openai | ollama | cohere
  model: text-embedding-3-small
  base_url: ""            # override for ollama/custom endpoints

memory:
  db_path: ~/.distill/memory.db
  dedup_threshold: 0.15   # cosine distance below which chunks are duplicates
  conflict_threshold: 0.35
  decay_rate: 0.01

session:
  db_path: ~/.distill/sessions.db

server:
  port: 8080
  api_keys: []

CLI flags

distill api

Flag	Env	Default	Description
--port	PORT	8080	Server port
--api-keys	DISTILL_API_KEYS	—	Comma-separated API keys
--memory	—	false	Enable memory subsystem
--memory-db	—	~/.distill/memory.db	SQLite path for memory
--session	—	false	Enable session subsystem
--session-db	—	~/.distill/sessions.db	SQLite path for sessions
--embedding-provider	—	openai	Embedding provider
--embedding-model	—	text-embedding-3-small	Embedding model
--embedding-base-url	—	—	Custom base URL
--otel-endpoint	—	—	OTLP gRPC endpoint
--otel-stdout	—	false	Print traces to stdout

distill serve (MCP mode)

Flag	Env	Default	Description
--memory	—	false	Enable memory tools
--memory-db	—	~/.distill/memory.db	SQLite path
--embedding-provider	—	openai	Embedding provider
--embedding-model	—	text-embedding-3-small	Embedding model
--embedding-base-url	—	—	Custom base URL

distill memory

Flag	Default	Description
--db	~/.distill/memory.db	SQLite path
--embedding-provider	openai	Embedding provider
--embedding-model	text-embedding-3-small	Embedding model
--embedding-base-url	—	Custom base URL

Environment variables

Variable	Description
OPENAI_API_KEY	OpenAI API key
COHERE_API_KEY	Cohere API key
DISTILL_API_KEYS	Comma-separated API keys for auth
PORT	Server port