Configuration files

Cabin reads typed TOML configuration files for local policy - defaults the user, the workspace, or a single project want to apply across many invocations of cabin build, cabin metadata, and the resolution / fetch family. Config is not package source spec: it never enters the manifest, the lockfile, the published package metadata, or the registry index.

This document is the canonical specification for config discovery, parsing, merging, precedence, and validation. The behavior described here is what cabin-config, cabin-toolchain, cabin, the metadata view, and the package archiver all agree on.

File locations

A single command consults at most three files. The discovery order is intentionally short so the precedence stays auditable.

Source	Location
User	$CABIN_CONFIG_HOME/config.toml; otherwise the platform user config home with the cabin suffix - Linux: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cabin/config.toml (fallback $HOME/.config/cabin/config.toml); macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/cabin/config.toml; Windows: %APPDATA%\cabin\config.toml
Workspace	<workspace-root>/.cabin/config.toml when the entry-point manifest declares [workspace]
Package	<package-root>/.cabin/config.toml when the entry-point manifest is a single-package project
Explicit	$CABIN_CONFIG=<path> - exactly one file, missing files are a hard error

When CABIN_CONFIG_HOME is unset, Cabin computes the user config home via the directories crate - the platform’s user config directory with a cabin suffix - and looks for config.toml there. Cargo’s $CARGO_HOME model is not used. On Linux the lookup follows the XDG Base Directory specification ($XDG_CONFIG_HOME, falling back to $HOME/.config); empty or relative values are treated as unset. Cabin does not read system-wide XDG config directories (/etc/xdg, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS).

Discovery does not walk arbitrary parent directories beyond the workspace root. Member-local .cabin/config.toml files inside a workspace are ignored - only the workspace-root file applies.

If CABIN_CONFIG is set to a non-empty value, it short-circuits discovery: only that one file loads, and a missing file is an explicit config file <path> was requested explicitly but could not be read error rather than a silent fallback.

If CABIN_NO_CONFIG=1 is set, no files load at all. The metadata view still reports an empty config.loaded_files = [] block so consumers can distinguish “config absent” from “config silent”.

Precedence

For every setting Cabin’s config layer can supply (registry source, paths, build defaults, toolchain, compiler wrapper) the precedence order is, highest to lowest:

1. CLI flag - e.g., --profile, --cxx, --compiler-wrapper, --index-path, --cache-dir.
2. Environment variable - e.g., CXX, AR, CABIN_COMPILER_WRAPPER. Empty values are treated as unset.
3. Package-local or workspace config - <root>/.cabin/config.toml. Workspace files when [workspace] is declared, project files otherwise.
4. User config - the platform user config home (on Linux $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cabin/config.toml or its $HOME/.config/ fallback) unless CABIN_CONFIG_HOME overrides it.
5. Manifest-declared package defaults - e.g., [toolchain], [profile], [profile.<name>], and [build] compiler-wrapper on the entry-point manifest.
6. Built-in defaults - Cabin’s documented fallbacks (dev profile, c++/clang++/g++ for the C++ compiler, ar for the archiver).

A CABIN_CONFIG file slots in at the same precedence as a workspace / project config - Cabin treats the explicit file as the sole config layer. The metadata view reports its provenance label as explicit-config.

cabin metadata reports every effective config value paired with its value_source (one of cli, env, user-config, workspace-config, project-config, explicit-config, manifest, builtin-default) so the precedence is auditable without re-deriving it.

Schema

Config files use TOML. The supported tables are:

[registry]
index-path = "registry"
index-url = "https://example.com/index"

[paths]
cache-dir = ".cabin/cache"
build-dir = "build"

[build]
profile = "release"
compiler-wrapper = "ccache"

[toolchain]
cc = "clang"
cxx = "clang++"
ar = "llvm-ar"

[term]
color = "auto"

[patch]
fmt = { path = "../forks/fmt" }

[source-replacement]
"https://example.com/index" = { index-path = "../mirror" }

Every other top-level table - and every unknown field inside a known table - is rejected at parse time with a clear error.

[registry]

Selects a default index source for the resolver / fetch family when neither --index-path nor --index-url is supplied on the CLI.

Key	Type	Notes
index-path	path	Local-filesystem index. Relative paths resolve against the config file’s directory.
index-url	URL	Sparse HTTP index URL. Used as-is.

A single config file may declare either index-path or index-url, never both - the parser rejects the combination with config key `registry.index-path` conflicts with `registry.index-url`; choose only one at the same precedence level. Across precedence levels, the higher-priority file’s variant replaces the lower file’s value entirely (so a workspace-level index-url overrides a user-level index-path).

cabin metadata does not contact the configured index-url; network access still happens only when a command (like cabin resolve --index-url ... or a build with versioned dependencies) needs the index.

[paths]

Defaults for local filesystem paths Cabin already accepts as CLI flags. CLI flags win; otherwise the highest-priority config setting applies. Relative paths resolve against the config file’s directory.

Key	Type	Notes
cache-dir	path	Override --cache-dir. Used by the artifact pipeline (cabin fetch, cabin build with versioned deps).
build-dir	path	Override the build-output directory for commands that plan, run, or remove build outputs (build, clean, run, test, tidy, fmt). The clap default build still applies when no flag and no config is set.

Absolute paths pass through unchanged. Cabin never serializes absolute local paths into package or index metadata.

[build]

Persistent defaults for build-time selectors that Cabin already exposes as CLI flags.

Key	Type	Notes
profile	string	Default profile. Overridden by --profile <name> and --release. Must reference a built-in (dev, release) or a custom profile declared in the workspace root manifest.
jobs	integer	Default number of parallel jobs for the build backend. Must be a positive integer; 0 and negative values are rejected at parse time.
compiler-wrapper	string	Executable name or path that prefixes C and C++ compile commands. Empty and whitespace-only values are rejected.

cabin build’s profile precedence is --profile - > --release - > build.profile config - > built-in dev.

cabin build / cabin run jobs precedence is -j / --jobs <N> - > CABIN_BUILD_JOBS - > build.jobs config - > build backend default. cabin test does not honor any jobs source: the test runner is sequential.

compiler-wrapper accepts any single executable name or path and is not shell-split. Precedence is --compiler-wrapper / --no-compiler-wrapper → CABIN_COMPILER_WRAPPER → config [build] compiler-wrapper → workspace-root manifest [build] compiler-wrapper → no wrapper. See compiler-cache.md.

[patch] and [source-replacement]

Local-development override policy. The [patch] table replaces a registry-resolved package candidate with a local working copy; the [source-replacement] table redirects one supported index source to another supported index source. Both tables are config-only surfaces (manifest [patch] tables are also supported but live in cabin.toml); both follow the same config-precedence ladder as the rest of this file.

[patch]
fmt = { path = "../forks/fmt" }

[source-replacement]
"https://example.com/index" = { index-path = "../mirror" }

The full schema, validation rules, and lockfile / metadata behavior live in patch-overrides.md. Important guarantees:

• git, url, and version patch source kinds are rejected at parse time.
• URLs containing userinfo (e.g., https://user:pw@example.com/index) are rejected so credentials never leak.
• Replacement chains are walked once with cycle detection.
• Member manifests cannot declare [patch] tables.
• cabin package rejects manifests with a non-empty [patch] table; config patches and source replacements are excluded from package archives by .cabin/’s existing exclusion rule.

[term]

Persistent default for the terminal-color choice.

Key	Type	Notes
color	string	One of auto, always, never. Other values are rejected at parse time.

Precedence: --color <when> - > CABIN_TERM_COLOR=<when> - > [term].color config - > default auto. See environment-variables.md for the full table of values and their behavior.

[toolchain]

Persistent defaults for the C/C++ tool selection from toolchains.md.

Key	Type	Notes
cc	string	Bare command name searched on PATH, or an explicit filesystem path.
cxx	string	Same shape as cc, for the C++ compiler driver.
ar	string	Same shape as cc, for the static-library archiver.

Per-tool precedence: --cc / --cxx / --ar - > CC / CXX / AR env - > [toolchain] config

• workspace-root manifest [target.'cfg(...)'.toolchain] overlays - > workspace-root manifest [toolchain] - > Cabin’s documented fallback list.

The same --cxx / CXX / [toolchain].cxx value is read at every layer; the resolver’s source label distinguishes which layer ultimately won (user-config, workspace-config, project-config, or explicit-config for the config layer).

Environment variables

Cabin’s config layer recognizes three environment variables.

Variable	Purpose
CABIN_NO_CONFIG=1	Disable config discovery entirely.
CABIN_CONFIG=<path>	Load exactly one config file from <path>. Missing files are a hard error.
CABIN_CONFIG_HOME=<dir>	Override the user config directory. Useful for tests and controlled environments. Cabin reads <dir>/config.toml directly.

CABIN_CONFIG_HOME is a Cabin-specific override and is not treated as an XDG variable: when set to a non-empty value, Cabin reads <value>/config.toml directly with no cabin application prefix appended. When CABIN_CONFIG_HOME is unset, Cabin uses the platform user config home computed by the directories crate (which on Linux honors XDG_CONFIG_HOME and HOME per the XDG Base Directory specification) and looks for cabin/config.toml below it.

Existing env variables Cabin already honors (CC, CXX, AR, CABIN_COMPILER_WRAPPER, CABIN_CACHE_DIR) are unchanged. They take precedence over the config layer per the precedence ladder above.

What config does not do

These items are explicitly out of scope for the config layer and will not be added here.

• No credentials, tokens, registry authentication, or credential-helper integration. Cabin’s config file is not a secrets store. Tables named auth, credentials, tokens, token, or registries are rejected with a dedicated error so a typo never silently smuggles a credential into a published archive.
• No vendoring policy table. cabin vendor may consume the configured registry/path defaults, but config does not declare vendored entries or a [vendor] table.
• No offline config key. Offline mode is controlled by --offline / CABIN_NET_OFFLINE, not by a persistent config setting.
• No new registry protocols. index-path and index-url remain the only supported flavors.
• No remote-cache configuration. Compiler-cache server settings (SCCACHE_*, CCACHE_DIR, CCACHE_MAXSIZE, …) belong to the wrapper’s own configuration mechanism.
• No target-conditioned config tables. Encountering [target.'cfg(...)'.<...>] in a config file produces target-conditioned config tables are not supported. The equivalent feature lives in the package manifest.
• No new package semantics. The config file may not declare dependencies, features, target-conditioned build flags, or any other field the package manifest already owns.
• No network publish, account, ownership, or website support.

Package + index metadata

Config is local policy. Cabin never:

• writes the contents of .cabin/config.toml into the canonical per-version package metadata (<name>-<version>.json);
• writes config-derived effective values into cabin.lock or any registry index file;
• includes .cabin/ in deterministic source archives (the directory is in EXCLUDED_DIR_NAMES for cabin package).

Manifest declarations remain the only source-spec surface for published packages. cabin metadata’s config block is intended for human / tool consumption of the local environment and is not serialized to the registry.

Examples

Minimal user config - pick a fixed compiler

# ~/.config/cabin/config.toml
[toolchain]
cxx = "clang++"
ar = "llvm-ar"

Every cabin build and cabin metadata invocation picks clang++ and llvm-ar unless overridden by CXX / AR / --cxx / --ar.

Workspace-level cache and wrapper defaults

# <workspace-root>/.cabin/config.toml
[paths]
cache-dir = ".cabin/cache"

[build]
compiler-wrapper = "ccache"

Every contributor’s local cabin build writes artifacts to <workspace-root>/.cabin/cache and prefixes compile commands with ccache. CI pipelines can override either by passing the matching CLI flag.

Workspace-level registry default

# <workspace-root>/.cabin/config.toml
[registry]
index-path = "vendor/index"

Resolves the index path against the config file’s directory (.cabin/vendor/index here). cabin resolve --index-path ... overrides the default; --index-url ... is rejected against the configured index-path only when both are passed on the same command line.

Build profile default

# .cabin/config.toml
[build]
profile = "release"

cabin build defaults to --profile release. CLI --profile dev or --release still wins.

Disabling all config for a single command

CABIN_NO_CONFIG=1 cabin build --release

Useful in CI when a developer’s workspace config might mask the intended behavior.