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Configuration

Codewhale reads its configuration from ~/.codewhale/config.toml (the legacy ~/.deepseek/config.toml is still read as a fallback). The --config flag and the CODEWHALE_CONFIG_PATH environment variable can point elsewhere; --config wins when both are set, and environment variable overrides are applied after the file is loaded.

codewhale --config /path/to/config.toml
CODEWHALE_CONFIG_PATH=/path/to/config.toml

Inside the TUI, /config audit shows which documented keys can change in the current session, which can also be persisted, and which stay file-only or restart-only — treat its “Command / reason” column as the source of truth before editing by hand.

Per-project overlay

When a workspace contains a regular-file <workspace>/.codewhale/config.toml, the safe values it declares are merged on top of the global config (legacy <workspace>/.deepseek/config.toml files are still read when the Codewhale path is absent; symlinked project configs are rejected). This lets a repository suggest a model or tighten the local safety posture without touching the user's global config. Pass --no-project-config to skip the overlay for one launch.

The overlay is intentionally narrow: it supports model, reasoning_effort, approval_policy and sandbox_mode (tightening values only), notes_path, max_subagents (clamped to 1..=20), and allow_shell (false applies, true is ignored). Credentials, endpoints, provider selection, MCP config, hooks, skills, and instructions = [...] stay user-global — a repo-local config.toml that declares api_key, base_url, or provider is ignored, so a cloned repository cannot pick arbitrary local files into the prompt.

Credential lookup

After any explicit --api-key, credentials resolve in config → keyring → env order. codewhale auth status inspects the active provider's config file, OS keyring backend, environment variable, winning source, and last-four label without printing the key itself. Hosted, generic OpenAI-compatible, self-hosted, or native Anthropic routes are selected with provider = "<id>" or codewhale --provider <id>; the full registry lives on the Models & providers page and in docs/PROVIDERS.md.

Legacy .deepseek/ paths

Codewhale was renamed from DeepSeek-TUI. To avoid breaking existing installs, the runtime reads state from the new ~/.codewhale/ location but falls back to ~/.deepseek/ when only the legacy directory exists, and always writes to ~/.codewhale/ — read-with-fallback, write-to-new. State-dir resolution is consolidated in resolve_state_dir / ensure_state_dir in crates/config/src/lib.rs, and every legacy path reference carries an audited keep decision.