Configuration Reference

Overview

Synapses is configured through a synapses.json file in your project root. Running synapses init creates this file with sensible defaults.

Top-Level Fields

Field	Type	Default	Description
`version`	`string`	`"1"`	Schema version identifier
`mode`	`string`	`"full"`	`"full"` (code graph + memory) or `"knowledge"` (memory-only, non-code)
`rules`	`Rule[]`	`[]`	Architectural constraints enforced by the rule engine
`edge_weights`	`map`	defaults	Relevance weights for context carving per edge type
`context_carve`	`object`	see below	BFS ego-graph extraction defaults
`linked`	`string[]`	`[]`	Paths to other indexed projects merged into graph
`embeddings`	`string`	`"builtin"`	Embedding mode: `"builtin"`, `"ollama"`, or `"off"`
`embedding_model`	`string`	`"nomic-embed-text"`	Ollama model for embeddings
`embedding_endpoint`	`string`	`""`	OpenAI-compatible HTTP endpoint for semantic search
`embed_pool_size`	`int`	`3`	ONNX inference workers (1-8)
`brain`	`object`	`{}`	Thinking Brain (LLM enrichment) configuration
`session`	`object`	`{}`	Agent session memory behavior
`federation`	`object[]`	`[]`	Cross-project federation entries
`federation_acl`	`object`	`{}`	ACL for cross-project read access
`rate_limits`	`object`	`{}`	Per-session token-bucket rate limiting
`constitution`	`object`	`{}`	Project-wide principles injected in all sessions
`api_entries`	`object[]`	`[]`	Custom API entry point detection patterns
`use_go_types`	`bool`	`false`	Type-checked CALLS resolution for Go
`use_ts_types`	`bool`	`false`	TypeScript compiler API for CALLS resolution
`metrics_days`	`int`	`90`	Git history window for churn computation
`coverage_profile`	`string`	`""`	Path to `go test -coverprofile` output
`pprof_profile`	`string`	`""`	Path to Go CPU profile for per-function metrics
`data_flow_sources`	`object[]`	`[]`	Custom source patterns for data flow tracking
`data_flow_sinks`	`object[]`	`[]`	Custom sink patterns for data flow tracking
`data_flow_max_hops`	`int`	`4`	Maximum BFS depth for source-to-sink tracing
`use_flat_graph`	`bool`	`false`	Enable FlatGraph SoA layout for fast PPR BFS
`pulse`	`object`	`{}`	Synapses-pulse analytics sidecar
`recall`	`object`	`{}`	Quad-channel retrieval pipeline behavior
`content_safety`	`object`	`{}`	Prompt injection scanner configuration

Minimal Example

{
  "version": "1",
  "mode": "full"
}

That’s it — Synapses works with zero configuration. Everything below is optional tuning.

Full Example

{
  "version": "1",
  "mode": "full",
  "context_carve": {
    "default_depth": 2,
    "token_budget": 4000,
    "decay_factor": 0.6
  },
  "brain": {
    "enabled": true,
    "intelligence_mode": "optimal"
  },
  "embeddings": "builtin",
  "federation": [
    { "path": "../shared-lib", "alias": "shared" }
  ]
}

See the individual configuration sections for detailed documentation of each subsystem.