Configuration

Global configuration

Global settings live at:

~/.config/anki-llm/config.json

Manage them through the CLI so values are validated and written atomically:

anki-llm config set model gpt-5-mini
anki-llm config get model
anki-llm config list
anki-llm config unset model

Global keys

Key	Value	Purpose
`model`	string	Default LLM model
`api_base_url`	URL	Default OpenAI-compatible endpoint
`reasoning_effort`	non-empty string	Default reasoning effort
`gemini_thinking_enabled`	boolean	Show and request supported Gemini thinking; defaults to true
`nerd_font`	boolean	Use Nerd Font symbols in terminal interfaces
`default_workspace`	path	Workspace fallback outside a workspace directory
`anki_connect_url`	URL	AnkiConnect endpoint override
`tts_provider`	provider ID	Default TTS provider
`tts_voice`	voice ID	Default TTS voice
`tts_model`	string	OpenAI TTS model or Amazon Polly engine
`tts_format`	string	Default audio format
`azure_tts_key`	secret	Azure Speech subscription key
`azure_tts_region`	region	Azure Speech region
`google_tts_key`	secret	Google Cloud TTS API key
`aws_tts_access_key_id`	secret	AWS access key ID for Polly
`aws_tts_secret_access_key`	secret	AWS secret access key for Polly
`aws_tts_region`	region	AWS region for Polly

Global config has no LLM API key key. Prefer environment variables for all secrets, including TTS credentials, so they do not reside in config.json.

Environment variables

LLM

Variable	Purpose
`ANKI_LLM_API_BASE_URL`	Generic compatible API endpoint
`ANKI_LLM_API_KEY`	Generic key, including OpenRouter and custom APIs
`ANKI_LLM_REASONING_EFFORT`	Reasoning effort override
`OPENAI_API_KEY`	Auto-detected OpenAI key and OpenAI TTS fallback
`GEMINI_API_KEY`	Auto-detected Google Gemini key
`DEEPSEEK_API_KEY`	Auto-detected DeepSeek key
`XAI_API_KEY`	Auto-detected xAI key

TTS

Variable	Purpose
`AZURE_TTS_KEY`	Azure Speech subscription key
`AZURE_TTS_REGION`	Azure Speech region
`GOOGLE_TTS_KEY`	Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API key
`AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	Amazon Polly access key ID
`AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	Amazon Polly secret access key
`AWS_SESSION_TOKEN`	Optional AWS temporary-credential token
`AWS_REGION`	Amazon Polly region
`AWS_DEFAULT_REGION`	Polly region fallback when `AWS_REGION` is absent

See Models and TTS providers for provider-specific resolution rules.

Workspace configuration

A workspace contains prompts/ and can include anki-llm.yaml:

default_model: gemini-2.5-flash
reasoning_effort: low

The effective workspace is the workspace containing the current directory. When none contains it, default_workspace supplies a fallback. Its prompts/, note-types/, and anki-llm.yaml become available to workspace-aware commands.

Model precedence is CLI, workspace default_model, global model, then key-based detection. Reasoning effort precedence is CLI, environment, workspace, global, then unset. API base URL does not have a workspace key.

Read Use workspaces for initialization, discovery, prompt selection, and version-control patterns.

Common setup

anki-llm config set model gpt-5-mini
anki-llm config set reasoning_effort low
anki-llm config set default_workspace ~/anki
anki-llm config set anki_connect_url http://192.168.1.100:8765
anki-llm config set gemini_thinking_enabled false

Inspect the resolved environment with:

anki-llm doctor

State, logs, snapshots, and cache

Path	Contents
`~/.local/state/anki-llm/state.json`	Ephemeral application state, including the last prompt
`~/.local/state/anki-llm/logs/`	Automatic LLM session logs
`~/.local/state/anki-llm/snapshots/`	Original field values from direct deck-processing runs
`~/.local/state/anki-llm/note-type-snapshots/`	Backups created before note type pushes
`~/.cache/anki-llm/tts/`	Content-addressed synthesized audio cache
`<workspace>/note-types/<slug>/.sync-state.json`	Last-synced note type hash, locally gitignored

These paths assume the standard home directory layout used by the current implementation.