Configuration

Two sources, one rule: the environment wins. A deployment that pins a root or exports a key should not be overridden by a file someone edited through a browser, and every surface that shows a resolved value also shows which of the two it came from.

Environment

variable	what it does
`LANCE_ROOT`	the database to read. Wins over any saved connection
`LANCESCOPE_CONFIG`	where the settings file lives (default `~/.config/lancescope/settings.json`)
`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`	enables the Claude path; beats a stored key
`LANCESCOPE_LLM_PROVIDER`	`auto` · `anthropic` · `ollama` · `openai-compat` · `none` (default: auto-detect)
`OLLAMA_HOST`	as Ollama itself defines it (default `http://localhost:11434`)
`LANCESCOPE_LLM_BASE_URL`	for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint
`LANCESCOPE_LLM_API_KEY`	for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint
`LANCESCOPE_CACHE`	cached answers (default `~/.cache/lancescope`)
`LANCESCOPE_SPEND_CEILING`	dollars, per process. Refuses before spending past it
`API_ORIGIN`	where the web app proxies `/api/*`

The settings file

Written at mode 0600, because a stored API key would be in it. It is the only file this project writes, and it is never written inside a dataset directory.

json

{
  "version": 1,
  "connections": [
    { "id": "…", "label": "…", "uri": "/path/to/tables", "added": "…" }
  ],
  "active_id": "…",
  "intelligence": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "auto",
    "model": null,
    "model_fast": null,
    "spend_ceiling_usd": null
  }
}

Where the root comes from

In order, first match wins:

LANCE_ROOT
the active saved connection
the ingest output directory, only if it holds tables
nothing — and the console says so rather than showing an empty database