Configuration — Ought docs

ought init writes an ought.toml at the project root. Every CLI command discovers it by walking up from the current directory. Pass --config <path> to point at a different file.

Full example

[project]
name = "myapp"
version = "0.1.0"

[specs]
roots = ["ought/"]

[context]
search_paths = ["src/", "lib/"]
exclude = ["vendor/", "generated/"]
max_files = 50

[generator]
provider = "anthropic"          # "anthropic" | "openai" | "openrouter" | "ollama"
model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"
max_turns = 50
parallelism = 1

[generator.anthropic]
api_key_env = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
# base_url = "https://api.anthropic.com"   # proxies / Bedrock / Vertex

[generator.tolerance]
must_by_multiplier = 1.0        # CI timing slack for MUST BY clauses

[runner.rust]
test_dir = "ought/ought-gen/"
# Bare section name matches a built-in preset (rust, python, typescript, go).
# Override any field below to customize.

[mcp]
enabled = false
transport = "stdio"             # "stdio" | "sse"

`[project]`

Key	Default	Notes
`name`	—	Required. Used in banners.
`version`	`0.1.0`	Free-form string; not parsed.

`[specs]`

Where on disk Ought looks for .ought.md files.

Key	Default	Notes
`roots`	`["ought/"]`	Directories the parser walks. Relative to `ought.toml`.

`[context]`

Source files included as context for LLM-driven commands (generate, extract, analyze survey).

Key	Default	Notes
`search_paths`	`[]`	Source roots. Empty means “no source context.”
`exclude`	`[]`	Glob patterns relative to each search path.
`max_files`	`50`	Hard cap on files read into a single generation prompt.

`[generator]`

LLM provider, model, and agent-loop limits.

Key	Default	Notes
`provider`	`"anthropic"`	One of `anthropic`, `openai`, `openrouter`, `ollama`.
`model`	`"claude-sonnet-4-6"`	Provider-specific model identifier.
`max_turns`	`50`	Cap on agent-loop iterations per clause.
`max_tokens_per_response`	`8192`	Per-response token cap.
`temperature`	unset	Optional sampling temperature.
`read_source_limit_bytes`	preset-defined	Per-call cap on bytes from `read_source`; truncated reads can resume.
`context_budget_tokens`	`180000`	Hard cap on input tokens; aborts before the provider would 400.
`eviction_threshold_tokens`	`130000`	Soft threshold at which old `tool_result` blocks get rewritten.
`parallelism`	`1`	Concurrent assignments.

Provider sub-blocks

Only the block matching provider is read — the rest are ignored, so it’s fine to leave them in.

[generator.anthropic]
api_key_env = "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY"
# base_url = "https://api.anthropic.com"

[generator.openai]
api_key_env = "OPENAI_API_KEY"
# base_url = "https://api.openai.com/v1"

[generator.openrouter]
api_key_env = "OPENROUTER_API_KEY"
# app_url   = "https://example.com"      # HTTP-Referer header
# app_title = "myapp"                    # X-Title header

[generator.ollama]
# base_url = "http://localhost:11434/v1"

`[generator.tolerance]`

Key	Default	Notes
`must_by_multiplier`	`1.0`	Multiplier applied to every `MUST BY` deadline. Raise on slow CI.

`[runner.<name>]`

One section per language runner. The section name is significant: if it matches a built-in preset (rust, python, typescript, go), the preset fills in any unset field.

Key	Required	Notes
`preset`	—	Optional explicit preset. Defaults to the section name if it matches.
`command`	yes (or preset)	Shell command. Tokens: `{test_dir}`, `{junit_path}`, `{tap_path}`, `{json_path}`.
`test_dir`	yes	Where generated test files are written.
`format`	yes (or preset)	`junit-xml` \| `tap` \| `ought-json` \| `cargo-test`.
`file_extensions`	yes (or preset)	Extensions Ought treats as generated tests, e.g. `["rs"]`.
`output_path`	—	Fixed path for formatted output; otherwise inferred from `command`.
`working_dir`	—	Working directory for the spawned command.
`env`	—	Env vars merged into the child process; values may use the same tokens.
`available_check`	—	Shell command to probe runner availability. Defaults to first token of `command`.

A bare [runner.python] with just test_dir is enough — the preset supplies the rest.

`[mcp]`

Settings for the ought mcp server.

Key	Default	Notes
`enabled`	`false`	Whether the server starts.
`transport`	`"stdio"`	`stdio` for local IDEs, `sse` for HTTP.