Configuration

LLM Provider Configuration

Compendium works with any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint.

There is no config file to hand-edit. LLM settings are configured through one of two interactive entry points, and either one configures both the CLI and the Web UI — they share the same underlying store, so you only need to do this once:

Option 1: CLI

compendium init

Prompts for a provider base URL, API key, and model (offering a pick-list fetched from the provider's /models endpoint when available).

Option 2: Web UI

Start the web server (./bin/web/Compendium.Web) and open the Settings page at /settings. Same fields, same shared result.

Where it's stored

• Base URL and model name: ~/.compendium/llm-config.json
• API key: the OS-native credential store — Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain, or the Secret Service API on Linux (GNOME Keyring, KWallet, etc. via secret-tool). Compendium never writes API keys to disk in plaintext. If no keychain is reachable (e.g. a headless Linux box with no secret service running), init and the Settings page both fail with a clear error telling you to set LITELLM_API_KEY as an environment variable instead.

Supported Providers

Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works. Enter these values when prompted by compendium init or the Web UI Settings page:

Provider	Base URL	Model example
OpenAI	https://api.openai.com/v1	gpt-4-turbo-preview
Azure OpenAI	https://YOUR_RESOURCE.openai.azure.com/openai/deployments/YOUR_DEPLOYMENT	gpt-4
litellm Proxy	http://localhost:4000	gpt-4
Anthropic (via litellm)	http://localhost:4000	claude-3-opus-20240229
Ollama (local)	http://localhost:11434/v1	llama3.1

Environment Variables (CI / scripting)

For non-interactive contexts — CI pipelines, containers, scripted runs — the CLI also accepts LITELLM_BASE_URL, LITELLM_API_KEY, and LITELLM_MODEL as a fallback when nothing has been configured via compendium init or the Web UI:

export LITELLM_API_KEY="sk-..."
export LITELLM_BASE_URL="https://api.openai.com/v1"
export LITELLM_MODEL="gpt-4"

compendium chat --bundle my-catalog

This only applies to the CLI. The Web UI always reads from the shared store described above.

Web UI Default Bundle

The Web UI loads a bundle at startup from Compendium:BundlePath in src/Compendium.Web/appsettings.json:

{
  "Compendium": {
    "BundlePath": "catalog/sample"
  }
}

This is a build-time default, not something the CLI's compendium init sets — point it at your catalog before publishing the web server.

Bundle Configuration

Each bundle can have a .compendium/config.json declaring the concept types it recognizes — compendium new <path> scaffolds one automatically:

{
  "name": "Enterprise Architecture Catalog",
  "description": "Systems, processes, and integrations",
  "types": {
    "System": { "directory": "systems", "description": "An application, service, or database." },
    "Integration": { "directory": "integrations", "description": "A data flow between two systems." },
    "Process": { "directory": "processes", "description": "A business workflow." }
  },
  "allow_new_types": "propose"
}

See OKF: Bundle Spec for the full schema and what allow_new_types controls.