Preferences

Settings file

Ante stores user preferences in ~/.ante/settings.json:

{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-5",
  "provider": "anthropic",
  "theme": "default",
  "policy": "default",
  "has_completed_onboarding": true,
  "status_line": ["model-name", "current-dir"]
}

Field	Description
model	Default model name
provider	Default API provider
theme	TUI color theme
policy	Default permission policy (default or yolo)
has_completed_onboarding	Whether the onboarding flow has been completed
status_line	Items to display in the TUI status line footer (see below)

Status line

The status_line field controls which items appear in the TUI's footer bar. It accepts an array of item identifiers:

Item	Description
model-name	Current model name
provider	Current provider
current-dir	Current working directory
git-branch	Current Git branch (omitted when unavailable)

Default: ["model-name", "current-dir"]. Configure via ~/.ante/settings.json or the /statusline command in the TUI.

Settings can be overridden per-session via CLI flags.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	API key for Anthropic (Claude)
OPENAI_API_KEY	API key for OpenAI
OPENAI_COMPATIBLE_API_KEY	API key for OpenAI-compatible providers
GEMINI_API_KEY	API key for Google Gemini
VERTEX_GEMINI_API_KEY	API key for Vertex AI Gemini
XAI_API_KEY	API key for Grok (xAI)
OPENROUTER_API_KEY	API key for Open Router
Z_AI_API_KEY	API key for Zai
MODEL_BASE_URL	Override the base URL for any provider
MODEL_TEMPERATURE	Override model temperature (float)
MODEL_TOP_P	Override model top_p sampling parameter (float)
MODEL_THINKING	Override thinking mode (none, enabled, deep, max). These map to the protocol-level values Disabled, Enabled, Deep, Max respectively
MODEL_MAX_TOKENS	Override max output tokens (integer)
ANTE_LOCAL_PROVIDER_PORT	Override the local provider port (default: 8080)
ANTE_HOME	Override the home config directory (default: ~/.ante)
ANTE_DISABLE_STREAMING	Disable streaming responses in TUI mode

Directory structure

User-level (~/.ante/)

~/.ante/
├── settings.json      # User preferences
├── catalog.json       # Custom provider/model catalog
├── skills/            # User-level skills
└── agents/            # User-level sub-agents

Project-level

.ante/
└── skills/            # Project-specific skills

.agents/
└── skills/            # Project-specific skills

.claude/
└── skills/            # Project-specific skills (Claude Code compatibility)

Project memory (.ante/projects/)

.ante/
└── projects/
    └── <path>/
        └── memory/
            └── MEMORY.md   # Auto-memory for this project

Temporary files

/tmp/ante/<project-hash>/   # Temp files scoped per project

Precedence

Configuration is resolved in this order (later overrides earlier):

1. Built-in defaults
2. ~/.ante/settings.json
3. CLI flags (--model, --provider, etc.)