config

pkg/config

Configuration management for Confab's own config, Claude Code's settings file, and bundled skill file content.

Hook install/uninstall logic lives in pkg/hookconfig. This package owns the generic plumbing — atomic settings updates, settings struct, paths — and the bundled skill templates installed by provider clients.

Files

Two Config Systems

Confab config (~/.confab/config.json)

Managed by upload.go. Contains backend URL, API key, log level, auto-update flag, and redaction settings. This is Confab's own config — we control the schema entirely.

Claude Code settings (~/.claude/settings.json)

Managed by config.go. Contains hooks that Claude Code reads to fire events. We install/uninstall hooks here, but Claude Code owns the file and other tools may write to it concurrently.

Bundled provider skills

Managed by bundled_skills.go, skill_til.go, and skill_retro.go (and future skill_*.go files). Skills are standalone SKILL.md files installed by provider clients into their local skill layouts: Claude uses ~/.claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md; Codex uses ~/.codex/skills/<name>/SKILL.md. If an existing SKILL.md has been customized by the user, install backs it up to SKILL.md.bak before overwriting; if the backup write fails, the install aborts rather than silently overwrite.

Key Types

• UploadConfig — Confab's configuration (backend URL, API key, redaction settings)
• ParseLogLevel(string) — translates a config log_level value to logger.Level. Called from pkg/loginit at process startup.
• ClaudeSettings — Wrapper around map[string]any for Claude Code settings, preserving unknown fields
• ErrHooksTypeMismatch — Exported sentinel error returned when the "hooks" field in settings.json exists but is not a JSON object. Callers can check errors.Is(err, ErrHooksTypeMismatch) and surface a clear message asking users to fix the file manually.
• RedactionConfig — Redaction enabled flag, use_default_patterns, custom pattern list
• RedactionPattern — Individual redaction pattern (name, regex, type, capture group, field pattern)

How to Extend

Adding a new Confab config field

1. Add the field to UploadConfig in upload.go
2. Add validation in SaveUploadConfig() if needed
3. Update the setup flow in cmd/setup.go to prompt for / set the field

Adding a new hook type

Hook install/uninstall lives in pkg/hookconfig — see that package's README. The wiring into cmd/ flows through pkg/provider's Provider interface: cmd/hooks.go and cmd/setup.go call p.InstallHooks(), which delegates to hookconfig per provider.

Adding a new bundled skill

1. Add the provider-rendered template content in skill_<name>.go.
2. Add the skill name to bundledSkillNames and route it in bundledSkillTemplate.
3. Keep path/layout decisions in pkg/provider; pkg/config only receives a state directory and provider name.
4. Add/update tests for Claude and Codex installs so both provider paths stay covered.

Invariants

• Settings writes must use AtomicUpdateSettings(). This provides read-modify-write with mtime-based optimistic locking and exponential backoff retry (max 10 attempts). Never read + write separately — concurrent Claude Code sessions will clobber each other.
• Config file permissions: 0600 for ~/.confab/config.json (contains API key), 0600 for ~/.claude/settings.json.
• Directory permissions: 0700 for ~/.confab/ and ~/.claude/ directories created by Confab. Restrictive permissions prevent other users on shared systems from reading config or API keys.
• GetDefaultRedactionPatterns() pattern order matters. More specific patterns (e.g., sk-ant-api03-...) must come before general ones (e.g., field-name-based patterns) to avoid partial matches.

Design Decisions

ClaudeSettings uses map[string]any instead of typed structs. Claude Code's settings schema evolves rapidly and includes fields we don't manage. A typed struct would silently drop unknown fields on round-trip. The raw map preserves everything.

Mtime-based optimistic locking instead of flock. AtomicUpdateSettings() checks that the file's mtime hasn't changed between read and write. If it has, it retries with backoff. This is simpler than file locking, works cross-platform, and is sufficient for the infrequent writes that hooks installation involves.

Bundled skills use provider-rendered templates. The shipped skills share a registry, but content can differ where the harnesses expose different session IDs or local transcript layouts. Claude /til uses CLAUDE_SESSION_ID; Codex /til uses CODEX_THREAD_ID.

Testing

go test ./pkg/config/...

Tests cover atomic settings updates under concurrency, field preservation across round-trips, config validation, and bundled skill install/uninstall behavior. Hook install/uninstall tests live in pkg/hookconfig.

Dependencies

Uses: pkg/confabpath (~/.confab path-builder for getConfigPath), pkg/logger (logging from config.go, skill_*.go). paths.go deliberately does not import pkg/provider even though it owns parallel constants — pkg/provider imports pkg/hookconfig, which imports pkg/config. The duplicated ClaudeStateDirEnv constant must stay in sync between the two packages.

Used by: cmd/ (setup, login, hooks, status), pkg/daemon/ (state dir), pkg/hookconfig/ (settings struct, atomic update, tool-name constants), pkg/http/ (upload config), pkg/loginit/ (GetUploadConfig, ParseLogLevel), pkg/provider/ (provider paths, skills install), pkg/redactor/ (redaction patterns), pkg/sync/ (upload config)