minne/docs/configuration.md

Configuration

Minne can be configured via environment variables or a config.yaml file. Environment variables take precedence.

Required Settings

Variable	Description	Example
OPENAI_API_KEY	API key for OpenAI-compatible endpoint	sk-...
SURREALDB_ADDRESS	WebSocket address of SurrealDB	ws://127.0.0.1:8000
SURREALDB_USERNAME	SurrealDB username	root_user
SURREALDB_PASSWORD	SurrealDB password	root_password
SURREALDB_DATABASE	Database name	minne_db
SURREALDB_NAMESPACE	Namespace	minne_ns

Optional Settings

Variable	Description	Default
HTTP_PORT	Server port	3000
DATA_DIR	Local data directory	./data
OPENAI_BASE_URL	Custom AI provider URL	OpenAI default
RUST_LOG	Logging level	info
STORAGE	Storage backend (local, memory)	local
PDF_INGEST_MODE	PDF ingestion strategy (classic, llm-first)	llm-first
RETRIEVAL_STRATEGY	Default retrieval strategy	-
EMBEDDING_BACKEND	Embedding provider (openai, fastembed)	fastembed
FASTEMBED_CACHE_DIR	Model cache directory	<data_dir>/fastembed
FASTEMBED_SHOW_DOWNLOAD_PROGRESS	Show progress bar for model downloads	false
FASTEMBED_MAX_LENGTH	Max sequence length for FastEmbed models	-

Reranking (Optional)

Variable	Description	Default
RERANKING_ENABLED	Enable FastEmbed reranking	false
RERANKING_POOL_SIZE	Concurrent reranker workers	-

Note

Enabling reranking downloads ~1.1 GB of model data on first startup.

Example config.yaml

surrealdb_address: "ws://127.0.0.1:8000"
surrealdb_username: "root_user"
surrealdb_password: "root_password"
surrealdb_database: "minne_db"
surrealdb_namespace: "minne_ns"
openai_api_key: "sk-your-key-here"
data_dir: "./minne_data"
http_port: 3000

# New settings
storage: "local"
pdf_ingest_mode: "llm-first"
embedding_backend: "fastembed"

# Optional reranking
reranking_enabled: true
reranking_pool_size: 2

AI Provider Setup

Minne works with any OpenAI-compatible API that supports structured outputs.

OpenAI (Default)

Set OPENAI_API_KEY only. The default base URL points to OpenAI.

Ollama

OPENAI_API_KEY="ollama"
OPENAI_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/v1"

Other Providers

Any provider exposing an OpenAI-compatible endpoint works. Set OPENAI_BASE_URL accordingly.

Model Selection

1. Access /admin in your Minne instance
2. Select models for content processing and chat
3. Content Processing: Must support structured outputs
4. Embedding Dimensions: Update when changing embedding models (e.g., 1536 for text-embedding-3-small)