Every setting that decides how bricklayer_llm_ask reaches a
model, in one place: which route to use; your key and model for each
provider (bring your own key: see bricklayer_llm_providers);
the address, key and model of your own OpenAI-compatible server; and of a
local or LAN Ollama server. Called with no arguments it only reads: it
returns a table of every setting, its current value, and where that value
comes from. Called with key = value pairs it saves those settings
first. Keys are never printed, only whether one is set.
Arguments
- ...
Settings to save, as
key = value:route("auto","own","ollama"or a provider id such as"anthropic"; case is ignored),<provider>.keyand<provider>.model(e.g.anthropic.key,openai.model),own.url,own.key,own.model,ollama.url,ollama.model,ollama.key. Each value is a single string (leading and trailing spaces are removed).NULL,NAor""removes a saved setting. With no arguments nothing is written.
Value
A data frame with one row per setting (seven general settings
followed by a key and a model row for each provider) and five character
columns: key (the setting's name), value (its current
value, the default spelled out; a key only as "set" or
"(not set)"), source ("environment",
"saved" or "default"), env (the environment
variable that overrides it) and help (what it is for). Returned
visibly when called with no settings, invisibly after saving.
Details
Where settings live. Saved settings are kept in
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/morie/llm.json (~/.config/morie/llm.json
when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset), a private file (mode 0600, in a
private directory) next to the shared credentials.json. The file is
written only when you pass a setting; only the settings that change are
rewritten in place, so the rest of the file stays exactly as it was. An
empty set of settings removes the file.
Precedence. An environment variable that is set (the env
column, for example ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OLLAMA_HOST) wins
over a saved value, which wins over the built-in default. Saving a
setting whose variable is set warns that the variable still wins. A
provider key is also read from the provider's alternative variable where
it has one (GOOGLE_API_KEY for Gemini, HUGGINGFACE_HUB_TOKEN
for Hugging Face, CO_API_KEY for Cohere).
Checks when saving. Names must be among the settings listed in
the key column ("unknown setting" otherwise) and every value
passed as key = value with one value each. route must be
"auto", "own", "ollama" or a provider id; the
retired "hosted" route is refused. own.url must be an
http(s):// address and ollama.url an address or
host:port; both are refused if they contain spaces, a fragment or
user information, and, unless they point at this machine or a private LAN
address, they get the package's public-address check (a metadata or
link-local address is refused). "off", "none" or
"disabled" turns a server off. A key with a line break or control
character in it is refused. A new own.url or ollama.url
drops the key saved for the old server (with a message), so a key is
never sent to a server it was not saved for. A settings file that is not
a JSON object, or holds a setting that is not a non-empty string, stops
every call until it is fixed or moved aside with rmbl config reset.
Reading the settings takes a few milliseconds: the table of settings is built once per session and the file is read once per call. Nothing is sent over the network by this function.
The same is available from the shell: rmbl config lists the
settings, rmbl config set KEY VALUE and rmbl config unset KEY
change one (a key is asked for without echo when no value is given), and
rmbl config setup walks through them.
See also
bricklayer_llm_providers for the providers and
their variables, bricklayer_llm_status for which routes
are reachable, bricklayer_llm_ask which uses these
settings.
Examples
# Work in a temporary settings directory so your own settings are
# untouched.
old <- Sys.getenv("XDG_CONFIG_HOME", unset = NA)
Sys.setenv(XDG_CONFIG_HOME = tempfile("cfg"))
# Reading the settings writes nothing.
cfg <- bricklayer_llm_config()
head(cfg[, c("key", "value", "source")])
#> key value source
#> 1 route auto default
#> 2 own.url (not set) default
#> 3 own.key (not set) default
#> 4 own.model (not set) default
#> 5 ollama.url http://localhost:11434 default
#> 6 ollama.model (the first one pulled) default
nrow(cfg)
#> [1] 39
# Save a local Ollama model and use it for every request; the key column
# shows where each value now comes from.
bricklayer_llm_config(ollama.model = "qwen3:8b", route = "ollama")
cfg <- bricklayer_llm_config()
cfg[cfg$key %in% c("route", "ollama.model"), c("key", "value", "source")]
#> key value source
#> 1 route ollama saved
#> 6 ollama.model qwen3:8b saved
# A key is shown only as set or not set.
bricklayer_llm_config(own.url = "http://localhost:1234/v1", own.key = "k-123")
cfg <- bricklayer_llm_config()
cfg$value[cfg$key == "own.key"]
#> [1] "set"
# Back to the defaults: NULL removes a saved setting.
bricklayer_llm_config(route = NULL, ollama.model = NULL, own.url = NULL,
own.key = NULL)
# Unknown settings and retired routes are refused.
try(bricklayer_llm_config(colour = "blue"))
#> Error : unknown setting 'colour' (one of: route, own.url, own.key, own.model, ollama.url, ollama.model, ollama.key, openai.key, openai.model, anthropic.key, anthropic.model, gemini.key, gemini.model, openrouter.key, openrouter.model, groq.key, groq.model, together.key, together.model, fireworks.key, fireworks.model, deepseek.key, deepseek.model, mistral.key, mistral.model, xai.key, xai.model, cerebras.key, cerebras.model, perplexity.key, perplexity.model, huggingface.key, huggingface.model, opencode.key, opencode.model, cohere.key, cohere.model, nvidia.key, nvidia.model)
try(bricklayer_llm_config(route = "hosted"))
#> Error : the hosted MORIE language-model tier is retired: bring your own key (a provider's variable such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY, or `rmoriebricklayer config set <provider>.key`) or run a model locally (Ollama); `rmoriebricklayer config setup` walks through it
if (is.na(old)) Sys.unsetenv("XDG_CONFIG_HOME") else Sys.setenv(XDG_CONFIG_HOME = old)
if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# your Anthropic key and model, and always use them
bricklayer_llm_config(anthropic.key = "sk-ant-...", route = "anthropic")
# an Ollama server on another machine
bricklayer_llm_config(ollama.url = "http://192.168.1.20:11434", ollama.model = "qwen3:8b")
} # }