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README.md

settings.json profiles

Stella reads settings.json from three scopes and merges them per provider, per field, ascending precedence:

  1. User — ~/.config/stella/settings.json
  2. Org-managed — /Library/Application Support/stella/settings.json (macOS) or /etc/stella/settings.json (Linux); path overridable with STELLA_MANAGED_SETTINGS
  3. Project — <repo>/.stella/settings.json (highest, trust-gated for sensitive fields)

A malformed file is a hard, named error — Stella never silently skips your config. Full reference: Configuration → settings.json.

Profiles in this directory

File The idea
minimal.settings.json The smallest useful config: pick a default model, turn the shell tool on.
balanced.settings.json The daily driver — cheap capable worker, flagship cross-family judge, autos on.
max-quality.settings.json Fable 5 worker at xhigh effort, GPT-5.5 judge on priority tier. When a wrong change costs more than the tokens.
dirt-cheap.settings.json DeepSeek worker with thinking off and capped output. Pennies per run.
local-ollama.settings.json A custom OpenAI-compatible provider pointing at Ollama. Zero API spend.
team.settings.json Project-scope .stella/settings.json a team ships in-repo: allowed models, shell on, a guard hook.
credentials.example.toml The shape of ~/.config/stella/credentials.toml (written 0600 by the interactive prompt).

The one routing rule worth memorizing

agent_engine_config.default_model is what routes the executing worker. The pipeline_worker_model field feeds display/selection surfaces — so keep it and default_model set to the same value (every profile here does), and use agents.judge / agents.triage (or pipeline_judge_model / pipeline_triage_model) to pin the other roles. A --model flag outranks all of it for one invocation.

Trying a profile

cp balanced.settings.json ~/.config/stella/settings.json
stella models          # confirm what resolved
stella run "..."       # go

API keys never live in these files — set the provider env var (ZAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, …) or let the interactive prompt write credentials.toml.