# Configuration

> Status: initial draft. Field semantics are finalised as the loader lands.

volumen is configured by a single **TOML** file. By default it lives at
`/etc/volumen/config.toml` and is auto-generated on first start. CLI flags
passed to `volumen serve` override the file.

## Example `config.toml`

```toml
[server]
host = "0.0.0.0"
port = 9090

# Directory containing your Markdown posts.
content_dir = "/var/lib/volumen/posts"

[site]
title = "My Blog"
description = "A blog powered by volumen."
base_url = "https://example.com"
language = "en"
author = "Anonymous"
# Site-wide fediverse handle (e.g. Mastodon). Exposed as `fediverse_creator`
# on /api/volumen/site and used as the fallback in the RSS / JSON feeds when
# a post does not set its own `fediverse_creator` frontmatter field. Leave
# empty if you do not publish to the fediverse.
fediverse_creator = "@you@example.social"

[admin]
# scrypt hash produced by `volumen hash-password`.
password_hash = ""
# Secret used to sign session cookies. Leave empty to auto-generate per start
# (sessions reset on restart).
session_key = ""
# Session lifetime in seconds (default 24h).
session_ttl = 86400
```

## CLI overrides

```bash
volumen serve --config /etc/volumen/config.toml \
              --content ./posts \
              --host 127.0.0.1 \
              --port 9000
```

## Why TOML

- **First-class dates** — `date = 2026-01-15` is a real date, not a string.
- **Explicit typing** — no YAML-style implicit coercion (`no` → false, etc.).
- **No whitespace pitfalls** — indentation is not significant.

The same format is used for post frontmatter; see the post format section in
the project [`README.md`](../README.md).