vestige/docs/CONFIGURATION.md

Configuration Reference

Environment variables, CLI commands, and setup options

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First-Run Network Requirement

Vestige downloads the Nomic Embed Text v1.5 model (~130MB) from Hugging Face on first use.

All subsequent runs are fully offline.

Model cache location:

• Creates .fastembed_cache/ in the current working directory on first run
• Contains symlinks to model files in ~/.cache/huggingface/

Recommended: Run your first Vestige command from your home directory:

cd ~
vestige health   # Creates ~/.fastembed_cache/ once

Or set the environment variable:

export FASTEMBED_CACHE_PATH="$HOME/.fastembed_cache"

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Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
VESTIGE_DATA_DIR	Platform default	Custom database location
VESTIGE_LOG_LEVEL	info	Logging verbosity
RUST_LOG	-	Detailed tracing output
FASTEMBED_CACHE_PATH	./.fastembed_cache	Embedding model cache location

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Command-Line Options

vestige-mcp --data-dir /custom/path   # Custom storage location
vestige-mcp --help                     # Show all options

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CLI Commands (v1.1+)

Stats and maintenance were moved from MCP to CLI to minimize context window usage:

vestige stats              # Memory statistics
vestige stats --tagging    # Retention distribution
vestige stats --states     # Cognitive state distribution
vestige health             # System health check
vestige consolidate        # Run memory maintenance
vestige restore <file>     # Restore from backup

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Claude Configuration

Claude Code (One-liner)

claude mcp add vestige vestige-mcp -s user

Claude Code (Manual)

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vestige": {
      "command": "vestige-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (macOS)

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vestige": {
      "command": "vestige-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (Windows)

Add to %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vestige": {
      "command": "vestige-mcp"
    }
  }
}

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Custom Data Directory

For per-project or custom storage:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vestige": {
      "command": "vestige-mcp",
      "args": ["--data-dir", "/path/to/custom/dir"]
    }
  }
}

See Storage Modes for more options.

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Updating Vestige

Latest version:

cd vestige
git pull
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/vestige-mcp /usr/local/bin/

Pin to specific version:

git checkout v1.1.1
cargo build --release

Check your version:

vestige-mcp --version

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Development

# Run tests
cargo test --all-features

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run --release

# Build optimized binary
cargo build --release --all-features