Configuration

MINT reads configuration from four sources, in increasing order of precedence:

1. Built-in defaults — used when no other source overrides them.
2. config.json — normally ./config.json; if MINT_SERVER__DATA_PATH is set, MINT uses <dataPath>/config.json when that file exists or when ./config.json is absent.
3. .env — dotenv-style key/value pairs in the working directory.
4. Environment variables — keys prefixed MINT_, with nested fields joined by __ (e.g., MINT_DATABASE__MODE=postgresql).

For most installations, editing config.json is the only configuration step. There is no separate MINT_CONFIG_PATH setting in the current platform; choose the config location by running from the directory that contains config.json, or by setting MINT_SERVER__DATA_PATH and placing the file at <dataPath>/config.json. Environment variables are useful for containerized deployments where a config file is awkward.

Top-level schema

{
  "platformName": "MINT",
  "devMode": false,
  "setupCompleted": false,
  "server": { "...": "..." },
  "database": { "...": "..." },
  "auth": { "...": "..." },
  "plugins": { "...": "..." },
  "marketplace": { "...": "..." },
  "updates": { "...": "..." },
  "logging": { "...": "..." },
  "errorReporting": { "...": "..." },
  "observability": { "...": "..." },
  "access": { "...": "..." },
  "corsOrigins": []
}

The full schema is defined in api/config/models.py using Pydantic — that file is the authoritative reference. The summary below covers the keys most installations touch.

devMode

{ "devMode": false }

When true:

• Authentication is bypassed on every route; anyone hitting the URL is treated as admin
• Database mode is forced to local SQLite, regardless of the configured database section

Never expose dev mode

Dev mode is for local development and evaluation only. Never enable it on a host reachable from the network.

server

Key	Default	Description
apiMountPath	/api	API mount path
dataPath	./data	Runtime state directory
rpId	""	WebAuthn relying-party ID
rpName	MINT	WebAuthn relying-party display name
externalUrl	""	Public platform URL, used for frontend/plugin context

database

Key	Default	Description
mode	none	One of none (auth/passkeys only; experiments/projects disabled), sqlite, postgresql
host	localhost	PostgreSQL host
port	5432	PostgreSQL port
databaseName	mint_db	PostgreSQL database name

{
  "database": {
    "mode": "postgresql",
    "host": "localhost",
    "port": 5432,
    "databaseName": "mint_db"
  },
  "DB_USERNAME": "mint",
  "DB_PASSWORD": "secret"
}

PostgreSQL credentials are top-level settings named DB_USERNAME and DB_PASSWORD in config.json (or MINT_DB_USERNAME / MINT_DB_PASSWORD in the environment), not nested under database.

auth

Key	Default	Description
enableAuth	true	Require authentication
enablePasskey	true	Enable WebAuthn registration and login
jwtSecretKey	auto-generated if empty	Secret used to sign JWTs
tokenExpireMinutes	1440	Token lifetime

plugins

Key	Default	Description
loadFromEntryPoints	true	Discover plugins via the mint.plugins entry-point group
plugins	[]	Explicit plugin module/class entries from config
extraIndexUrls	[]	Additional Python package indexes for plugin installs
settings	{}	Centralized per-plugin settings passed to apply_settings()

marketplace

Key	Default	Description
registryUrl	https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MorscherLab/mint-registry/main/registry.json	Where to fetch the plugin catalog
cacheTtlMinutes	60	Registry cache lifetime
autoUpdatePlugins	{}	Per-plugin marketplace auto-update toggles

updates

Key	Default	Description
autoCheckEnabled	false	Enable background update checks
checkIntervalHours	24	Polling interval
platformRepo	MorscherLab/MINT	Source of platform releases
githubToken	""	Optional GitHub API token; also read from MINT_GITHUB_TOKEN or GITHUB_TOKEN
includePrereleases	false	Include prereleases when checking GitHub releases
pluginSources	{}	Per-plugin GitHub release sources

See Updates for the wider picture.

observability

Key	Default	Description
enabled	false	Enable OpenTelemetry tracing
serviceName	mint-platform	Service name used in traces
otlpEndpoint	http://localhost:4317	OTLP endpoint URL
otlpProtocol	grpc	OTLP protocol
traceSampleRate	1.0	Trace sampling rate

When observability.enabled is false, instrumentation is a no-op.

access

Key	Default	Description
experimentVisibilityMode	open	open keeps normal project-level experiment visibility; restricted limits experiment lists to creators, collaborators, and experiments in projects the user can access

corsOrigins

{ "corsOrigins": ["https://mint.example.org"] }

When empty, production CORS allows no cross-origin browser calls. In dev mode, MINT automatically allows the local frontend/backend origins used by the dev server.

logging and errorReporting

Section	Keys
logging	level, fileEnabled, filePath, maxBytes, backupCount
errorReporting	enabled, githubRepo, githubToken, minLevel, cooldownSeconds, labels

Environment variable mapping

Nested keys use __ (double underscore) as the separator, and MINT_ as the prefix. Examples:

Config key	Env var
devMode	MINT_DEV_MODE
server.dataPath	MINT_SERVER__DATA_PATH
database.mode	MINT_DATABASE__MODE
database.databaseName	MINT_DATABASE__DATABASE_NAME
auth.jwtSecretKey	MINT_AUTH__JWT_SECRET_KEY
marketplace.registryUrl	MINT_MARKETPLACE__REGISTRY_URL
updates.platformRepo	MINT_UPDATES__PLATFORM_REPO

Booleans accept true/false/1/0. JSON values can be embedded literally.

Storage path layout

The configured server.dataPath (default ./data) holds platform runtime state:

Subdirectory	Contents
mint.db	SQLite database when database.mode is sqlite
passkeys.json	Passkey storage in local/file-backed mode
plugin_registry.json	Persistent plugin registry metadata
marketplace/	Marketplace registry cache
plugins/uploads/	Uploaded .mint bundles and extracted install payloads
plugins/manifest.json	Restore manifest for dynamically installed plugin bundles
plugins/snapshots/	Pre-install / pre-upgrade Python environment snapshots
plugins/<plugin>/venv/	Isolated plugin virtual environments when subprocess isolation is used
plugins/<plugin>/config.json	Legacy per-plugin settings fallback

Removing marketplace/ is safe; it regenerates on demand. Removing plugins/snapshots/ discards rollback history.

Next

→ Install on Linux (direct) — start the platform with a given config → Platform commands — mint experiment, mint project, …