Remove all config cli commands, replace with config file

[bhouston]

The cli config commands is a nightmare for maintenance and testing. Instead follow the pattern of prettier and eslint and similar tools and have a config file that has to be created by something else and just read it.

Will simplify and allow focus on real feature again.

[bhouston]

/mycoder could you do an analysis of the current config system in the cli tool and also how eslint works with eslint.config.js files and how we could replace the current config system with an eslint like system that relies on a single mycoder.config.js file that returns as its default export the user's desired configuration? There must be a standard way of loading these files, like is there an npm library that all these tool makers are using to load their config files? What library should we use? Please develop an implementation plan as well. Please post these as comments on this issue.

[bhouston]

MyCoder Configuration System Analysis and Implementation Plan

Current Configuration System Analysis

I've analyzed the current MyCoder configuration system, which uses a CLI-based approach with config commands (get, set, list, clear). The system stores configuration in JSON files at global (~/.mycoder/config.json) and project (.mycoder/config.json) levels, with a merging priority of default < global < project < CLI options.

Current configuration options include settings for GitHub mode, headless mode, model selection, API keys, and more.

ESLint and Other Tools Configuration Approaches

Modern JavaScript tools like ESLint, Prettier, and Babel use file-based configuration that's automatically loaded from the project directory. Most of these tools use a library called cosmiconfig to handle configuration discovery and loading.

ESLint's new approach uses eslint.config.js which exports a configuration object that's automatically detected and loaded.

The cosmiconfig library searches for configuration in multiple places:

• A property in package.json
• A .config.[name] file (.js, .json, .yaml)
• A .[name]rc file (with or without extensions)

Implementation Plan for mycoder.config.js

1. Add Dependencies

Add cosmiconfig to the CLI package:

pnpm add cosmiconfig --filter mycoder

2. Create Configuration Loader Module

Create a new file packages/cli/src/settings/config-loader.ts to handle loading configuration from files using cosmiconfig.

3. Update Existing Configuration System

Modify the current configuration system to check for file-based configuration first, while maintaining backward compatibility with the existing JSON storage.

4. Update CLI Commands

Add deprecation warnings for config commands and add a command to generate a sample configuration file.

5. Create Documentation

Create documentation explaining the new approach and migration path.

6. Sample Configuration File

Here's a sample mycoder.config.js file:

// mycoder.config.js
export default {
  // GitHub integration
  githubMode: true,
  
  // Browser settings
  headless: false,
  userSession: true,
  pageFilter: 'simple',
  
  // Model settings
  provider: 'anthropic',
  model: 'claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219',
  maxTokens: 4096,
  temperature: 0.7,
  
  // Custom settings
  customPrompt: 'You are an AI assistant helping with coding tasks.',
  profile: false,
  tokenCache: true,
  
  // API keys (better to use environment variables for these)
  // ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: 'your-api-key',
};

Implementation Timeline

1. Phase 1: Add file-based configuration support with cosmiconfig
2. Phase 2: Enhance with deprecation warnings and migration utilities
3. Phase 3: Transition to prioritizing file-based configuration in docs

Benefits

This approach will:

1. Simplify the codebase by removing complex CLI command handling
2. Follow industry standards for tool configuration
3. Make it easier for users to version-control their configuration
4. Improve maintainability and testing
5. Allow for more complex configuration structures in the future

The implementation can be done incrementally while maintaining backward compatibility, ensuring a smooth transition for existing users.

[bhouston]

/mycoder let's implement the new cosmiconfig-based configuration method. Let's not worry about backwards compatibility, so please do not check for the old style of configuration files and also please just remove outright all of the "config" cli commands/options. Although do keep the CLI overrides like --githubMode --userSession --headless etc, those are useful. The idea of an "init" command that creates a default mycoder.config.js if it doesn't exist is a good idea. Let's do that. So let's do an implementation of this, push it to a branch and then make a PR back to the project.

[github-actions]

🎉 This issue has been resolved in version mycoder-v1.1.0 🎉

The release is available on:

• pnpm package (@latest dist-tag)
• GitHub release

Your semantic-release bot 📦🚀