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Configuration#

Installation#

Eca is written in Clojure and compiled into a native binary via graalvm.

Auto install

ECA is already automatically downloaded and updated in all editor plugins, so you don't need to handle it manually, even so, if you want that, check the other methods.

ECA is already downloaded automatically by your ECA editor plugin, so you just need to install the plugin for your editor:

Stable release:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/editor-code-assistant/eca/master/install)

Or if facing issues with command above: 

curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/editor-code-assistant/eca/master/install | sudo bash

nightly build:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/editor-code-assistant/eca/master/install) --version nightly --dir ~/

We have a custom tap using the native compiled binaries for users that use homebrew:

brew install editor-code-assistant/brew/eca

Install using mise 

# Install the plugin
mise plugin install eca https://github.com/editor-code-assistant/eca-mise-plugin

# Install latest version ECA
mise install eca
mise use -g eca

# or install and use
# desired version
mise install eca@0.58.0
mise use -g eca@0.58.0

# Verify installation
eca --version

You can download the native binaries from Github Releases, although it's easy to have outdated ECA using this way.

Ways to configure#

There are multiples ways to configure ECA:

Convenient for users and multiple projects

~/.config/eca/config.json
{
  "defaultAgent": "plan"
}

Convenient for users

.eca/config.json
{
  "defaultAgent": "plan"
}

Convenient for editors but uncommon

Client editors can pass custom settings when sending the initialize request via the initializationOptions object:

"initializationOptions": {
  "defaultAgent": "plan"
}

Via env var during server process spawn:

ECA_CONFIG='{"myConfig": "my_value"}' eca server

Dynamic string contents#

It's possible to retrieve content of any configs with a string value using the ${key:value} approach, being key:

  • file: ${file:/path/to/my-file} or ${file:../rel-path/to/my-file} to get a file content
  • env: ${env:MY_ENV} to get a system env value with support for default values: ${env:MY_ENV:foo}
  • classpath: ${classpath:path/to/eca/file} to get a file content from ECA's classpath
  • netrc: Support Unix RC credential files

Info

This is supported in markdown configurations of agents and skills as well, giving flexibility to template it.

Schema#

ECA has a config.json schema to validate and autocomplete in your editor.

Default config#

By default ECA consider the following as the base configuration: 

    {
      "providers": {
          "openai": {"url": "https://api.openai.com"},
          "anthropic": {"url": "https://api.anthropic.com"},
          "github-copilot": {"url": "https://api.githubcopilot.com"},
          "google": {"url": "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/openai"},
          "ollama": {"url": "http://localhost:11434"}
      },
      "defaultModel": null, // let ECA decides the default model.
      "netrcFile": null, // search ~/.netrc or ~/_netrc when null.
      "hooks": {},
      "rules" : [],
      "commands" : [],
      "disabledTools": [],
      "toolCall": {
        "approval": {
          "byDefault": "ask",
          "allow": {"eca__directory_tree": {},
                    "eca__read_file": {},
                    "eca__grep": {},
                    "eca__preview_file_change": {},
                    "eca__editor_diagnostics": {}},
          "ask": {},
          "deny": {}
        },
        "readFile": {
          "maxLines": 2000
        },
        "shellCommand": {
          "summaryMaxLength": 30
        }
      },
      "mcpTimeoutSeconds" : 60,
      "lspTimeoutSeconds" : 30,
      "mcpServers" : {},
      "agent": {
        "code": {"prompts": {"chat": "${classpath:prompts/code_agent.md}"},
                 "disabledTools": ["preview_file_change"]},
        "plan": {"prompts": {"chat": "${classpath:prompts/plan_agent.md}"},
                  "disabledTools": ["edit_file", "write_file", "move_file"],
                  "toolCall": {"approval": {"deny": {"eca__shell_command":
                                                     {"argsMatchers": {"command": [".*[12&]?>>?\\s*(?!/dev/null($|\\s))(?!&\\d+($|\\s))\\S+.*",
                                                                                  ".*\\|\\s*(tee|dd|xargs).*",
                                                                                  ".*\\b(sed|awk|perl)\\s+.*-i.*",
                                                                                  ".*\\b(rm|mv|cp|touch|mkdir)\\b.*",
                                                                                  ".*git\\s+(add|commit|push).*",
                                                                                  ".*npm\\s+install.*",
                                                                                  ".*-c\\s+[\"'].*open.*[\"']w[\"'].*",
                                                                                  ".*bash.*-c.*[12&]?>>?\\s*(?!/dev/null($|\\s))(?!&\\d+($|\\s))\\S+.*"]}}}}}}
      },
      "defaultAgent": "code",
      "welcomeMessage" : "Welcome to ECA!\n\nType '/' for commands\n\n",
      "autoCompactPercentage": 85,
      "index" : {
        "ignoreFiles" : [ {
          "type" : "gitignore"
        } ],
        "repoMap": {
          "maxTotalEntries": 800,
          "maxEntriesPerDir": 50
        }
      },
      "prompts": {
        "chat": "${classpath:prompts/code_agent.md}", // default to code agent
        "chatTitle": "${classpath:prompts/title.md}",
        "compact": "${classpath:prompts/compact.md}",
        "init": "${classpath:prompts/init.md}",
        "completion": "${classpath:prompts/inline_completion.md}",
        "rewrite": "${classpath:prompts/rewrite.md}"
      },
      "completion": {
        "model": "openai/gpt-4.1"
      }
    }

Network / Enterprise

For more details about configuring eca with mTLS or custom CA certificates, check network page