Vera's files and settings

Vera keeps your personal settings and conversation history in ~/.vera. Project-specific customization lives with the project. The installed application is separate from both.

For most changes, use the relevant settings screen. /configure opens configuration files in your editor, and /customize browses instructions, definitions, skills, and extensions.

Home: `~/.vera`
Path	What it is	Written by	Where
`config.json`	Provider, permission, model, extension, and hook settings.	You and Vera	In your home
`tui.json`	Display preferences and keybindings.	You and Vera	In your home
`pool.json`	Saved model catalog data.	Vera writes it	In your home
`preferences.json`	Saved permission answers.	Vera writes it	In your home
`standing-nudges.json`	Standing preferences managed through `/nudges`.	Vera writes it	In your home
`extensions.json`	Registry of installed extensions.	Vera writes it	In your home
`tips.json`	Tips already shown.	Vera writes it	In your home
`agents/`	Reusable agent definitions for every project.	You and Vera	In your home
`skills/`	Installed skills, one directory each with a `SKILL.md`.	You write it	In your home
`extensions/`	Installed extensions.	Vera writes it	In your home
`hooks/`	Executables for command hooks.	You write it	In your home
`rules/`	Rules that apply in every project, one markdown file each.	You write it	In your home
`memory/`	Existing memory files. Loading and writing are disabled.	Vera writes it	In your home
`machine/`	Credentials and live process records.	Vera writes it	In your home
`machine/auth.json`	Saved subscription authentication.	Vera writes it	In your home
`machine/live/`	Registrations of running Vera processes.	Vera writes it	In your home
`runtime/`	Host socket, databases, and caches.	Vera writes it	In your home
`runtime/sessions/`	Saved conversation files.	Vera writes it	In your home
`runtime/logs/`	Diagnostic logs.	Vera writes it	In your home
`runtime/logs/host.jsonl`	The host log.	Vera writes it	In your home
`runtime/logs/reviewer.jsonl`	One record per permission classifier request.	Vera writes it	In your home

Project: `your-project`
Path	What it is	Written by	Where
`AGENTS.md`	Project instructions shared with everyone on the project.	You write it	Committed
`AGENTS.local.md`	Your own instructions for this project.	You write it	Not committed
`.vera/`	Project configuration and customization.	You write it	Committed
`.vera/config.json`	Project configuration.	You write it	Committed
`.vera/agents/`	Agent definitions for this project.	You and Vera	Committed
`.vera/skills/`	Skills for this project.	You write it	Committed
`.vera/rules/`	Rules for this project, one markdown file each.	You write it	Committed

The files Vera reads and writes, in your home and in a project.

Find what you need

You want to	Start here
Connect a provider or change credentials	Configure providers
Choose or assign a model	Models and defaults
Edit a home or project setting	Configuration files
Inspect instructions or a skill	Customize
Change keyboard shortcuts	Keybindings
Return to saved work	Saved conversations

Home settings apply to this Vera home. An existing project configuration at .vera/config.json appears separately in /configure.

Outrider’s guided setup is off by default. To offer it in provider setup, add "experimental": { "outrider_onboarding": true } to Home config through /configure.

Files you can customize

These paths are inside ~/.vera:

Path	Purpose
`config.json`	Provider, permission, model, extension, and hook settings.
`tui.json`	Display preferences and keybindings.
`skills/`	Installed skills.
`agents/`	Reusable definitions.
`hooks/`	Executables named by the `hooks` list in `config.json`. See Hooks.
`rules/`	Rules that apply in every project.
`extensions/`	Installed extensions.
`standing-nudges.json`	Preferences managed through `/nudges`.
`tui-themes.json`	Your own themes for the TUI.

Use a validating settings screen when one is available. The file editor is useful for settings without a dedicated control.

Files in a project

These paths are relative to the project root:

Path	Purpose
`AGENTS.md`	Project instructions, included in every request.
`AGENTS.local.md`	Your own project instructions, loaded the same way. Keep it out of git.
`.vera/config.json`	Project configuration.
`.vera/agents/`	Agent definitions for this project.
`.vera/skills/`	Skills for this project. A project skill wins over a home skill with the same name.
`.vera/rules/`	Rules for this project.

Vera reads AGENTS.md and AGENTS.local.md from the project root only. It does not look for them in parent directories.

Data Vera manages

These files support the application and its saved work. Use the corresponding Vera screen or command to manage them.

Path inside `~/.vera`	Contents
`runtime/sessions/`	Saved conversation files.
`runtime/logs/`	Diagnostic logs. Vera deletes logs older than seven days; `log_max_age_days` in `config.json` changes that.
`runtime/`	Host socket, databases, and caches.
`machine/`	Credentials and live process records.
`pool.json`	Saved model catalog data.
`preferences.json`	Saved permission answers.
`extensions.json`	Installed-extension registry.
`tips.json`	Tips already shown.
`memory/`	Existing memory files; loading and writing are disabled.

One resident host owns a home’s runtime directory. Clients attached to it share live conversations. Existing memory files may appear in Customize but are not recalled into requests.

Use a separate development home

VERA_HOME relocates the entire tree for tests and development instances. There is no profile flag or separate runtime-directory selector. Use development instances to test a checkout apart from your daily Vera.

An older home containing profiles/ is refused with instructions to run vera migrate-home.