Configuration & env vars

This is the single reference for every runtime knob. Most have a sensible default, so a bare org needs none of them. Precedence throughout is CLI flag → environment variable → file (QUORUM.md) → built-in default.

Runtime tunables

Option	Env	Default	Meaning
tickMs	TICK_MS	10000	cycle interval in ms
concurrency	TASK_CONCURRENCY	4	max tasks run in parallel per cycle
evaluate	EVAL=off	true	run the quality gate at all
evalThreshold	EVAL_THRESHOLD	60	minimum passing score (0–100)
maxAttempts	—	2	total executions per task (initial + reworks); 2 = one rework
maxDelegations	—	3	subtasks one task may hand to reports
maxDelegationDepth	—	2	delegate → integrate chain depth cap
maxAgents	—	16	headcount ceiling for self-hiring (auto + explicit)
idleMeetingEvery	—	30	cycles between idle standing check-ins
failOpenOnUnparsedEval	—	false	auto-pass an unparseable verdict (echo/no-judge only)

The ones with a flag or env var are also settable there; the rest are runtime constructor options.

Budget

Set as budget in QUORUM.md, by env var, or with --budget (which maps to totalUsd). An omitted field means no cap.

Field	Env	Behavior when hit
totalUsd	BUDGET_TOTAL_USD	org halts for good (lifetime)
dailyUsd	BUDGET_DAILY_USD	skip cycles until the day rolls over
monthlyUsd	BUDGET_MONTHLY_USD	skip cycles until the month rolls over
perCycleUsd	BUDGET_PER_CYCLE_USD	warn + halt new dispatch mid-cycle

See Cost & budget for the full behavior.

Server

Option	Env	Flag	Default
port	PORT	--port	3000
host	HOST	--host	127.0.0.1
enabled	—	--headless disables	on
webhook secret	QUORUM_TRIGGER_SECRET	—	unset (webhooks off)

0.0.0.0 exposes an unauthenticated control plane — only bind it publicly when you mean to. The one exception is inbound webhook triggers: POST /api/trigger/<name> is fail-closed — it does nothing unless QUORUM_TRIGGER_SECRET is set, and every call must present that secret.

Brain / provider

Set per agent (or as defaults.provider). Full detail in The brain.

Field	Default	Meaning
type	claude	claude, codex, opencode, cline, copilot, hermes, kimi, droid, gemini, llm, fake
model	provider default	model id
effort	—	low | medium | high | xhigh | max (claude)
maxBudgetUsd	—	per-session spend ceiling (claude)
bin	$CLAUDE_BIN / $CODEX_BIN / binary name	path to the binary
timeoutMs	600000	per-call timeout (10 min)
retries	3	retry count on pre-effect failure
args	—	extra raw CLI args per call
launch	—	launcher prefix, e.g. ollama launch claude (claude)
oss	false	run against a local open-source model (codex)
localProvider	—	ollama | lmstudio — target of oss (codex)
sandbox	derived	read-only | workspace-write | danger-full-access (codex)
mcp	—	org-owned MCP config path(s); null disables (claude)
strictMcp	true	isolate from the operator’s own MCP servers (claude)
settingSources	—	--setting-sources value (claude)
pricing	—	override the cost-per-token table

Capabilities

allow / ask / deny, resolved per-agent → org default → base. Base defaults: allow for everything except crm (ask). See Tools & permissions.

Example: a tuned run

TASK_CONCURRENCY=6 \
EVAL_THRESHOLD=70 \
BUDGET_DAILY_USD=5 \
BUDGET_MONTHLY_USD=100 \
quorum --tick 15000 --budget 200

# ...or persist it in QUORUM.md
- budget: { "totalUsd": 200, "dailyUsd": 5, "monthlyUsd": 100 }
- defaults: { "provider": { "type": "claude", "model": "claude-opus-4-8", "effort": "medium" } }

A note on .env

For source runs you can keep configuration in a .env file and load it with Node’s built-in flag (node --env-file=.env ...). The fake brain used by tests needs none of these variables.