The strata config command reads and writes configuration. It covers two distinct things: the read-only facts about an open database, and the writable user setting that points Strata at a hub. This guide walks through all six verbs — get, get-key, set, unset, path, and show — and explains how the hub URL is resolved. For every configurable key, see the Configuration Reference.

Read a database’s config

config get prints the sanitized configuration of an open database. It needs a database target:

strata ./mydb config get

{
  "created": false,
  "default_branch": "default",
  "durable": true,
  "target": "durable_local"
}

These are facts about how the database was opened — its default branch, whether it is durable, and its storage target. They are read-only; you change them by how you open the database, not by writing config.

The global hub setting

The remaining verbs manage the user config, whose one key in this release is hub.url — the hub that clone fetches from. It lives in a global file. config path prints where:

strata config path

The path is ~/.config/strata/config.toml. Read the current key with config get-key, which returns null when nothing is set:

strata config get-key hub.url

{
  "key": "hub.url",
  "value": null
}

Set it with config set. The value is normalized (a trailing slash is added) and written to the global file:

strata config set hub.url https://hub.example.com

{
  "key": "hub.url",
  "path": "/home/you/.config/strata/config.toml",
  "value": "https://hub.example.com/"
}

The file now contains a [hub] table:

[hub]
url = "https://hub.example.com/"

Remove the key with config unset hub.url, which returns "unset": true. Once unset, config show falls back to the built-in default again.

Which hub URL wins

config show prints the resolved hub URL and the layer that supplied it. With nothing configured, that is the built-in default:

strata config show

{
  "hub.url": "https://hub.stratahub.io/",
  "source": "built-in default"
}

Set the global key and the source becomes the config file’s path. Export STRATA_HUB_URL and it wins over the file:

STRATA_HUB_URL=https://env.example.com strata config show

{
  "hub.url": "https://env.example.com/",
  "source": "STRATA_HUB_URL"
}

Run from a directory that has a .strata/config.toml with its own [hub] table, and that project file wins over the global file — but still loses to the environment variable. The full precedence, highest first:

Layer	Source	Scope
--hub <url> flag	this invocation	one hub command, e.g. clone
STRATA_HUB_URL	environment	current shell session
.strata/config.toml	project file	the working directory tree
~/.config/strata/config.toml	global file	this user
built-in default	Strata	fallback

The --hub flag sits on commands that reach a hub, such as clone, and its help states it overrides both the environment variable and the config files for that single invocation.

Next

• Cloning Datasets — put the hub URL to work.
• Observability — inspect a database’s health and facts.
• Configuration Reference — the full key list.