Configuration

There is no config file. Options are passed to bootstrap(), engine() or createApp(), and a few have environment fallbacks.

AppOptions

Accepted by createApp() and engine(), and inherited by bootstrap().

Option	Type	Default	Meaning
rootDir	string	process.cwd()	Project root
sourceDir	string	auto-detected	Overrides the src/ vs project-root detection
env	false | string[]	the .env cascade	.env files to load. false disables loading; an array names files explicitly. See environment variables
logLevel	LogLevel	debug in dev, info otherwise	Console log threshold
bodyLimit	number	—	Maximum request body size, in bytes
sessionSecret	string	CLOVE_SECRET env	Key used to sign the session cookie
sessionTtl	number	24 hours	Session idle lifetime, in milliseconds
exposeErrors	boolean	dev only	Include error messages and stacks in 500 responses
moduleCache	boolean	true	Cache evaluated modules. clove dev sets it false so reloads re-read files
mcpPath	string	/mcp	Path the MCP endpoint is served from
mcpServerInfo	{ name, version }	package identity	Name and version reported to MCP clients

BootstrapOptions

Everything in AppOptions, plus:

Option	Type	Default	Meaning
port	number	PORT env, else 3000	Port to listen on. 0 picks a free one
host	string	HOST env, else localhost	Interface to bind
handleSignals	boolean	true	Register SIGINT/SIGTERM handlers for graceful shutdown

import { bootstrap } from "clovejs"

await bootstrap({
  port: 8080,
  host: "0.0.0.0",
  logLevel: "info",
  sessionTtl: 60 * 60 * 1000,
})

Environment variables

Variable	Used for
PORT	Default port for bootstrap()
HOST	Default bind address for bootstrap()
CLOVE_SECRET	Session cookie signing key
NODE_ENV	Selects dev vs production defaults for logLevel and exposeErrors, and which .env.[mode] file is read

Explicit options always win over the environment.

These can come from a .env file, which Clove loads on startup. Values already present in the real environment are never overwritten by a file.

Log levels

LogLevel is one of:

"debug" | "info" | "warn" | "error" | "silent"

"silent" suppresses everything, which is what clove routes and most test setups use.

To replace the logger entirely rather than tune its level, define services/logger.ts; it takes over ctx.logger and the framework's own messages.

Source directory detection

Clove looks for src/ and falls back to the project root. Set sourceDir only when your layout is unusual:

await bootstrap({ sourceDir: "./app" })

Session configuration

Sessions activate on their own as soon as any di/ file declares lifetime: "session". The only knobs are sessionSecret and sessionTtl above, plus the store — which is a service file, not an option.