Default file:

sift.json

Sift treats $schema as editor metadata. init writes a schema URL pinned to the installed Sift version, but runtime config loading does not reject older, future, relative, or missing schema references:

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vitorsreis/sift/v2.4.3/resources/schema.json",
  "output": {
    "format": "terminal",
    "size": "compact",
    "pretty": true,
    "show_process": false,
    "colored": true
  },
  "history": {
    "enabled": true,
    "path": ".sift/history",
    "max_files": 50,
    "max_age_days": 30,
    "max_bytes_per_run": 1048576,
    "redact_secrets": true
  },
  "tools": {
    "*": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "phpstan": {
      "binary": "vendor/bin/phpstan",
      "blocked_args": [],
      "timeout": 0
    }
  }
}

• Relative paths inside sift.json resolve from the config file directory.
• Runtime defaults such as history and locks resolve from the project root.
• Global scope uses SIFT_HOME or ~/.sift.
• history.max_age_days is optional. init writes 30; omitting the field disables age-based retention.
• output.format accepts terminal or json. The default is terminal.
• output.colored enables ANSI styling for terminal output. Set it to false for plain terminal text by default.
• Tool timeouts default to 1800 seconds. Set timeout to 0 to disable the timeout.
• --json and --no-json override output.format.
• --no-color disables ANSI styling for one command, regardless of output.colored.
• help, version, tools list, and the root composer skills help always render terminal output.
• output.pretty affects JSON output only.

composer sift validate checks the document against the bundled JSON Schema and then applies semantic runtime rules. Missing config is valid because runtime defaults are valid.

Invalid config exits with code 3. Errors are terminal text by default and JSON with --json.