agent-zero/helpers/settings.py.dox.md

settings.py DOX

Purpose

• Own the settings.py helper module.
• This module defines settings models, defaults, validation, and serialization.
• Keep this file-level DOX profile synchronized with settings.py because this directory is intentionally flat.

Ownership

• settings.py owns the runtime implementation.
• settings.py.dox.md owns durable notes about responsibilities, contracts, side effects, and verification for that implementation.
• Classes:
• Settings (TypedDict)
• PartialSettings (Settings)
• FieldOption (TypedDict)
• SettingsField (TypedDict)
• SettingsSection (TypedDict)
• ModelProvider (ProvidersFO)
• SettingsOutputAdditional (TypedDict)
• SettingsOutput (TypedDict)
• Top-level functions:
• get_default_value(name: str, value: T) -> T: Load setting value from .env with A0_SET_ prefix, falling back to default.
• _ensure_option_present(options: list[OptionT] | None, current_value: str | None) -> list[OptionT]: Ensure the currently selected value exists in a dropdown options list.
• _is_valid_timezone(value: str) -> bool
• _normalize_timezone_setting(value: Any, default: str=...) -> str
• _normalize_time_format(value: Any, default: str=...) -> str
• _normalize_ui_control_visibility(value: Any) -> dict[str, dict[str, bool]]
• _resolve_runtime_timezone(setting_value: str, browser_timezone: str | None=...) -> str
• _timezone_options() -> list[FieldOption]
• convert_out(settings: Settings) -> SettingsOutput
• _get_api_key_field(settings: Settings, provider: str, title: str) -> SettingsField
• convert_in(settings: Settings) -> Settings
• get_settings() -> Settings
• reload_settings() -> Settings
• set_runtime_settings_snapshot(settings: Settings) -> None
• version_cache_scope(version: str | None = None): Reuse only the Git version within one synchronous operation, expiring inherited copies on exit.
• set_settings(settings: Settings, apply: bool=..., browser_timezone: str | None=...)
• set_settings_delta(delta: dict, apply: bool=...)
• merge_settings(original: Settings, delta: dict) -> Settings
• normalize_settings(settings: Settings) -> Settings
• _adjust_to_version(settings: Settings, default: Settings)
• _load_sensitive_settings(settings: Settings)
• _read_settings_file() -> Settings | None
• _write_settings_file(settings: Settings)
• _remove_sensitive_settings(settings: Settings)
• _write_sensitive_settings(settings: Settings)
• get_default_settings() -> Settings
• _apply_timezone_setting(previous: Settings | None, browser_timezone: str | None=...) -> None
• _apply_settings(previous: Settings | None, browser_timezone: str | None=...)
• _env_to_dict(data: str)
• _dict_to_env(data_dict)
• set_root_password(password: str)
• get_runtime_config(set: Settings)
• Notable constants/configuration names: T, PASSWORD_PLACEHOLDER, API_KEY_PLACEHOLDER, TIMEZONE_AUTO, TIME_FORMAT_12H, TIME_FORMAT_24H, UI_CONTROL_VISIBILITY_DEFAULTS, SETTINGS_FILE.

Runtime Contracts

• Settings reads use models.get_api_key_raw() to preserve complete key lists without advancing runtime rotation or persisting keys synthesized by runtime hooks. Masking, authentication reloads, and intentional clearing retain their existing behavior.

• ui_control_visibility accepts dynamic canvas:<surface-id> entries as well as built-in controls, normalizes device values to booleans (default shown), and preserves choices for temporarily unavailable plugins.

• file_browser_max_text_size_mb persists the instance-wide text-editing limit, default 10 MiB and normalized to 1–100. FileBrowser reads it directly so its scoped settings API can update it without restarting or reinitializing agents.

• file_browser_max_transfer_size_mb independently persists the Files transfer limit, default 100 MiB, normalized to a positive integer without an upper ceiling. It does not change Backup & Restore or WebSocket limits.

• Helper modules own reusable framework APIs and must preserve public callers unless all callers, tests, and docs are updated together.

• Update this file whenever public functions, classes, persistence behavior, path/security assumptions, side effects, or cross-module contracts change.

• Observed side-effect areas: filesystem reads, filesystem writes, filesystem deletion, network calls, subprocess/runtime control, model calls, WebSocket state, plugin state, settings/state persistence, secret handling, scheduler state.

• Imported dependency areas include: base64, hashlib, helpers, helpers.notification, helpers.print_style, helpers.providers, helpers.secrets, json, models, os, pytz, re, subprocess, typing.

Key Concepts

• Important called helpers/classes observed in the source: TypeVar, files.get_abs_path, dotenv.get_dotenv_value, opts.insert, str.strip, _is_valid_timezone, str.strip.lower, _normalize_timezone_setting, SettingsOutput, get_default_settings, _ensure_option_present, _resolve_runtime_timezone, get_default_secrets_manager, get_settings, get_settings_for_prompt, normalize_settings, _load_sensitive_settings, deepcopy, settings.copy, _write_settings_file, reload_settings, set_settings, initialize_agent.
• Applying settings refreshes active context configs while preserving each subordinate agent's own profile.
• version_cache_scope() eagerly resolves or accepts a Git version in a task-local scope. Settings application and persisted-chat loading reuse it while retaining per-agent normalization, credential reads, and initialization hooks. Nested scopes restore their parent even on failure. Each scope clears its cache on exit so inherited task contexts cannot retain or repopulate an expired version; reads outside an active scope resolve the version afresh.
• Applying settings starts a deferred MCPConfig.update(...) with the current mcp_servers string when global MCP server settings change.
• get_settings() retains normalize-on-read behavior. Prompt-building callers explicitly use get_settings_for_prompt() to reuse one task-local snapshot within each Agent.prepare_prompt() call.
• Explicit reloads also refresh an active prompt snapshot.
• max_consecutive_unusable_responses defaults to 5 and controls the cost circuit breaker for malformed or repeated main-model outputs.
• ui_control_visibility stores validated mobile and desktop visibility flags for the project selector, clock, connection status, context-window usage indicator, and right canvas rail; missing or malformed values fall back per device.
• The Global default-profile selector lists only globally available profiles. A currently configured unavailable profile remains visible with an explicit unavailable label so settings can round-trip it truthfully, except that the exact default utility profile is never offered as a selectable option.
• Legacy settings that still name the hidden default utility profile normalize to agent0, so newly created chats always start with a selectable profile.
• Keep request/response, tool, or helper semantics documented here at the same time as source changes.

Work Guidance

• Preserve public helper APIs used by core code and plugins unless every caller is updated.
• Keep path, auth, secret, persistence, network, and subprocess behavior explicit and bounded.
• Prefer adding cohesive helper functions here only when behavior is reused across modules.

Verification

• Run targeted tests for changed helper behavior; run security regressions for auth, filesystem, WebSocket, tunnel, upload, or secret-handling helpers.
• Related tests observed by source search:
  • tests/test_settings_cache.py
  • tests/test_settings_api_keys.py
  • tests/test_settings_mcp.py
  • tests/test_browser_agent_regressions.py
  • tests/test_document_query_plugin.py
  • tests/test_download_toast_regressions.py
  • tests/test_fasta2a_client.py
  • tests/test_mcp_handler_multimodal.py
  • tests/test_model_config_api_keys.py
  • tests/test_model_config_project_presets.py
  • tests/test_oauth_static.py
  • tests/test_subagent_profiles.py

Child DOX Index

No child DOX files.

file_browser_max_extract_size_mb (default100 MiB) and file_browser_max_archive_entries (default1000) are independently configurable positive integers without upper ceilings. They govern File Browser archive operations, not Backup & Restore.