Configuration

Configuration file

Sibyl reads its configuration from ~/.sibyl/config.json, created with sensible defaults on first run. It has two sections:

{
  "plugins": {
    "search": "builtin-searxng-search",
    "fetch": "builtin-crawl4ai-fetch",
    "parse": "builtin-parse-htmlToMd",
    "ask": "builtin-ai-ask"
  },
  "variables": [
    {
      "name": "SIBYL_SHOW_SEARCH_DESCRIPTION",
      "value": "true"
    }
  ]
}

The plugins section

Maps each plugin type (search / fetch / ask / parse) to the name of the plugin to use for it. Exactly one plugin per type. The value must match a plugin's name (a built-in like builtin-exa-search, or one of your custom-written plugins).

The built-in plugins are:

1. SearXNG Search - builtin-searxng-search
2. Crawl4AI Fetch - builtin-crawl4ai-fetch
3. Exa Search - builtin-exa-search
4. Exa Fetch - builtin-exa-fetch
5. Firecrawl Search - builtin-firecrawl-search
6. Firecrawl Fetch - builtin-firecrawl-fetch
7. AlterLab Search - builtin-alterlab-search
8. AlterLab Fetch - builtin-alterlab-fetch
9. Bright Data Search - builtin-brightdata-search
10. Bright Data Fetch - builtin-brightdata-fetch
11. AI Ask (Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, OpenRouter) - builtin-ai-ask
12. HTML to Markdown Parse - builtin-parse-htmlToMd

The variables section

A list of { name, value } pairs injected into the process environment at startup. Use this to provide secrets and settings (e.g., API keys) that plugins read via process.env.

Precedence: Variable in the configuration file wins over the environment. A variable defined here overrides any existing environment variable of the same name; anything not listed here falls back to the real environment. For example, a plugin reading process.env.EXA_API_KEY gets the configuration value if present, otherwise whatever was exported in your shell.

Plugin environment variables

Each built-in plugin reads the variables below (set them via variables or the real environment, per the precedence rule above). A required variable causes the plugin to error if it is not set.

All search plugins also honor the following environment variables:

1. SIBYL_SEARCH_RESULTS_LIMIT (default 10): Sibyl passes it to the search provider if it supports a result-count parameter, and always slices the returned results down to this limit.
2. SIBYL_SHOW_SEARCH_DESCRIPTION (default true): When "true", includes result snippet/description in the output.

Here is a list of all the environment variables for the built-in plugins:

SearXNG Search

Requires a SearXNG instance with the JSON output format enabled. See more at https://github.com/searxng/searxng/discussions/3542

Crawl4AI Fetch

Requires a Crawl4AI server, e.g., via Docker. See more at https://hub.docker.com/r/unclecode/crawl4ai

Exa Search

Exa Fetch

Firecrawl Search

Firecrawl Fetch

AlterLab Search

AlterLab Fetch

Bright Data Search

Bright Data Fetch

AI Ask

Reads a URL through the configured fetch plugin, then asks an LLM the question against that content. A working fetch plugin must also be configured (plugins.fetch).

HTML to Markdown Parse

No environment variables.