Configuration

All variables are optional; defaults apply with none set.

Mindlas variables

Variable	Default	Effect
MINDLAS_HOME	~/.mindlas	Per-machine state root (session ledgers, statusline backup).
MINDLAS_PROJECT_ROOT	current dir	Read-only override for the project-local .mindlas/ root. The hooks resolve the project root from the hook payload's cwd and never write this variable — set it yourself only for tests or unusual layouts.
MINDLAS_GATE	shadow	Trust gate at propagation boundaries (commit/push/deploy/publish): off / shadow (decide and record, never halt) / live (may block the tool call).
MINDLAS_LOOP_GUARD	warn	Stop-boundary retry guard at PreToolUse: off / warn (terminal notice, never blocks) / block (deny the exact stopped command signature, citing the stop id).
MINDLAS_INTERCEPT_COMPACT	warn	PreCompact behavior: off / warn / block — block currently behaves as warn; native compact is never blocked.
MINDLAS_TESTTIER	on	0 disables the debounced background test tier. Independent of MINDLAS_GATE.
MINDLAS_TEST_PATTERNS	(unset)	Comma-separated extra substrings that classify a command as a test run (appended to built-ins: pytest, npm/yarn test, jest, go test, cargo test, mvn test, unittest, rspec, phpunit, dotnet test).
MINDLAS_BAR	segments	Progress-bar glyphs for the gauges: segments (▰▱), blocks (█░), or ascii (#-). Set blocks/ascii on a legacy Windows console whose raster font renders the parallelograms as tofu boxes.

Claude-provided variables

Variable	Effect
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR	Where the install-* commands read/write Claude Code's settings.json (default ~/.claude).
CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA	When set (plugin loaded), cold-store transcript snapshots go under ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/.mindlas; else the project .mindlas/.
CLAUDE_SESSION_ID	Expanded by the plugin slash commands into --session <uuid>; not read by the Python code directly.

Test-suite only

MINDLAS_RUN_TESTTIER=1 enables the 8 real-subprocess test-tier integration tests that the default suite skips (~3s extra; CI sets it in .github/workflows/ci.yml).