configuration.md

dde uses two YAML configuration files: a global config for system-wide defaults and a project config for per-project settings.

Global Configuration

Located at ~/.dde/config.yml. This file is not created automatically — create it manually when you need to override defaults. All settings are optional.

# Default output format (text or json)
output: text

# Browser that `dde project:open` launches the project URL with.
# Path or name of an executable that accepts a URL as its argument.
# Omit it to use the platform default (open / xdg-open / start).
default_browser: /usr/bin/firefox

# Upstream DNS servers for non-.test queries
dns:
  forward:
    - 9.9.9.9
    - 149.112.112.112

# SSH keys to load (empty = all keys in ~/.ssh/)
ssh:
  keys:
    - ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

# Default service versions
services:
  mariadb:
    version: "11.8"
  postgres:
    version: "18.3"
  valkey:
    version: "9"

Project Configuration

Located at .dde/config.yml in the project root. Created by dde project:init.

name: my-app
services:
  - mariadb
  - valkey
containers:
  web:
    shell: zsh

Services

Services can be specified as a simple string (uses the global default version) or with an explicit version:

services:
  - mariadb                    # uses default version
  - name: mariadb              # pins a specific version
    version: "10.6"

Available services: mariadb, postgres, valkey, mailpit.

Containers

Per-container settings, keyed by the service name in your docker-compose.yml:

containers:
  web:
    shell: zsh    # override shell for dde project:shell

Hostnames

dde assigns a meaningful hostname to every project container so the shell prompt inside the container shows <project>-<service> (e.g. beispiel-web) instead of the random Docker container ID. The hostname is derived from the project name and the compose service name and sanitized to a valid RFC 1123 label (lowercase, a-z0-9-, max 63 chars).

To opt out, set an explicit hostname: on the service in your docker-compose.yml — dde leaves it untouched.

Override Order

Settings are resolved with the following priority (highest first):

1. CLI arguments (--output=json)
2. Project config (.dde/config.yml)
3. Global config (~/.dde/config.yml)
4. Built-in defaults

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
DDE_CONFIG_DIR	~/.dde	Global configuration directory
DDE_DATA_DIR	~/.dde/data	Data directory (services, certs)
DDE_UID	Current user's UID	UID for the container user
DDE_GID	Current user's GID	GID for the container user
DDE_SHELL	Auto-detected (zsh > bash > sh)	Override container shell