Configuration

Setting up Constellation requires two steps, authenticating with your access key and configuring your project settings.

Authentication

The Constellation CLI and MCP server both require a valid access key to authenticate with the Constellation service.

Getting Your Access Key

1. Log in to app.constellationdev.io
2. Navigate to Management -> Access Keys
3. Generate a new Access Key

Setting Up Authentication

The access key must be set as the CONSTELLATION_ACCESS_KEY environment variable. The easiest way to configure this is using the CLI tool auth command:

constellation auth

This command will prompt you for your access key and automatically set the environment variable on your system (Windows, macOS, and Linux).

Alternatively, you can manually set the environment variable:

macOS/Linux:

Add the following line to your shell profile "run commands" file (~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc for example):

export CONSTELLATION_ACCESS_KEY="your-access-key-here"

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:CONSTELLATION_ACCESS_KEY="your-access-key-here"

Project Configuration

The CLI and MCP server both use a constellation.json file in your project repository root folder for project-specific configuration. You can create this file manually or use the init command to generate it interactively:

constellation init

This will guide you through creating a properly configured constellation.json file.

Example Configuration File

{
  "projectId": "proj:00000000000000000000000000000000",
  "branch": "main",
  "languages": {
    "typescript": {
      "fileExtensions": [".ts", ".tsx"]
    },
    "javascript": {
      "fileExtensions": [".js", ".jsx"]
    }
  },
  "exclude": ["tests/**"]
}

Configuration Fields

• projectId: Unique project identifier (from your Constellation web dashboard)
• branch: Git branch to track and index (e.g., "main", "develop")
• languages: Language configuration mapping language names to file extensions
• exclude: Optional glob patterns for paths or files to exclude from indexing