Settings and environment variables

Most of Piomio is set up in the chat: you say what you want, and the assistant changes it or shows a card with buttons. The Settings panel holds the same things as a second way, plus a few that only you may change. Environment variables are for what has to be known before the hub starts: addresses, ports, folders and security walls.

Change settings in the chat#

Just say it: "turn on quiet hours from 22:00", "my time zone is Europe/Berlin", "send the digest at 8:30 and 18:00", "answer me in Russian". The assistant can change:

• the time zone, the hub language and the default agent;
• quiet hours, digest times and notifications per hour;
• parallel sessions per brain;
• whether the default agent's replies to what you type in the web UI also go to Telegram;
• auto mode, or asking you every time (turning auto mode on shows you a card first, see Approvals and auto mode).

It also connects plugins and services, changes their settings and makes agents. The rest of the General page is yours alone: the network allowlists, the approval timings, the details in Telegram and the speech-to-text choice. Ask for those, and the assistant points you to the panel.

The Settings panel#

Settings at the bottom of the sidebar opens the panel next to the chat (full screen on a phone). Its sections:

General#

The hub's own settings. Change what you need and press Save (at the top and at the bottom). They apply to the whole hub, and the page picks up what the assistant changed in the chat meanwhile.

Time zone and default agent#

• Time zone: for schedules, quiet hours and digests. It starts as the computer's time zone (TZ).
• Default agent: opens first, answers in Telegram and picks up new tasks. An archived agent can't be the default.

Language#

• Interface language in this browser: saved only in this browser; the page reloads after a change.
• Hub language: notifications, Telegram messages, approval cards and agent replies use it, and so does the interface in browsers that haven't picked their own. It is set from the first user's browser during setup, unless PIOMIO_LANG pins it.

Notifications#

• Quiet hours (on, 23:00 to 08:00): notifications arrive silently, and anything unimportant waits until morning.
• Digest times (09:00 and 19:00): type HH:MM and press Enter to add one.
• Notifications per hour (4, from 0 to 100): the limit on urgent notifications per trigger.

See Tasks, schedules and the Inbox.

Approvals#

• Wait for a decision, sec (45, from 0 to 600): how long an agent waits for your answer before it postpones the action.
• Approval lifetime, h (24, from 1 to 720): after that the request is cancelled.
• Show details in Telegram (off): the action's full parameters in the Telegram message. Off, it is a short summary and a link to the console.

See Approvals and auto mode.

Brains#

• Parallel sessions per brain (2, from 1 to 16): how many tasks and agent threads run at once on one brain on one computer. The rest wait in line; your own conversations never wait.
• Extra allowed hosts: where brains may connect besides the default list (Anthropic, OpenAI, Kimi, GitHub, npm and the like). Wildcards like *.example.com work.

Voice messages#

Voice messages and audio files are turned into text before the agent answers.

• Speech to text: Automatic: OpenAI or Groq, whichever key the vault has (the default), Groq (has a free tier), OpenAI, My own server (OpenAI-compatible) or Off. The keys are groq_api_key and openai_api_key in the vault; the assistant asks for one in the chat when it needs it.
• Model: empty means the service's default.
• Server address and Key in the vault: for your own server, for example a local Whisper. The address goes up to /audio/transcriptions, such as http://127.0.0.1:8000/v1.

Under the choice you see what works now, or that nothing is set up and voice messages reach the agent as audio files.

Plugins' cards#

Each plugin with settings has a card here: its keys, typed straight into the vault, and its own options. See Plugins and integrations.

Security#

Open console opens the security console, where the password, passkeys, the vault, rules and the audit log live. Sign out signs this browser out.

This app#

Only in the desktop app: Quit Piomio stops it until you open it again, and Reset Piomio… deletes everything it keeps on this computer after asking. See Install on a Mac or PC.

Settings without a field#

egressPrivateAllow lists the hosts on your local network that plugins and brains may reach, such as searxng or nas.local: the egress filter refuses private addresses otherwise. To set it, open the chat in your browser, open the browser's developer console on that tab and run:

const { csrf } = await (await fetch("/api/bootstrap")).json();
await (await fetch("/api/settings", { method: "PATCH", headers: { "content-type": "application/json", "x-csrf": csrf }, body: JSON.stringify({ egressPrivateAllow: ["searxng", "nas.local"] }) })).json();

The list you send replaces the old one, and it applies at once.

Environment variables#

Where they go#

desktop.json is {"port": 19000}: the console then takes the next port and the egress proxy the port + 9, unless consolePort and egressPort say otherwise.

Addresses and ports#

Phones, access from anywhere and other machines#

Data, language and time#

Brains and security#

Integrations, maps and the browser#

Updates#

Installers#

For development#

PIOMIO_APP_ROOT (the app's folder), PIOMIO_PLUGINS (all, none or a list of built-in plugins to start), PIOMIO_DEBUG (every plugin log line in the hub's log, not only errors), PIOMIO_DEV_ORIGIN and PIOMIO_CONSOLE_DEV_ORIGIN (dev servers of the UIs), and PIOMIO_GOOGLE_AUTH_URL, PIOMIO_GOOGLE_TOKEN_URL, PIOMIO_GOOGLE_REVOKE_URL, PIOMIO_GOOGLE_USERINFO_URL. The desktop app sets PIOMIO_DESKTOP, PIOMIO_DESKTOP_APP and PIOMIO_DESKTOP_PORT itself.

Ports#

The chat and the console listen on 127.0.0.1 unless PIOMIO_HOST says otherwise; the egress proxy always does. The phones' port listens on every address, so phones at home reach it.

Files and folders#

An install from when Piomio was called Owlbot keeps its Owlbot folder. In the data folder: piomio.db (chats, agents, tasks, settings), vault.db (the vault, encrypted), workspaces (the agents' working folders), plugins and plugins-data (installed plugins and their data, memory included), agents, skills, commands, pages, tailnet (the access-from-anywhere node), devices (the phones' certificate), tools (CLIs installed from the chat) and backups.