Configuration

Configuration

Configuration uses TOKEN_TERMINATOR_* environment variables. Legacy RTK_HERMES_PLUS_* aliases are compatibility fallbacks for the migration window; the Token Terminator namespace wins.

Core

Variable	Default	Meaning
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_ENABLED	true	Master behavior gate
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_MODE	balanced	Runtime mode
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_BACKENDS	local	Allowed terminal backends or all
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TIMEOUT_MS	500	RTK helper deadline
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_RTK_PATH	empty	Pin the RTK executable instead of PATH discovery
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_EXCLUDE	empty	Command prefixes never rewritten
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_PYTEST_GUARD	true	Avoid RTK pytest double-quiet edge cases

Rewrite cache

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CACHE_TTL	600 seconds
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CACHE_SIZE	512

Rewrite identity includes the canonical working directory plus command, so identical command text in two repositories does not share an unsafe cached decision.

Temporal delta

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TEMPORAL_DELTA	true
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TEMPORAL_MIN_CHARS	2000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TEMPORAL_SCOPE	session

Scope may be session or workspace.

Native compression

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_NATIVE_MIN_CHARS	12000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_NATIVE_MAX_CHARS	8000

Vault and recovery

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_DB_PATH	<HERMES_HOME>/token-terminator/artifacts.sqlite3
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_MIN_ARTIFACT_CHARS	8000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_MAX_ARTIFACT_CHARS	2000000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_VAULT_MAX_BYTES	536870912
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_VAULT_HIGH_WATER_PCT	90
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_VAULT_LOW_WATER_PCT	80
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_INLINE_LEASES	1
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_MAX_PAGE_CHARS	20000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_MAX_SEARCH_RESULTS	50

High-water retention can reclaim abandoned artifacts, but artifacts already referenced by accepted recovery receipts/exposures or active temporal state are protected.

Context compaction

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CONTEXT_COMPACTION	true
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CONTEXT_MIN_VAULT_CHARS	4000
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CONTEXT_COLLAPSE_AFTER_TURNS	6
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CONTEXT_INLINE_RECENT_TURNS	5
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_WORKING_GRAPH_CHARS	0

The collapse window must be disabled (0) or be at least as large as the fully-inline recent-turn window. Direct Config(...) construction rejects an invalid pair; environment loading clamps it to a safe boundary.

Token budgeting

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TOKEN_BUDGET	true
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TOKENIZER_JSON	empty
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TIKTOKEN_ENCODING	empty
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_CONTEXT_LIMIT_TOKENS	0
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_OUTPUT_RESERVE_TOKENS	4096
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_TOKEN_SAFETY_MARGIN	512

A context limit is for reporting/acceptance headroom. It does not authorize silent truncation.

Ledger

Variable	Default
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_LEDGER	true
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_LEDGER_PATH	<HERMES_HOME>/token-terminator/experiments.sqlite3
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_STATE_DB	Hermes state.db
TOKEN_TERMINATOR_EXPERIMENT	default

Use /token-terminator status after changing configuration and start a fresh host session where required.