Configuration
Vault Intelligence is designed to be powerful out of the box, but you can customise it to suit different hardware, budgets, and workflows.
Connection
Manage your core intelligence providers and credentials.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Google API key | None | Your secret key from Google AI Studio. Stored securely in your system keychain (or masked in data.json if secure storage is unavailable). Required for all Gemini models and embeddings. |
| Ollama endpoint | http://localhost:11434 | Server URL for local model providers. Required for Ollama-based chat and embeddings. |
| Refresh model list | None | A manual trigger to fetch available models from the Gemini API and local Ollama server. |
Researcher
Customise your primary research assistant’s intelligence and writing style.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Chat model | gemini-3-flash-preview | The primary reasoning engine. • Cloud (Gemini): High quality, zero local overhead. • Local (Ollama): Fully private and free to run. |
| Agent language | English (US) | The primary language for agent responses. This affects the default system prompt and output style. |
| System instruction | Default (Managed) | The core personality and rules for the Researcher. Leave as default to receive automatic improvements in future updates. |
| Context window budget | 200,000 tokens | The maximum volume of notes the AI can "read" at once. Higher budgets allow for broader research but may hit API limits. > [!TIP] > If you experience "429 Too Many Requests" errors, try lowering this budget. See the [Troubleshooting Guide](file:///home/allane/Code/GitHub/obsidian-vault-intelligence/docs/reference/troubleshooting.md#429-too-many-requests) for details. |
| Max agent steps | 5 | Limits the number of "reasoning loops" the agent can take to prevent infinite thinking or excessive API costs. |
| Author name | Me | The name used when the agent refers to you or credits content. This also acts as a fallback for missing author metadata in your notes. |
| Context-aware headers | title, tags... | A list of frontmatter properties the AI should always be aware of when analyzing a note chunk. |
| Enable web search | On | Allows the agent to verify facts and fetch live news from the internet. |
| Web search model | gemini-2.5-flash-lite | A cost-effective model specialised for verifying information and searching the web. |
| Enable link context | On | Allows Gemini 3.1+ models to natively analyse URLs using Google's internal retrieval system for higher accuracy. |
| Enable computational solver | On | Allows the agent to write and execute Python code for complex math and data analysis. |
| Code execution model | gemini-3-flash-preview | The specialized model used for generating Python code. |
| Enable agent write access | Off | Allows the agent to create or update notes. Security Note: This always requires manual confirmation before any file is changed. |
| Vault reading limit | 25 | Maximum number of notes the researcher can retrieve to answer a single question. |
Explorer
Fine-tune how connections are discovered and how the semantic graph is visualised.
Embedding Engine
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Embedding provider | gemini | Google Gemini: Cloud-based (requires API key). Ollama: Local server (requires Ollama). Transformers.js: 100% local CPU processing (no server required). |
| Embedding model | gemini-embedding-001 | The vector engine used to calculate relationships. Local models (eg nomic-embed-text) are downloaded once (~25MB--150MB). |
| Embedding dimension | 768 | Output vector size. Higher dimensions provide better accuracy but result in a larger search index on disk. |
| Embedding chunk size | 1024 / 512 | Character count per vector segment. Automatically adjusts to 512 for complex scripts (Chinese, Japanese) or local models to improve retrieval quality. |
Search Strategy
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Enable dual-loop search | On | Combines fast local vector search (Loop 1) with deep AI re-ranking (Loop 2). This significantly reduces "hallucinations" in search results. |
| Re-ranking model | gemini-3-flash-preview | The AI engine used by the "Analyst" (Loop 2) to verify and rank the most relevant notes. |
| Minimum similarity score | 0.5 | Relevance threshold (0.0 to 1.0). Lower this if search results feel too sparse. |
| Keyword match weight | 1.2 | Calibration for keyword vs vector search. Higher values make keyword matches more conservative in hybrid results. |
| Similar notes limit | 20 | Max results displayed in the sidebar when looking for related content. |
TIP
If your search results are missing known information, consult the [Search Quality](file:///home/allane/Code/GitHub/obsidian-vault-intelligence/docs/reference/troubleshooting.md#the-agent-says-it-cant-find-information-but-i-know-i-have-a-note-on-it) section of the troubleshooting guide.
Semantic Galaxy
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic graph node limit | 250 | Maximum number of nodes rendered in the Galaxy view and search expansion. |
| Structural edge thickness | 1.0 | Visual weight of your explicit [[wikilinks]]. |
| Semantic edge thickness | 0.5 | Visual weight of implied relationships discovered by AI. |
| Implicit folder semantics | ontology | Controls how your folder structure is weighted. • none: Folders are ignored. • ontology: Folders act as topics only if they match your fixed Ontology. • all: Every folder is treated as a semantic topic. |
Gardener
Configure the automated hygiene agent to maintain your vault's ontology.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Gardener model | gemini-3-flash-preview | The model used for structural analysis and improvement suggestions. |
| Gardener rules | Default (Managed) | The persona and rules for the Gardener. Leave as default to receive automatic updates. |
| Ontology path | Ontology | Folder where concept, entity, and MOC (Map of Content) notes are stored. |
| Semantic merge threshold | 0.85 | Similarity score required to suggest merging two similar topics. Set to 1.0 to disable merging. |
Orphan Management
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Orphan grace period | 7 days | Number of days a note must be unlinked/orphaned before the Gardener suggests pruning it. |
| Archive folder path | Ontology/_Archive | Where pruned or "deleted" notes are moved by the Gardener for safekeeping. |
| Gardener plans path | Gardener/Plans | Folder where proposed hygiene plans are saved for your review. |
| Plans retention | 7 days | Duration to keep old plan files before they are automatically purged. |
Advanced Systems
Technical tuning for performance and security.
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Indexing delay | 5000ms | Wait time after typing stops before re-indexing in the background. |
| Indexing throttle | 100ms | Technical delay between files during processing to avoid API rate limiting. |
| Search centrality limit | 50 | Max number of "bridge" nodes pulled from the graph to expand search context. |
| Allow local network access | Off | Advanced: Allows the agent to access localhost or private network IPs. > [!CAUTION] > Enabling this makes you vulnerable to SSRF (Server-Side Request Forgery) attacks. Only enable if you are running local tools you fully trust. |
| Log level | Warn | Console verbosity. Set to Debug when collecting information for bug reports. |
Privacy and Storage
Vault Intelligence stores its search index and relationship graph in a specialised binary format inside the plugin's data/ directory.
- Automated .gitignore: The plugin automatically manages a
.gitignorefile for its data folder to prevent massive index files from bloating your Git repository or causing sync conflicts. - Data Safety: The index is a derived cache; it can be regenerated from your notes at any time by clicking Re-index Vault in the Explorer settings.
- Secure Storage: On supported systems (macOS, Windows, Linux with
libsecret), your API keys are stored in the OS keychain, never in plain text.