Configuration

sley resolves configuration in this order (highest priority first):

1. Command-line flags
2. Environment variables
3. .sley.yaml configuration file
4. Default values

Quick Start

No configuration file is required. sley works out-of-the-box with sensible defaults.

# Initialize with defaults (creates .sley.yaml)
sley init --yes

# Or just start using sley - it auto-initializes
sley bump patch

Auto-initialization

When the .version file does not exist, sley:

1. Reads the latest Git tag via git describe --tags
2. Uses it if it is a valid semantic version
3. Otherwise initializes to 0.0.0

Use --strict to disable this:

sley bump patch --strict
# => Error: .version file not found

Minimal .sley.yaml

path: .version
theme: sley

plugins:
  commit-parser: true
  tag-manager:
    enabled: true
    prefix: "v"

Monorepo Setup

For monorepos, add a workspace section to the root .sley.yaml. Optionally add a .sley.yaml in each module directory to override plugin settings.

Root .sley.yaml:

path: .version

workspace:
  versioning: independent # or "coordinated" (default)
  discovery:
    enabled: true

plugins:
  tag-manager:
    enabled: true
    prefix: "{module_path}/v"

Per-module .sley.yaml (optional override):

plugins:
  dependency-check:
    enabled: true
    auto-sync: true
    files:
      - path: package.json
        field: version
        format: json

Versioning Modes

Mode	Behavior
coordinated (default)	sley discover warns on version mismatches between modules
independent	Mismatch warnings suppressed - expected for independently versioned modules

Config Merge Rules

When a module has its own .sley.yaml, sley merges it with the root config:

Field	Merge behavior
Plugin pointer fields (tag-manager, etc.)	Module non-nil value wins
commit-parser	Root wins (workspace-level setting)
extensions, pre-release-hooks	Additive; module entry wins on name conflict
path, theme, workspace	Root only - module values ignored

Configuration Methods

Method	Use Case	Documentation
.sley.yaml	Project-level configuration, plugin settings, monorepo setup	Reference
Environment variables	CI/CD pipelines, session-level overrides	Reference
Command-line flags	One-off overrides, scripting	CLI Reference

See Also

• .sley.yaml Reference - Complete configuration file reference
• Environment Variables - Available environment variables and CI detection
• CLI Reference - Command-line flags and options
• Plugin System - Plugin configuration and execution order
• Monorepo Support - Multi-module workspace setup
• Troubleshooting - Common configuration issues