Configuration

Sieve needs no config file. This page lists the settings that exist.

The index folder

The index lives in <repo>/sieve/. Two things change that folder:

• --dir <path> is a top-level option for the index folder.
• The SIEVE_DIR variable sets it for hooks and for sieve stats. A relative value is relative to the repo root. stats does not read --dir.

.sieve/config.json

sieve build writes .sieve/config.json in the repo root. It adds /.sieve/ to .gitignore. The file holds:

• includeDirs: folders you add with --include-dir.
• Follow flags: your last choice for submodules and nested repos.
• mascot: the pane mascot. See Claude Code.

Sieve keeps every other key in the file. If the file is not a JSON object, Sieve leaves it as it is and prints a warning.

Build options

Build options that you set persist for later builds and for automatic refreshes:

• --include-dir <name> adds a folder that the walk skips by default. Dot folders are never added.
• --only-dir <path> indexes only files under that path.
• --follow-submodules and --follow-nested-repos include more code.
• --no-follow-submodules and --no-follow-nested-repos turn them off (the default).
• -e, --extensions picks the extensions to index.
• --no-reuse parses every file again.
• --lsp adds call edges from a language server, if one is installed. It is slower and opt-in.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
SIEVE_DIR	The index folder for hooks and stats.
SIEVE_NO_REFRESH	Skips the refresh before a query.
SIEVE_REFRESH=hash	Forces a hash check in the refresh.
SIEVE_NO_GITIGNORE	Stops build from editing .gitignore.
SIEVE_NO_IGNORE	Stops build from writing .ignore.
SIEVE_NO_STATUSLINE	Stops init from writing the status line.

.gitignore and .ignore

By default, build adds sieve/ to .gitignore. It also writes a .ignore block so that ripgrep still searches sieve/. --no-gitignore and --no-ignore skip these edits.

Sieve has no LLM pass. No setting needs an API key.