Configuration File Discovery

Pando automatically searches for your configuration file (.pando.toml or .pando.json) by walking up the directory tree from your current working directory. This means you can place your config in a parent directory and Pando will find it.

How It Works

When Pando starts, it looks for a configuration file in this order:

1. Current directory — ./.pando.toml
2. Parent directory — ../.pando.toml
3. Grandparent directory — ../../.pando.toml
4. Continues up until it reaches the filesystem root

The first .pando.toml (or .pando.json) found is used. If none is found, Pando uses default configuration.

Why This Is Useful

• Monorepo setups: Place one .pando.toml at the repo root, and it applies to all subdirectories
• Shared configuration: Teams can share a single config file for a project tree
• Clean working directories: Keep your source directories free of config files

Data Directory

Pando also searches upward for the data directory. If .pando/ exists in a parent directory, it’s used as the data directory for sessions, caches, and other state.

Example

/my-project/
├── .pando.toml          ← Pando finds this
├── src/
│   ├── frontend/
│   │   └── (running pando here finds ../.pando.toml)
│   └── backend/
│       └── (running pando here also finds ../../.pando.toml)

Configuration Reference