Settings File

LumiFind stores every user preference in a single JSON file: settings.json. This page documents settings keys LumiFind reads or manages, their types, defaults and purpose. Defaults can differ between Console setup, the GUI Setup Wizard, the Settings window, and backend fallbacks when a key is missing. So, you can safely review, back up or hand-tune your configuration (for example on headless servers running Console mode).

File Location

Operating System	Path
Windows	%UserProfile%\.lumifind\settings.json
macOS / Linux	~/.lumifind/settings.json

The fastest way to open the folder is Settings → Open Settings Folder. For a full overview of the directory see Folders and Files.

WARNING

Edit with care! Invalid values can prevent indexing or searching from working. Before editing: close LumiFind, keep a backup copy of the file, and run a validation afterwards (see Validating the file). Keys marked as managed are written automatically by the app and should not be edited by hand.

Structure Overview

{
  "generic": { ... },
  "model_info": { ... },
  "indexing_settings": { ... },
  "search_settings": { ... },
  "visual_settings": { ... }
}

All five top-level sections are required; the validator complains if any of them is missing. The tables distinguish setup values from backend fallbacks when a key is omitted. GUI-specific differences are called out in descriptions. A few top-level keys (last_folder, last_updated) are also maintained automatically.

Section: generic

Key	Type	Default	Description
language	string	"en"	Interface language code.
auto_detect	boolean	true	Detect and use the operating system language on first run.
fallback_language	string	"en"	Fallback language for missing translations.
auto_check_updates	boolean	true	Check for updates when the application starts.
advanced_mode	boolean	false	Show advanced options in the Settings window.
backup_include_thumbnails	boolean	true	Include thumbnails when creating settings backups.
minimize_to_tray	boolean	false	Keep LumiFind running in the system tray when the main window is closed.
last_backup_date	string	""	Managed. Timestamp of the last backup.
license_server_url	string	built-in endpoint	Optional advanced override for the license service URL.
last_backup_directory	path string	unset	Managed. Last folder used for a backup.
last_search_type	integer	unset	Managed. Remembers the last selected search type.

Section: model_info

Key	Type	Default	Description
doc_model_enabled	boolean	true	Enable the document embedding model.
doc_model_name	string	sentence-transformers/paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2	Hugging Face model used for document embeddings. See default models and custom models.
image_model_enabled	boolean	false	Enable image search.
image_model_name	string	openai/clip-vit-base-patch32	Hugging Face model used for image embeddings.
voice_model_enabled	boolean	false	Enable voice transcription and search.
voice_model_name	string	openai/whisper-tiny	Hugging Face Whisper model used for transcription.
video_model_enabled	boolean	false	Enable video search (audio track analysis).
frame_model_enabled	boolean	false	Enable frame detection (object detection inside videos/images).
frame_detector_type	string	opencv_ssd_coco	Object detector. Supported values include opencv_ssd_coco, detr, yolov8n, yolov8s.
frame_model_size	number | null	null	Optional override of the estimated download size shown in the interface.
whisper_language_code	string	""	Force transcription language (e.g. "en", "tr"). Empty = auto-detect.
hugging_face_token	string	""	Access token for gated or private Hugging Face models.
doc_model_size	string	selected model size	Managed. Display size for the selected document model.
image_model_size	string	selected model size	Managed. Display size for the selected image model.
voice_model_size	string	selected model size	Managed. Display size for the selected voice model.

INFO

Feature switches are gated by your license. If a feature is not part of your license, enabling its switch has no effect.

Section: indexing_settings

Paths and files

Key	Type	Default	Description
index_folder	path	~/.lumifind/lumifind_db	Root folder holding all analysis data.
db_file	path	~/.lumifind/lumifind_db.sqlite3	SQLite database file tracking analyzed files. The GUI Setup Wizard may place it inside the index folder instead.
thumbnail_folder	path	~/.lumifind/thumbnails	Folder for thumbnail images.
models_folder	path	~/.lumifind/models	Folder where downloaded models are cached.
image_cache_folder	path	= index folder	Optional separate location for the image embedding cache.
file_formats	list of strings	(see example)	File extensions to analyze, e.g. ".pdf", ".jpg".

Analysis parameters

Key	Type	Default	Description
doc_batch_size	integer	1000	Documents processed per batch.
image_batch_size	integer	5 (Console; GUI uses 10)	Images processed per batch (GUI wizard uses 10).
chunk_size	integer	500	Text chunk size in characters.
chunk_overlap	integer	50	Overlap between consecutive text chunks.
voice_chunk_duration	integer	30	Audio chunk length in seconds.
frame_sample_rate	integer	5 (Console; GUI Setup Wizard and backend fallback use 25)	Analyze one frame every N seconds. Must be a positive integer (GUI wizard uses 25).
object_confidence_threshold	number (0–1)	0.5	Minimum confidence for detected objects (GUI wizard uses 0.25).
min_file_size_mb	number	0	Skip files smaller than this size during analysis.
max_file_size_mb	number	500 (backend fallback)	Skip files larger than this size. GUI Setup Wizard writes 250; Settings window defaults to 100.

Feature toggles

Key	Type	Default	Description
process_email_attachments	boolean	true	Index attachments found in email files.
pdf_ocr_fallback	boolean	false	Use OCR when a PDF contains no extractable text. See Dealing with scanned documents.
treat_images_as_documents	boolean	false	OCR images and index them as documents. See Dealing with documents as images.
enable_exif_geocoding	boolean	true	Reverse-geocode GPS coordinates from EXIF metadata.
enable_thumbnails	boolean	true	Generate thumbnails for analyzed images.
auto_export_logs	boolean	false	Save session logs to the logs folder after each run.
show_file_info	boolean	false (Console and Setup Wizard; Settings window's missing-key display defaults to true)	Show detailed file information in results.

Maintenance and file watching

Key	Type	Default	Description
file_watching_enabled	boolean	false	Watch folders for changes and update the index automatically.
file_watching_interval	integer	60	Polling interval in seconds.
checkpoint_interval	integer	50 (backend fallback; 0 disables checkpoints)	Save an indexing checkpoint every N files; 0 disables checkpoints.
oldest_file_date	date string	"1970-01-01"	Skip files created before this date while indexing.
shared	boolean	false	Enable shared index locking for multiple LumiFind instances; may be enabled automatically when a shared lock is detected.

DANGER

Managed keys — do not edit: indexed_folders, excluded_folders, tracked_files (lists maintained by the app) and previous_doc_model (used internally during model changes).

Section: search_settings

Key	Type	Default	Description
max_results	integer	100	Maximum number of results returned per search.
max_results_per_file	integer	1	Maximum matches returned per file.
min_score	number	0	Discard results below this similarity score.
use_metadata_mode	integer	0	How image search balances metadata against visual content: 0 = balanced (default), 1 = prioritize metadata filters, 2 = prioritize visual matching.
image_top_k	integer	5	Number of candidate images considered per query stage.
metadata_boost_weight	number	0.3	Weight given to metadata matches when ranking.
min_file_size_mb	number	0.0	Ignore files smaller than this size.
max_file_size_mb	number	100.0	Ignore files larger than this size (GUI wizard uses 250).
oldest_file_date	date string	"1970-01-01"	Exclude files created before this date from results.
file_formats	list of strings	(mirror of indexing)	Restrict searches to these extensions.

Section: visual_settings

Key	Type	Default	Description
log_level	string	"INFO"	Logging verbosity (e.g. DEBUG, INFO, WARNING).
date_format	string	"YYYY-MM-DD"	Date display format (GUI wizard uses DD.MM.YYYY).
time_format	string	"HH:mm:ss"	Time display format.
file_size_unit	string	"MB"	Preferred unit for file sizes.
show_thumbnails	boolean	true	Show thumbnails in result lists.
show_original_images	boolean	false	Show original images instead of thumbnails where possible.
add_timestamps	boolean	true	Display timestamps next to entries.

Example: minimal settings.json

This minimal example follows Console setup. It omits optional keys; when omitted, LumiFind uses the runtime fallbacks documented above.

{
  "generic": {
    "language": "en"
  },
  "model_info": {
    "hugging_face_token": "",
    "doc_model_enabled": true,
    "doc_model_name": "sentence-transformers/paraphrase-multilingual-MiniLM-L12-v2",
    "image_model_enabled": false,
    "image_model_name": "openai/clip-vit-base-patch32",
    "voice_model_enabled": false,
    "video_model_enabled": false,
    "frame_model_enabled": false,
    "frame_detector_type": "opencv_ssd_coco",
    "frame_model_size": null,
    "whisper_language_code": ""
  },
  "indexing_settings": {
    "index_folder": "~/.lumifind/lumifind_db",
    "db_file": "~/.lumifind/lumifind_db.sqlite3",
    "thumbnail_folder": "~/.lumifind/thumbnails",
    "models_folder": "~/.lumifind/models",
    "image_cache_folder": "~/.lumifind/lumifind_db",
    "hf_model_folder": "~/.cache/huggingface/hub",
    "file_formats": [".txt", ".md", ".pdf", ".docx"],
    "doc_batch_size": 1000,
    "image_batch_size": 5,
    "chunk_size": 500,
    "chunk_overlap": 50,
    "pdf_ocr_fallback": false,
    "treat_images_as_documents": false,
    "auto_export_logs": false,
    "show_file_info": false,
    "enable_exif_geocoding": true,
    "frame_sample_rate": 5,
    "object_confidence_threshold": 0.5
  },
  "search_settings": {
    "max_results": 100,
    "max_results_per_file": 1,
    "min_score": 0,
    "use_metadata_mode": 0,
    "file_formats": [".txt", ".md", ".pdf", ".docx"],
    "min_file_size_mb": 0.0,
    "max_file_size_mb": 100.0
  },
  "visual_settings": {
    "log_level": "INFO",
    "date_format": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "file_size_unit": "MB"
  }
}

INFO

Note: Paths may be written either absolute or starting with ~/; LumiFind expands both. The GUI Setup Wizard uses image batch size 10, frame sample rate 25, maximum file size 250 MB, and date format DD.MM.YYYY. Console setup uses image batch size 5, frame sample rate 5, and date format YYYY-MM-DD. Backend fallback values may differ when a key is omitted.

Validating the file

After editing, always validate:

lf --console --validate-config

The check reports:

• All five required sections exist.
• generic.language is a string; index_folder, db_file are string paths; file_formats is a list.
• frame_detector_type is a string and frame_model_enabled is a boolean (when present).
• frame_sample_rate is a positive integer.
• object_confidence_threshold is a number between 0 and 1.
• The whole file is valid JSON and fully serializable.

Exit code 0 means valid, 1 means problems were found (details printed to the console).

Resetting to defaults

• Console mode: run lf --console --setup, or choose menu option Settings (create/show) → Create/Reset.
• GUI: re-run the Setup Wizard via --welcome-wizard or reinstall/reset from Settings.