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Changing configuration

You’ve installed VectorStep and want to change something — add a pipeline, edit an agent’s soul.md, turn on a setting. This section is the shortest path to doing that on the platform you’re running. Pick yours:

  • Docker and Docker Compose — the installer’s default on Linux, macOS (Docker Desktop) and Windows (Docker Desktop or WSL2).
  • Linux, standalone — the --native install under systemd, no Docker.
  • Kubernetes — ConfigMaps, the PVC, and how to ship changes from CI.

What you can change

Section titled “What you can change”

VectorStep is two processes, and each reads its own files.

You want to change Lives in Applies with
Pipelines, library steps VectorStep — pipelines/, steps/ reload the service
pricing:, replay:, security policies VectorStep — config.yaml, security_policies/ reload the service
Agents (agent.yaml, soul.md) Gateway — agents/ reload the Gateway
Skills Gateway — skills/ reload the Gateway (one reload covers agents and skills)
auth, server, database, TLS, mcp_servers, providers, the Gateway’s writes_enabled the config.yaml of whichever service restart that service
Secrets and API keys (${VAR} values) the environment — .env, a Secret, an env file restart that service
Shell-step scripts and their sha256 pins VectorStep — scripts/ and security.shell_steps restart the service — the script list is read once at startup

A reload re-reads the files without stopping the process: in-flight runs are not interrupted, scheduled pipelines are re-registered, and a file that fails validation is rejected with the reason while the running config stays exactly as it was. A restart is only needed for the settings the process reads once at startup.

Every reload needs the admin token for that service — see Securing a deployment for the two tokens.

Three ways to apply a change

Section titled “Three ways to apply a change”

However you run VectorStep, there are the same three levers:

  1. Edit the files, then reload. The pipelines, steps, agents and skills are plain files on a host directory or volume; edit them with any editor and reload. This is what each platform page walks through.
  2. Call the write API. PUT /pipelines/{name}, PUT /agents/{name} and friends validate a change, write it atomically and reload in the same request, so a bad change is rejected before it goes live. It works on every platform — see the Write API.
  3. Ship it from git. For a team, keep the files in git and let CI deliver them. On Kubernetes there are ready-made routes for this — see Changing config on Kubernetes.

Git stays the source of truth: VectorStep never writes back to it, and the UI’s pipeline pages are read-only previews.

Section titled “Related”