Config Files

Configuration files are stored under an N.E.K.O/ subdirectory inside the platform's standard application-data directory: %LOCALAPPDATA%\N.E.K.O\ on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/N.E.K.O/ on macOS, and $XDG_DATA_HOME/N.E.K.O/ on Linux (falling back to ~/.local/share/N.E.K.O/ when unset).

File locations

File	Purpose
core_config.json	API keys, provider selection, custom endpoints
characters.json	Character definitions and personality data
user_preferences.json	UI preferences, model choices
voice_storage.json	Custom voice configurations
workshop_config.json	Steam Workshop settings
tutorial_prompt_config.json	Tutorial/onboarding prompt thresholds and flow state

core_config.json

The primary runtime configuration file.

{
  "coreApiKey": "",
  "coreApi": "qwen",
  "assistApi": "qwen",
  "assistApiKeyQwen": "",
  "assistApiKeyOpenai": "",
  "assistApiKeyGlm": "",
  "assistApiKeyStep": "",
  "assistApiKeySilicon": "",
  "assistApiKeyGemini": "",
  "mcpToken": "",
  "agentModelUrl": "",
  "agentModelId": "",
  "agentModelApiKey": ""
}

characters.json

Defines all characters and the master (owner) profile.

{
  "主人": {
    "档案名": "哥哥",
    "性别": "男",
    "昵称": "哥哥"
  },
  "猫娘": {
    "小天": {
      "性别": "女",
      "年龄": 15,
      "昵称": "T酱, 小T",
      "live2d": "mao_pro",
      "voice_id": "",
      "system_prompt": "..."
    }
  },
  "当前猫娘": "小天"
}

The top-level keys are Chinese and the code depends on them verbatim: 主人 (the owner profile), 猫娘 (a map of characters keyed by name), and 当前猫娘 (the name of the currently active character). English keys like master/catgirl are not recognized and will be ignored.

Character fields are flexible — any key-value pair can be added and will be included in the character's context.

File discovery

The ConfigManager class (utils/config_manager.py) handles file discovery:

1. Prefer the platform's standard application-data directory (Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%, macOS ~/Library/Application Support, Linux $XDG_DATA_HOME or ~/.local/share), creating/reading N.E.K.O/ underneath it.
2. If the standard directory is unavailable, fall back to legacy locations (such as ~/Documents/N.E.K.O/, the executable's own directory, or the current working directory) — these are used only for reading/importing older data.
3. Fall back to the project's bundled config/ directory.
4. Create default files if none exist.

The legacy ~/Documents/N.E.K.O/ path (resolved on Windows via the Windows API SHGetFolderPathW) is now only a legacy-data import candidate, not the primary storage location.