Configuration

Corral stores its settings in ~/.corral/config.json. You can view and change them from the CLI or the macOS app.

App Settings

Setting	Key	Default	Description
TLD	tld	test	Top-level domain for local routing
Auto-start	auto-start	false	Start infrastructure and flagged projects on launch
Default Node version	default-node-version	(none)	Fallback Node.js version when no project-specific version is set
Port range start	port-range-start	8787	First port in the allocation pool (100 ports)
Default package manager	default-package-manager	(none)	Preferred package manager when no lockfile is present (npm, yarn, pnpm, bun)
Preferred browser	preferred-browser	(system default)	Browser bundle ID for opening local dev URLs (e.g. com.google.Chrome)
Preferred editor	(macOS app)	(chooser)	Editor bundle ID for Open in Editor; set in the macOS app, not via corral settings set
Preferred terminal	(macOS app)	(Terminal.app)	Terminal bundle ID for Open in Terminal; set in the macOS app, not via corral settings set
Log font size	ui.logs.font_size	11	Monospaced font size in the log viewer
Log word wrap	ui.logs.word_wrap	true	Whether long log lines wrap in the log viewer

Viewing Settings

corral settings show

Changing Settings

corral settings set tld localhost
corral settings set auto-start true
corral settings set default-node-version 22
corral settings set port-range-start 9000
corral settings set default-package-manager pnpm
corral settings set preferred-browser com.google.Chrome

Clear optional settings with none:

corral settings set default-node-version none
corral settings set preferred-browser none

Boolean values accept: true/false, yes/no, 1/0, on/off.

In the macOS app, settings are available under the Settings panel in the sidebar. See macOS App Settings for details.

A few preferences are managed only in the macOS app (and config.json), not via corral settings set — notably Corporate proxy support (Settings → Network & Security), which controls automatic corporate-CA detection for Node tooling behind a TLS-intercepting proxy. See Node.js Management → Corporate proxies.

Data Directory

All Corral data lives in ~/.corral/:

Path	Contents
config.json	App-wide settings
projects.json	Registered projects and their settings
corral.sock	Daemon Unix socket (JSON-RPC 2.0)
daemon.pid	Daemon process ID
daemon.log	Daemon operational log
runtimes/node/{version}/	Installed Node.js versions (a legacy node/ tree is migrated on first boot)
tools/node/{node_version}/wrangler/{version}/	Wrangler installs, keyed on the Node version they run under (a legacy wrangler/v{version}/ tree is migrated)
caddy/	Caddy configuration and certificate files
dnsmasq/	dnsmasq configuration files
services/	Installed service binaries, data, and registry. Layout is <service>/<version>/ so that concurrent major versions (e.g. Postgres 16 and 17) stay isolated — see Services → Data Directory for the full tree.
logs/	Persisted log files (per project)
shims/	Shell shims for node, npm, npx — the ones that shadow a command you may already have
bin/	The cpm shim, and the CLI symlink when /usr/local/bin isn’t writable

Files in your project directory

One feature writes outside ~/.corral/. Enabling the Pro sidecar, which powers live Durable Object method invocation, adds a .corral/ directory and a token block in .dev.vars to that project, and appends both to its .gitignore. Nothing else Corral does touches your project files.

Environment Variables

CORRAL_DATA_DIR

Override the data directory location:

export CORRAL_DATA_DIR=/path/to/custom/dir
corral status

Or pass it per command:

corral --data-dir /path/to/custom/dir status

This affects where Corral reads and writes all data — settings, projects, Node.js installations, logs, and infrastructure configuration.

NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS

Set automatically by Corral for the Node processes it spawns when corporate-CA detection finds corporate roots, so Node tooling works behind a TLS-intercepting proxy. You normally never set this by hand — but if you already export it yourself, Corral folds your certificates in rather than overriding them.

CORRAL_REPORTS_ENDPOINT

Advanced override for the bug report submission endpoint (for staging or end-to-end testing). Defaults to https://api.corral.sh/v1/reports.