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TYBA reads a configuration file from your home:
It is not created on installation. If it doesn’t exist, TYBA uses the defaults and doesn’t complain. Create it by hand when you need it. The path is always $HOME/.tyba/config.toml, on any system. There is no per-platform variation — not even %APPDATA% on Windows.
On Windows, TYBA requires the HOME variable to be defined and to be an absolute path. It does not fall back to %USERPROFILE%. Without HOME, agent sessions fail before starting.

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The whole file

Today there is one field:
~/.tyba/config.toml
Unknown sections and keys are ignored silently — there is no error for an extra field.

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Which paths are valid

Each entry must be absolute or start with ~:
A relative path is refused:

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When the change takes effect

The file is read once per agent session, at the moment it starts. There is no watcher and no hot reload. In practice: you edit, you save, and the next agent session you create already uses the new value. You don’t need to restart TYBA. Sessions already running carry on with the old value until they die.

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When the file is wrong

Malformed TOML or a relative path takes down the creation of the agent session. TYBA does not fall back to the default — it fails, with the message pointing at the error.
This is deliberate: a sandbox file that doesn’t parse is too ambiguous to guess at. A missing file is different from a broken one — missing is the normal case and raises no error.

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What it cannot loosen

read_allow does not open your secrets. The denials are applied after any permission and always win:
Even read_allow = ["~"] — your entire home — leaves those paths unreadable to the agent. There is no configuration that reverses this.

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It does nothing on Windows

On Windows this field is accepted, validated and discarded. It has no effect at all.
This isn’t a hole, it’s a consequence of how each system contains reads:
  • macOS and Linux — reads are closed by default. read_allow is what opens exceptions. Without it, the agent does not read the path.
  • Windows — reads are open by default, and only a list of known secrets is closed. There is nothing to open: what read_allow would grant is already granted.
The field is inert there because there is no lock to loosen. If you use Windows, read Platforms — the difference is bigger than this field and worth understanding.

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See also