---

name: configuration-backends description: "Configure Cognee runtime, optional extras, provider settings, storage/database backends, paths, environment variables, and backend troubleshooting." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: Apache 2.0

Cognee Configuration and Backend Router

Use this sub-skill when the task is about installing Cognee, choosing optional extras, setting environment variables, configuring cognee.config, selecting LLM/embedding providers, changing storage paths, or diagnosing database/cache backend setup.

Route here for

• Python/package install requirements and optional extras selection.
• .env style setup for LLMs, embeddings, storage, databases, cache, tracing, auth posture, and local model providers.
• Runtime setters under cognee.config, including LLM, embedding, graph, vector, relational, migration, data-root, and system-root configuration.
• Backend choices: default SQLite/LanceDB/Ladybug/Kuzu, Postgres/pgvector, Neo4j, Turso/libSQL, Neptune Analytics, S3 storage, Redis/session cache, and local LLM/embedding providers.
• Safe preflight checks that should not call LLMs, connect to databases, print secrets, or mutate data.

Route away

• Running memory ingestion/search/improvement flows: read core-memory.
• CLI invocation, long-running API servers, Docker, MCP, UI, CORS deployment, and service hardening: read api-cli-services.
• Custom graph schemas, pipelines, ontology resolvers, migrations, and advanced graph operations: read advanced-graphs-pipelines.

Operating workflow

1. Read configuration.md for install range, environment tiers, runtime config classes, and safe cognee.config setters.

2. Read backend-matrix.md before changing extras or backend provider names. Treat every external service and credentialed provider as optional unless the user explicitly selected it.

3. If the user reports an error, read troubleshooting.md and identify whether the failure is missing credentials, missing optional extras, provider inference, vector dimensions, access-control/handler mismatch, cache/S3 path handling, or database subprocess/file locking.

4. For a non-mutating local preflight, run the bundled checker after Cognee is installed:

   python scripts/check_cognee_environment.py --help
   python scripts/check_cognee_environment.py --json
   

   The checker redacts secrets and absolute paths, constructs config objects safely, and reports optional modules as present/missing.

Safety rules

• Never ask the user to paste secret values. Ask whether a secret is set, or use placeholders in examples.
• Do not install broad extras by default. Select the smallest extra set needed for the chosen provider/backend.
• Set environment variables before importing cognee in service or notebook entrypoints when those variables must affect pydantic settings at import time.
• Do not use this sub-skill to execute real memory flows or service startup; it owns configuration only.