Agent Configuration

Give your agent a name and control how much it logs. The identity is auto-generated on first run - you usually don't need to set it manually.

Most common settings:

agent:
  display_name: "Office Gateway"   # Shows up in dashboard
  data_dir: "./data"               # Where identity is stored
  log_level: "info"                # debug, info, warn, error

Configuration

agent:
  # Agent ID
  id: "auto"                    # "auto" or 32-character hex string

  # Human-readable name
  display_name: "My Agent"      # Shown in dashboard and logs

  # Data directory (optional when identity is in config)
  data_dir: "./data"            # For agent_id and keypair files

  # Logging
  log_level: "info"             # debug, info, warn, error
  log_format: "text"            # text, json

  # Startup delay
  startup_delay: 0s             # Delay before network activity (e.g., 90s, 2m)

  # X25519 keypair for E2E encryption (optional - for single-file deployment)
  private_key: ""               # 64-character hex string
  public_key: ""                # Optional, derived from private_key

Agent ID

Every agent has a unique 128-bit identifier.

Auto-generation

agent:
  id: "auto"
  data_dir: "./data"

On first run:

1. Check if ./data/agent_id exists
2. If not, generate new random ID
3. Save to ./data/agent_id
4. Use for all peer communications

Manual ID

Specify a specific ID:

agent:
  id: "a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234ab"

Requirements:

• Exactly 32 hexadecimal characters
• Unique across your mesh

Viewing Agent ID

# From file
cat ./data/agent_id

# From running agent
curl http://localhost:8080/healthz | jq '.agent_id'

# From logs
INFO  Agent ID: a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234ab

Display Name

Human-readable name for the agent:

agent:
  display_name: "Office Gateway"

Used in:

• Web dashboard
• Node info advertisements
• Logs

Supports Unicode:

agent:
  display_name: "Tallinn Gateway"

If not set, the agent ID is used for display.

The display name can also be changed at runtime using muti-metroo display-name set or the HTTP API. Dynamic names are ephemeral and revert to the config value on restart. See Display Name CLI and Display Name API.

Data Directory

Where agent persists state:

agent:
  data_dir: "./data"

Contents:

• agent_id - Agent identity file
• agent_key - X25519 private key
• agent_key.pub - X25519 public key

When Data Directory is Optional

The data directory becomes optional when you specify identity directly in config:

agent:
  id: "a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234ab"
  private_key: "48bbea6c0c9be254bde983c92c8a53db759f27e51a6ae77fd9cca81895a5d57c"
  # data_dir not needed - identity is fully in config

This enables single-file deployments where the agent can run without any external files.

Permissions

# Create with appropriate permissions
mkdir -p ./data
chmod 700 ./data

Shared Storage Warning

Do not share data_dir between multiple agents - each agent needs its own identity.

Identity Keypair

Each agent has an X25519 keypair for end-to-end encryption.

File-Based Identity (Default)

By default, keys are stored in data_dir:

agent:
  data_dir: "./data"

Keys are auto-generated on first run and stored as:

• {data_dir}/agent_key - Private key (permissions 0600)
• {data_dir}/agent_key.pub - Public key (permissions 0644)

Config-Based Identity

For single-file deployments, specify keys directly:

agent:
  id: "a1b2c3d4e5f6789012345678901234ab"
  private_key: "48bbea6c0c9be254bde983c92c8a53db759f27e51a6ae77fd9cca81895a5d57c"

The public_key field is optional - it's automatically derived from private_key.

Generating Keys

To generate a keypair for config:

# Generate keys in a temporary directory
muti-metroo init -d /tmp/keys

# View the private key
cat /tmp/keys/agent_key

# View the public key
cat /tmp/keys/agent_key.pub

# Clean up
rm -rf /tmp/keys

Single-File Deployment

When using the setup wizard with embedded config, identity is automatically embedded:

muti-metroo setup
# Choose "Embed in binary" for configuration delivery

The wizard automatically:

1. Sets agent.id to the generated ID
2. Sets agent.private_key to the generated private key
3. Clears agent.data_dir

The resulting binary can run without any external files.

Logging

Log Level

agent:
  log_level: "info"    # debug, info, warn, error

Level	Description
debug	Verbose debugging (frames, routing)
info	Normal operation (connections, streams)
warn	Warnings (reconnections, timeouts)
error	Errors only

Log Format

agent:
  log_format: "text"    # text, json

Text format (human-readable):

2025-01-15T10:30:45Z INFO  Starting Muti Metroo agent
2025-01-15T10:30:45Z INFO  Agent ID: a1b2c3d4...
2025-01-15T10:30:45Z INFO  SOCKS5 server started on 127.0.0.1:1080

JSON format (machine-readable):

{"time":"2025-01-15T10:30:45Z","level":"INFO","msg":"Starting Muti Metroo agent"}
{"time":"2025-01-15T10:30:45Z","level":"INFO","msg":"Agent ID","agent_id":"a1b2c3d4..."}

Log Destination

Logs go to stderr by default. Redirect as needed:

# To file
muti-metroo run -c config.yaml 2> agent.log

# With rotation (using logrotate)
muti-metroo run -c config.yaml 2>> /var/log/muti-metroo/agent.log

Changing Log Level

To change the log level, update the configuration file and restart the agent:

agent:
  log_level: "debug"

Then restart the agent to apply changes.

Startup Delay

Delay all network activity (listeners, peer connections, SOCKS5, etc.) for a specified duration after the process starts. The agent process is alive but idle during the delay.

agent:
  startup_delay: 90s

Use cases:

• Staggering agent startups across a fleet
• Waiting for dependent services to initialize
• Gradual rollout of mesh connectivity

The delay can also be set via CLI flag, which overrides the config value:

muti-metroo run -c config.yaml --startup-delay 2m

During the delay, the agent can be cleanly shut down with Ctrl+C or SIGTERM.

Environment Variables

Use environment variables for deployment flexibility:

agent:
  id: "${AGENT_ID:-auto}"
  display_name: "${AGENT_NAME:-}"
  data_dir: "${DATA_DIR:-./data}"
  log_level: "${LOG_LEVEL:-info}"
  log_format: "${LOG_FORMAT:-text}"

Examples

Development

agent:
  id: "auto"
  display_name: "Dev Agent"
  data_dir: "./data"
  log_level: "debug"
  log_format: "text"

Production

agent:
  id: "auto"
  display_name: "${HOSTNAME}"
  data_dir: "/var/lib/muti-metroo"
  log_level: "info"
  log_format: "json"

Docker

agent:
  id: "auto"
  display_name: "${AGENT_NAME:-container}"
  data_dir: "/app/data"
  log_level: "${LOG_LEVEL:-info}"
  log_format: "json"

Related

• Getting Started - Initial setup
• Listeners - Transport configuration
• Deployment - Production deployment