Configuration
Before getting started with Task Master, you’ll need to set up your API keys. There are a couple of ways to do this depending on whether you’re using the CLI or working inside MCP. It’s also a good time to start getting familiar with the other configuration options available — even if you don’t need to adjust them yet, knowing what’s possible will help down the line.
API Key Setup
Task Master uses environment variables to securely store provider API keys and optional endpoint URLs.
MCP Usage: mcp.json file
For MCP/Cursor usage: Configure keys in the env section of your .cursor/mcp.json file.
CLI Usage: .env
File
Create a .env
file in your project root and include the keys for the providers you plan to use:
What Else Can Be Configured?
The main configuration file (.taskmaster/config.json
) allows you to control nearly every aspect of Task Master’s behavior. Here’s a high-level look at what you can customize:
You don’t need to configure everything up front. Most settings can be left as defaults or updated later as your workflow evolves.
View Configuration Options
View Configuration Options
Models and Providers
- Role-based model setup:
main
,research
,fallback
- Provider selection (Anthropic, OpenAI, Perplexity, etc.)
- Model IDs per role
- Temperature, max tokens, and other generation settings
- Custom base URLs for OpenAI-compatible APIs
Global Settings
logLevel
: Logging verbositydebug
: Enable/disable debug modeprojectName
: Optional name for your projectdefaultTag
: Default tag for task groupingdefaultSubtasks
: Number of subtasks to auto-generatedefaultPriority
: Priority level for new tasks
API Endpoint Overrides
ollamaBaseURL
: Custom Ollama server URLazureBaseURL
: Global Azure endpointvertexProjectId
: Google Vertex AI project IDvertexLocation
: Region for Vertex AI models
Tag and Git Integration
- Default tag context per project
- Support for task isolation by tag
- Manual tag creation from Git branches
State Management
- Active tag tracking
- Migration state
- Last tag switch timestamp
For advanced configuration options and detailed customization, see our Advanced Configuration Guide page.