tribal init

Sets up your memory provider, API credentials, and creates an assistant for storing memories.

Usage

tribal init [OPTIONS]

Options

Option	Description
--api-key, -k	Backboard API key (for non-interactive / agent use)
--provider	Memory provider: backboard (default) or mem0
--project-root, -p	Project root path (defaults to git root or CWD)
--global, -g	Set up a user-level default config
--llm-provider	LLM provider: anthropic, openai, or google
--model-name	LLM model name

Modes

Per-project (default)

tribal init

Creates .tribal/config.yaml in the current project. Memories are scoped to this project’s assistant.

Global

tribal init --global

Creates ~/.config/tribalmind/tribal.yaml. All repos without their own .tribal/config.yaml inherit from this config.

Interactive setup

When run without flags, tribal init walks you through an interactive 5-step setup:

1. Memory provider — choose Backboard (default) or Mem0
2. API key — enter credentials for your chosen provider (stored securely in your OS keyring)
3. LLM provider — choose Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google (Backboard only — Mem0 uses its own LLM pipeline)
4. Assistant — creates an assistant for this project
5. Agent files — optionally runs tribal setup-agents

Non-interactive

For CI/CD or scripted use, pass all required values as flags:

tribal init --api-key sk-xxx --llm-provider anthropic --model-name claude-sonnet-4-20250514

# Use Mem0 as the memory provider
tribal init --provider mem0 --api-key m0-xxx

Examples

tribal init                        # set up this repo interactively
tribal init --global               # set up user-level default
tribal init --api-key sk-xxx       # non-interactive
tribal init --project-root /path   # specific project directory

Note

TribalMind uses the git remote URL to identify projects. If you run tribal init outside a git repo, it falls back to the directory name and displays a warning.