Configuration & data
TurboLLM keeps everything it stores in one place: a single ~/.turbollm/ directory
on every OS. Your config, chat history, downloaded engines, cached models, and logs all live
under that one folder — so backing up or resetting TurboLLM is as simple as copying or deleting
a directory.
Where everything lives
On macOS, Linux, and Windows alike, all TurboLLM state sits under ~/.turbollm/. There
is no data scattered across system paths — one folder holds it all:
| What | Description |
|---|---|
config.json | Your TurboLLM configuration. |
| Chat database | The SQLite database of your conversations. |
| Engines | Downloaded inference engines. |
| Models cache | Cached downloaded models. |
| Logs | TurboLLM's log files. |
Back up or reset
Because it's all in one directory, maintenance is trivial:
- Back it up — copy
~/.turbollm/to keep your config, chats, engines, and cached models. - Reset to a clean state — delete
~/.turbollm/and TurboLLM starts fresh.
Removing ~/.turbollm/ also removes your chat database, downloaded engines, and
cached models. Make a copy first if you want to keep any of them.
Use an alternate config
To point TurboLLM at a config file other than the default ~/.turbollm/config.json,
pass --config with a path:
turbollm --config /path/to/config.json
The same override is available via the TURBOLLM_CONFIG environment variable (see below).
Environment variables
Two environment variables adjust how TurboLLM runs:
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
TURBOLLM_API_KEY | Require API-key authentication on the API endpoints. |
TURBOLLM_CONFIG | Path to an alternate config file. |