Bug: Config file in ~/.config/mycoder not properly recognized for provider selection

[bhouston]

Description

There is an issue with how MyCoder loads configuration files, specifically when a user configures OpenAI as the provider in ~/.config/mycoder/config.js but the tool still attempts to use Anthropic API.

Investigation Findings

After examining the codebase, I have found the following:

1. Configuration Loading Mechanism:

   • MyCoder uses the c12 library to load configuration from multiple locations
   • The configuration search order is defined in packages/cli/src/settings/config.ts
   • The default provider is set to "anthropic" in the default configuration

2. API Key Handling:

   • API keys are loaded from environment variables based on the provider
   • The CLI checks for API keys in packages/cli/src/commands/$default.ts
   • Each provider has its own environment variable (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY)

3. Potential Issue:

   • When loading config from ~/.config/mycoder/config.js, it may not be properly merged with CLI options
   • The provider selection might be overridden by the default value or CLI arguments

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a config file at ~/.config/mycoder/config.js with provider: "openai"
2. Run MyCoder without specifying a provider in the command line
3. Observe that it still tries to use Anthropic API

Possible Solutions

1. Add more debug logging to show which configuration files are being loaded and the merged configuration
2. Verify the priority order of configuration sources is being respected
3. Check if there is an issue with the c12 library configuration loading
4. Add a CLI flag to explicitly show the active configuration that is being used

Related Files

• /packages/cli/src/settings/config.ts - Configuration loading
• /packages/cli/src/commands/$default.ts - API key handling
• /packages/agent/src/core/llm/provider.ts - Provider configuration
• /packages/cli/src/index.ts - Main entry point with dotenv loading

Would appreciate help from anyone who can test this locally or has encountered similar issues.

[shanto]

I can confirm this. Documentation needs update:

7. ~/.config/mycoder/config.js (XDG standard user configuration)

c12 only reads ~/.mycoderrc when globalRc = true. All other routines limit the search under cwd and never traverse above to look under user home. Using rc file with key=value pairs for global config is okay, but makes it difficult to follow the documentation examples with JS configs.

Passing cwd and configFile options like below helps, but due to time constraints I cannot test if it still honors other config files as intended.

    const { config } = await loadC12Config({
        name: 'mycoder',
        defaults: defaultConfig,
        overrides: cliOptions,
        globalRc: true,
        cwd: process.env.XDG_CONFIG_HOME,
        configFile: "mycoder/config"
    });