Configuration

Environment variables, config command, aliases, locale settings, and session management.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
`ABACUS_URL`	`https://abacus.example.com/portal/myabacus`	Base URL of your Abacus portal
`ABACUS_CONFIG_DIR`	`~/.abacus-cli`	Directory for session state
`ABACUS_LOCALE`	auto-detected	Override the UI locale (de, en, fr, it, es)

abacus config

View and modify configuration stored in ~/.abacus-cli/config.json.

abacus config show                          # Show current config and sources
abacus config set url https://your-instance.example.com/portal/myabacus
abacus config set locale de                 # Override locale (de, en, fr, it, es)

Aliases

Create short names for frequently used project numbers and service types.

abacus alias list
abacus alias add project myproj 12345
abacus alias add service-type dev 100
abacus alias remove project myproj

Once defined, use aliases anywhere instead of numeric IDs:

abacus time log --project myproj --hours 8 --text "Development"

Locale

The CLI supports German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. Locale is resolved in this priority order:

ABACUS_LOCALE environment variable
locale field in config.json
System locale auto-detection
Fallback to en

# Set via environment variable
export ABACUS_LOCALE=de

# Or via config
abacus config set locale de

Session Refresh

Keep your saved session alive by refreshing it periodically. On macOS, you can install a launchd agent to do this automatically.

abacus refresh                    # Refresh session once
abacus refresh --install          # Install auto-refresh daemon (default: every 15 min)
abacus refresh --install --interval 30   # Custom interval in minutes
abacus refresh --uninstall        # Remove daemon