Files and settings

Where things live

	Linux	Linux, installed as root	macOS
Config, keys, log	~/.config/cantor	/etc/cantor	~/Library/Application Support/cantor
Models and library	~/.local/share/cantor	/var/lib/cantor	~/Library/Application Support/cantor
The cantor command	~/.local/bin	/usr/local/bin	~/.local/bin

On Linux, XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_DATA_HOME move these, as you would expect.

In the config directory:

• node.toml: the node’s settings and its pairings.
• node.key: the node’s identity. Keep it private and never share it; a node with a new key is a new node, and no phone is paired with it.
• noise.key: the key that encrypts traffic with phones.
• node.log: the log, when the node runs detached.

node.toml

The node writes this file itself. Stop the node before editing it by hand, or restart it after.

name = "studio"
relay_url = "wss://relay.cantorfm.com"

# Optional: pin a backend instead of measuring one.
# backend = "cpu"

[engine]
keep_loaded = false   # keep a model loaded between songs
vae_chunk = 256       # lower uses less memory at the slowest step
n_threads = 0         # 0 lets the engine choose

[jobs]
max_queued_per_principal = 20
minimum_free_bytes = 2147483648   # 2 GB the node always leaves free

[engine] fields left out, or set to zero, use the engine’s own default. vae_chunk is the one worth knowing on a small machine: the last step of a song uses the most memory, and 256 keeps a 7 GB machine from swapping.

[jobs]: how many songs each phone may have waiting, and how much space the node keeps free. Below that it refuses new songs rather than fill the disk.

The installer

curl -fsSL https://cantorfm.com/install.sh | sh

Run it as your normal user. It asks for a node name, the relay, and where models and the library go, then offers to start the node, pair a phone and pull a model. Running it again keeps your existing node.toml.

CANTOR_NON_INTERACTIVE=1 skips every question and starts nothing. CANTOR_RELAY_URL sets the relay without asking.