Configuration

spack-ai-test provides a layered configuration system that follows standard Spack conventions.

Configuration Precedence

Settings are resolved in the following order of precedence (highest to lowest):

Command-line flags (e.g., --model, --kb)
Environment variables (e.g., SPACK_AI_TEST_MODEL, SPACK_AI_TEST_KB)
Configuration file (~/.spack/ai_test.yaml)
Built-in defaults

Configuration File: `ai_test.yaml`

You can customize default behavior by creating or editing ~/.spack/ai_test.yaml:

ai_test:
  # Default LLM model identifier
  model: gemini-2.5-flash

  # Default path for the persistent Knowledge Base
  kb: ~/.spack/cache/ai_test/kb.json

  # Compiler matrix used when queuing specs for external CI
  ci_compilers:
    - gcc@11.4.0
    - gcc@12.3.0
    - gcc@13.3.0
    - clang@14.0.0
    - clang@16.0.0

Configuration Options

Option	Default Value	Description
`model`	`gemini-2.5-flash`	Default LLM model string for spec generation.
`kb`	`~/.spack/cache/ai_test/kb.json`	Path to the local JSON Knowledge Base. The file and any parent directories are created automatically on the first run if they do not exist.
`ci_compilers`	(List of GCC & Clang versions)	The compiler matrix used when running without `--local`. Specs targeting compilers not installed on the current machine are saved to the KB as `ci_queue` entries rather than tested immediately. If this list is left unconfigured, it defaults to a broad matrix defined in `config.py`. Reduce it to only the compilers present on your cluster to avoid accumulating untested queue entries.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are recognized:

API Keys

GEMINI_API_KEY: API authentication key for Google Gemini models.
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: API authentication key for Anthropic Claude models.
OPENAI_API_KEY: API authentication key for OpenAI GPT models.

Extension Overrides

SPACK_AI_TEST_MODEL: Overrides the default model specified in ai_test.yaml.
SPACK_AI_TEST_KB: Overrides the Knowledge Base path specified in ai_test.yaml.

Supported LLM Models

spack-ai-test includes built-in client support for leading model families:

Provider	Model String (`--model`)	Required Environment Variable
Google Gemini	`gemini-2.5-flash`, `gemini-2.5-pro`	`GEMINI_API_KEY`
Anthropic Claude	`claude-sonnet-4-6`, `claude-haiku-4-5`	`ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`
OpenAI	`gpt-4o`, `gpt-4-turbo`	`OPENAI_API_KEY`