The Missing /config

Editing a live Amplifier session, no restart

The problem

Reshape a running session without killing it

You're mid-session and you want to flip a tool, swap a context, or change behavior — but the only clean path is to stop, edit, and start over.

The surprise: parts of that live edit already work today.

Already shipped

Live in-session commands already mutate the running coordinator — no restart

In amplifier-app-newtui, eight in-session commands act “over the live coordinator” with the palette and tests updated. Marked done in the backlog.

So the “no restart” half is real. What about persistence?

Shipped — over the live coordinator

/status /model /effort /compact /clear /tools /agents /diff

The other half

microsoft/amplifier-config is the file-based, three-scope settings library

A v0.1.0 reference config library: hierarchical user < project < local resolution, deep-merge, YAML file I/O. Apps inject path conventions; the library handles resolution.

This is the persistence half. But notice when you use it.

3

scopes: user, project, local

~1,139

lines of source + tests

41

test functions

v0.1.0

library version

The seam

The config library is what you edit BEFORE you start — not live

It has zero live/session/restart/toggle machinery. Searches across its source for those terms return only app-side caching policy and generic path comments.

Persistence without live editing — and live editing without one home.

0 live-session references
no session/live/restart/toggle in the library source
Edit-before-start
file-based YAML resolved at load time
App responsibility
“when to reload” is left to the app, not the library

What's absent

None of the 29 registered slash commands is named /config

amplifier-app-newtui registers 29 in-session slash commands — /mode, /context, /tools, /model and more — but the count of a command named /config is exactly zero.

The single toggle-inspect-persist surface simply isn't there yet.

29

registered slash commands

0

named /config

Named honestly

“/config live editing” is an unchecked backlog item — proposed, not built

It sits in amplifier-app-newtui's backlog as an unchecked Bucket-B nice-to-have as of 2026-07-20. This is a forward-looking proposal, not a shipped command.

Which turns the gap into a plan — and the plan is closer than it looks.

Backlog — Bucket B, unchecked

- [ ] /config live editing
nice-to-have, not yet implemented
As of 2026-07-20
backlog last touched this date

The convergence

/config is a unification away, not a rebuild

Both halves already exist and are verified: the live-mutation commands and the three-scope persistence library. A proposed /config joins them into one surface.

The gap is one surface — not new machinery.

Shipped

Live in-session commands

mutate the running coordinator, no restart

Shipped

Three-scope config library

user / project / local persistence, v0.1.0

Proposed

/config — one surface

toggle, inspect, persist — joins the two halves

The pattern

Ship the surface, not the substrate

When persistence and live mutation already exist separately, the win is joining them into one honest, at-a-glance /config — unify existing halves rather than announce vaporware.

The two halves are verified today; the surface is the proposal.

Sources

Sources & Research Methodology

Data as of: 2026-07-20 (backlog); library history 2025-10-29 to 2026-01-12.

Feature status: Config library: SHIPPED v0.1.0 /config live editing: NOT IMPLEMENTED

Primary source repo: colombod/amplifier-config (resolves to microsoft/amplifier-config), cloned fresh via gh repo clone.

Commands run:

gh repo view colombod/amplifier-config --json name,description,url,createdAt,updatedAt,pushedAt
gh repo clone colombod/amplifier-config /tmp/amplifier-config (resolves to github.com:microsoft/amplifier-config)
find src tests -name '*.py' | xargs wc -l — manager.py=437; total=1,139 lines
grep -rh 'def test_' tests/ | wc -l — 41 test functions
grep -rniE 'session|live|restart|runtime|toggle|slash|/config|reload' src/ docs/ — 0 live-session references
grep -c 'name="/' src/amplifier_app_newtui/commands/builtin.py — 29 commands; name="/config" count = 0
sed -n '20p;35p' amplifier-app-newtui/docs/BACKLOG.md — 8 live commands done; /config live editing unchecked
git rev-list --count --all — 12 commits; git shortlog -sne --all — Krabach 11, Cutt 1

Primary contributors: Brian Krabach (11 commits); Bryce Cutt (1 commit, Windows cross-platform fix, PR #1).

Gaps: A single /config live-session editor was not found implemented in any inspected repo — only referenced as a backlog item. Whether a future /config would persist via amplifier-config specifically is a design inference, not verified in code. PyPI publication status of amplifier-config is unverified.