The Steward's settings and files

Every setting on the Steward's page, with its default and what it changes, where the Steward keeps its files, and the environment variables it reads.

Article: 1309
Applies to: Steward 0.35.0
Last reviewed: October 9, 2026
For: For developers

Written for Steward 0.35.0. Steward is at 0.35.1 now (1 small release since: what changed).

Where the settings are#

Choose Settings in the title bar of the Steward's page. They're kept in %USERPROFILE%\.steward\settings.json, and used from the next round or button on.

Your repositories, and what the Steward may do in each, are in Castellan's Settings > Repositories, not here. See Choosing what the Steward looks after.

The settings#

Setting	Default	What it does
Source control	Automatic	How the Steward works with each repository. Automatic: GitHub's way (pull requests, GitHub releases) for a repository on GitHub where the GitHub CLI is signed in, and plain git otherwise. Git, for every repository: plain git everywhere, with no pull requests to merge; a release is a `v<version>` tag pushed to the repository. It offers only what's installed on this PC.
Team	Empty: the account `gh` is signed in as	The GitHub accounts whose pull requests the Steward merges. Named accounts are the whole team. A GitHub App as `app/<name>`.
Work folder	`%USERPROFILE%\.steward\work`	Where the Steward makes its worktrees, one folder per repository.
Release right after merging	Off	On: every merge is followed by a release. Off: releasing is a step of its own.
Checked at once	2	How many repositories are tested, merged or released at the same time, 1 to 10.
Tests only what a change reaches	On	A vouch, and a pull request tested here, run only the test files the change reaches. Off: the whole suite every time. See How the Steward merges pull requests.
Merges and releases by itself	Off	On: while on duty, each round merges the ready pull requests and releases the new versions, in the repositories where you allowed each. Off: only when you press a button.
Catches PRs up with their branch	On	Ready pull requests that wait only because their branch moved on are caught up. See Caught up, when only its branch moved.
Merges ready PRs together	On	Ready pull requests with no checks on GitHub are stacked, tested once, and merged together. Off: one at a time.
Waits for the Aletaster's tasting	On	Used only where the Aletaster is installed. Without it, releases go out without a tasting, and say so.
A round every	10 minutes	How often a round comes while on duty, 2 to 240 minutes. Each asks GitHub once, and looks again only at the repositories with something new (and at all of them each hour).
Told after a release	Castellan's update check, and the Aletaster's Run now	Local pages told after a release, as each page's own button would.
Alarms	On, with a notification; 24 hours	What becomes an alarm, and how you hear of it. See The Steward's alarms. The pages it reads (Castellan's, Reeve's) are local addresses, filled in already.
.NET SDK	`DOTNET_ROOT`'s, else Program Files'	A folder with `dotnet.exe` and an SDK, for a .NET repository's tests and releases.

Its files#

All in %USERPROFILE%\.steward:

File	What's in it
`settings.json`	Its settings.
`stages.log`	One line for every round or button that did something. Rotated at 1 MB, the last two kept as `stages.1.log` and `stages.2.log`.
`last-stage.json`	The last round or button, with its log: the page's Last stage.
`alarms.json`	The alarms: open, dismissed and lately cleared.
`version-claims.json`	The versions claimed and not yet landed.
`repos-found.json`	The repositories Reeve found, and whether `gh`'s account can push to each: Found on this PC.
`pr-checks.json`	What testing each pull request here said, by its head commit.
`round-failed.json`	Each repository's release that failed, by commit: the rounds don't try it again.
`turns.json`	Each repository's release PC, as last seen.
`unsafe-updates.json`	Each update of the Steward that was rolled back, and refused until you allow it.
`work\`	Its worktrees, and the packages they share.
`app\`, `app.prev`	The installed program, and the version before the last update.
`duty.json`, `server.json`, `serve.log`	On duty or not; the running page's process and port; its output.

Environment variables#

Variable	What it does
`STEWARD_HOME`	Keeps the Steward's data in another folder.
`STEWARD_PORT`	Moves its page to another port.

Is this page right?

If something on it is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix the page.

Still stuck? Write to support@castellan-software.com and mention article 1309. Every version of Steward, and what changed in it, is in its release notes.