Configuration settings

Available on all plans

Cloud and self-hosted deployments

System admins for both self-hosted and Cloud Mattermost deployments can manage Mattermost configuration using the System Console. For self-hosted deployments, admins can additionally edit the config.json file.

Note

Mattermost requires write permissions to the config.json file; otherwise, configuration changes made within the System Console will have no effect.

Mattermost configuration settings are organized into the following categories within the System Console:

• Self-hosted workspace edition and license settings

• Cloud workspace subscription, billing, and account settings

• Reporting configuration settings

• User management configuration settings

• Environment configuration settings

• Site configuration settings

• Authentication configuration settings

• Plugins configuration settings

• Integrations configuration settings

• Compliance configuration settings

• Experimental configuration settings

In self-hosted Mattermost deployments, configuration settings are maintained in the config.json configuration file, located in the mattermost/config directory, or stored in the database. System admins managing self-hosted deployments can also modify the config.json file directly using a text editor.

Configuration in database

Note

Available only for self-hosted deployments

Self-hosted system configuration can be stored in the database. This changes the Mattermost binary from reading the default config.json file to reading the configuration settings stored within a configuration table in the database. See the Mattermost database configuration documentation for migration details.

Environment variables

Note

Available only for self-hosted deployments

You can use environment variables to manage Mattermost configuration. Environment variables override settings in config.json. If a change to a setting in config.json requires a restart to take effect, then changes to the corresponding environment variable also require a server restart.

Configuration reload

Note

Available only for self-hosted deployments

The “config watcher”, the mechanism that automatically reloads the config.json file, has been deprecated in favor of the mmctl config reload command that you must run to apply configuration changes you’ve made. This improves configuration performance and robustness.

Deprecated configuration settings

See the deprecated configuration settings documentation for details on all deprecated Mattermost configuration settings that are no longer supported.