Configuration inheritance

Contents

Overview
Inheritance rules
Example
Rule inheritance
When inheritance does not apply

Overview

findamodel.yaml files form a hierarchy that mirrors your directory tree. When a field is not set in a directory’s own config, FindAModel walks up the tree to the nearest ancestor that has a value for that field - this is the resolved value used for all models in that directory.

This means you only need to set shared values once, high in the tree, rather than repeating them in every subdirectory.

Inheritance rules

Closest non-null value wins. For each metadata field, FindAModel walks from the directory up toward the root and uses the first non-null value it finds.
The child always wins over the parent. A value set in a subdirectory always takes priority over the same field in a parent directory.
Rules inherit too. If a directory has a rule for a field (instead of a plain value), and a child directory has neither a plain value nor its own rule for that field, the child inherits the parent’s rule. The rule is then evaluated using the child’s file paths.
Plain values take priority over inherited rules. If an ancestor has a rule but the current directory (or a closer ancestor) has a plain value, the plain value wins.

Example

models/
├── findamodel.yaml       creator: "Alice"
│                         material: "resin"
│
├── Fantasy/
│   ├── findamodel.yaml   collection: "Fantasy"
│   │
│   ├── Elves/
│   │   ├── findamodel.yaml   model_name: { source: filename, expression: "^(.*)\\.[^./]+$" }
│   │   ├── elf_warrior.stl
│   │   └── elf_mage.stl
│   │
│   └── Dwarves/
│       └── dwarf_king.stl    (no findamodel.yaml)
│
└── SciFi/
    ├── findamodel.yaml   collection: "SciFi"
    │                     creator: "Bob"   ← overrides root "Alice"
    └── spaceship.stl

Resolved values:

File	creator	collection	material	model_name
`Fantasy/Elves/elf_warrior.stl`	Alice	Fantasy	resin	elf_warrior
`Fantasy/Elves/elf_mage.stl`	Alice	Fantasy	resin	elf_mage
`Fantasy/Dwarves/dwarf_king.stl`	Alice	Fantasy	resin	(not set)
`SciFi/spaceship.stl`	Bob	SciFi	resin	(not set)

Key observations:

material: "resin" is set once at the root and inherited everywhere.
creator: "Bob" in SciFi/ overrides the root creator: "Alice" for everything under SciFi/.
The model_name regex rule in Elves/ applies only to files in that directory.
Dwarves/ has no findamodel.yaml, so it inherits collection: "Fantasy" and creator: "Alice" but has no model_name rule.

Rule inheritance

Rules inherit like plain values - the closest ancestor rule wins. The rule is then evaluated against each file in the child directory using that file’s own path.

models/
├── findamodel.yaml
│     model_name:
│       source: filename
│       expression: "^(.*)\\.[^./]+$"     ← inherited by all subdirs with no own model_name
│
├── Fantasy/
│   └── dragon.stl         → model_name evaluates to "dragon"
│
└── SciFi/
    ├── findamodel.yaml
    │     model_name: "Override"    ← plain value; wins over inherited rule
    └── spaceship.stl               → model_name is "Override"

When inheritance does not apply

model_metadata overrides are per-file and directory-local. They are not inherited by subdirectories.
raftHeight is a per-directory setting that controls the hull clipping plane; it is inherited but affects geometry computation rather than displayed metadata.