Contents

Introduction
- Introduction
Install OrthoConfig
- Install OrthoConfig
Build the first layered CLI
- Build the first layered CLI
See the configuration surface
- See the configuration surface
Make discovery match the application
- Make discovery match the application
- Handle every `load_first` outcome
Test discovery without changing the process environment
- Test discovery without changing the process environment
Resolve discovery and merging without process state
- Resolve discovery and merging without process state
Give each subcommand its own settings
- Give each subcommand its own settings
Handle errors at the application boundary
- Handle errors at the application boundary
Localize help and parse failures together
- Localize help and parse failures together
Add production diagnostics
- Add production diagnostics
Generate help from the same metadata
- Generate help from the same metadata
Offer a compact contract to automation
- Offer a compact contract to automation
Use an aliased dependency
- Use an aliased dependency
Enable another file format
- Enable another file format
A practical path from here
- A practical path from here

Install OrthoConfig

Version 0.9.1 Updated Sep 04, 2026

OrthoConfig needs Serde to turn merged values into the application's configuration type. Add clap when the application defines its own command or subcommand parser:

[dependencies]
clap = { version = "4.5", features = ["derive"] }
ortho_config = "0.9.0"
serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }

The default features support TOML and the JSON-backed merge machinery used by the derive. Optional json5, yaml, and metrics features are covered later.