[defaults]

[defaults] is the one section in runwisp.toml that doesn’t define something to run. It defines fallback values that every [tasks.*] and [services.*] inherits unless they override the field themselves.

It exists because writing the same keep_for = "30d" and log_max_size = "100mb" on twenty tasks gets tedious. Pull those into [defaults] once, override per-task only when the value is different.

Available keys

[defaults]
timeout      = "1h"
log_max_size = "100mb"
log_on_full  = "drop_old"
keep_runs    = 50
keep_for     = "30d"

Key	Type	Built-in default	What it does
timeout	duration	0 (no limit)	Default per-attempt wall-clock cap. Go duration string.
log_max_size	byte size	100MB	Default per-run log cap. Units b/kb/mb/gb/tb.
log_on_full	enum	"drop_old"	Default overflow policy: drop_new, drop_old, kill_task.
keep_runs	int	0 (no row cap)	Default row-count retention. -1 means explicit unlimited; positive N keeps N.
keep_for	duration	0 (no time cap)	Default age-based retention. Accepts d/w/h/m units. "unlimited" opts out.

There is no default cron, no default on_overlap, no default retry_*. Those vary per task by intent; defaulting them would hide behaviour.

Precedence

For each task or service:

1. If the field is set on the [tasks.*] / [services.*] table, use that.
2. Else if it’s set in [defaults], use that.
3. Else fall back to the built-in default (100MB, drop_old, 0, etc.).

Both retention fields are tri-state, so the precedence is unambiguous even when [defaults] sets a value:

Per-task keep_runs	Effect
omitted or 0	Inherit [defaults] keep_runs; if that’s also 0, no row-count cap.
-1	Explicit unlimited — overrides any positive default.
N (positive)	Cap at N. Wins over the default.

Per-task keep_for	Effect
omitted or ""	Inherit [defaults] keep_for; if that’s also unset, no time-based cap.
"unlimited"	Explicit unlimited — overrides any positive default.
"30d" (duration)	Delete runs older than this. Wins over the default.

So a task that wants to opt out of an inherited cap writes keep_runs = -1 / keep_for = "unlimited", not 0 / "" (which would silently use the default).

Worked example

[defaults]
timeout      = "30m"     # most tasks should die after 30 minutes
log_max_size = "50mb"    # smaller default, override for noisy tasks
keep_runs    = 100
keep_for     = "30d"

[tasks.heartbeat]
cron = "*/5 * * * *"
run  = "/usr/local/bin/heartbeat"
# inherits 30m timeout, 50mb log cap, 100 runs, 30d retention

[tasks.nightly-export]
cron         = "0 2 * * *"
timeout      = "4h"      # overrides default — exports take longer
log_max_size = "500mb"   # overrides default — output is large
run          = "/usr/local/bin/export"

[tasks.audit-log]
cron      = "0 0 * * *"
keep_runs = -1           # explicit unlimited — override defaults' 100
keep_for  = "unlimited"  # also opt out of the inherited 30d window
run       = "/usr/local/bin/audit"

What [defaults] doesn’t do

• It doesn’t apply to [storage] — that’s a global cap, not a per-task default.
• It doesn’t apply to [notify] settings (coalesce_window, queue_size, etc.).
• Notification routing (notify_on_failure, notify_on_success) has no defaulting layer — you set it per task.

Where to next

• [tasks.*] reference — the per-task overrides this defaults.
• [services.*] reference — same.
• [storage] reference — the daemon-wide disk safeguards (separate from per-task log_max_size).