⚙️ Configuration Files

The daemon uses two directories:

Directory	Purpose
/etc/coolercontrol/	Configuration files (settings, TLS certificates, credentials)
/var/lib/coolercontrol/	Runtime state (session data, plugins)

Backup and Restore

To create a complete backup of your daemon configuration and data:

sudo tar -czvf coolercontrol-backup.tgz /etc/coolercontrol /var/lib/coolercontrol

To restore from a backup (overwriting existing files), stop the daemon first, then extract, and start the daemon again:

sudo systemctl stop coolercontrold
sudo tar -xvf coolercontrol-backup.tgz -C /
sudo systemctl start coolercontrold

Quick backup of only the CoolerControl daemon and UI configuration files:

sudo coolercontrold --backup

See the command output for the destination path.

Daemon configuration files

/etc/coolercontrol/

The key files are:

• config.toml — daemon configuration (TOML; preserves comments). Manual edits are generally not recommended because many settings are interdependent and the UI manages them safely. If you do edit it, stop the daemon, update the file, then start the daemon again:

  sudo systemctl stop coolercontrold
  sudo nano /etc/coolercontrol/config.toml
  sudo systemctl start coolercontrold

• config-ui.json — shared UI settings (used by both the Web UI and Desktop application). Not intended for manual editing.

• modes.json — saved Mode settings.

• alarms.json — saved Alarm settings.

• coolercontrol.crt — Self-signed TLS certificate (auto-generated when TLS is enabled)

• coolercontrol.key — TLS private key

TIP

Need to start fresh? First make a backup, then remove /etc/coolercontrol/ and /var/lib/coolercontrol/ and restart the daemon and UI to regenerate defaults. This is destructive—only do this if you intend to reset all settings.

Daemon data directory

/var/lib/coolercontrol/

Runtime state that is separate from configuration:

• plugins/ — installed plugins (default plugin directory)
• sessions/ — active session data

A symlink /etc/coolercontrol/plugins → /var/lib/coolercontrol/plugins is maintained for backward compatibility.

All three directories can be overridden at startup via environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
CC_CONFIG_DIR	/etc/coolercontrol	Configuration directory
CC_DATA_DIR	/var/lib/coolercontrol	Runtime state directory
CC_PLUGINS_DIR	/var/lib/coolercontrol/plugins	Plugins directory

These are primarily useful for containerized or custom deployments.

The current default daemon config file is located here.

Desktop application configuration files

Desktop config file: ~/.config/org.coolercontrol.CoolerControl/CoolerControl.conf

Local storage for the desktop app is stored here:
~/.local/share/org.coolercontrol.CoolerControl/CoolerControl/

Editing desktop config files manually is generally unnecessary, prefer using the application UI. If you must edit manually, close the app first and restart it after saving changes.