# Documentation for MNE config system

**URL:** <https://mne.discourse.group/t/documentation-for-mne-config-system/2608>\
**Category:** Support & Discussions\
**Created:** [January 27, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/documentation-for-mne-config-system/2608 "2021-01-27T20:21:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cbrnr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/cbrnr/32/1409_2.png) [@cbrnr](https://mne.discourse.group/u/cbrnr)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2021, 8:21pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/documentation-for-mne-config-system/2608/1 "2021-01-27T20:21:22Z")

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Is there any documentation on MNE’s config system (other than the API)? I was just looking for a config setting to specify the download location for MNE datasets and couldn’t find anything. I had to look it up in the source, and by inspecting the output of `mne.utils.get_config(key="")` I found the config value `MNE_DATA`. Apparently, each individual data set has its own config for setting individual locations, but does `MNE_DATA` override or do the individual settings take precedence? That’s basically what I’d hoped to find in the docs…

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**Author:** ![larsoner](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/larsoner/32/3_2.png) [@larsoner](https://mne.discourse.group/u/larsoner)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/documentation-for-mne-config-system/2608/2 "2021-01-28T14:09:15Z")

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Docs for `set_config` are supposed to be a combination of API and this tutorial (found with Goggle search for “mne-python configuration”):

[https://mne.tools/dev/auto\_tutorials/intro/plot\_50\_configure\_mne.html](https://mne.tools/dev/auto_tutorials/intro/plot_50_configure_mne.html)

It’s probably worth adding a section about dataset configs in particular – IIRC `MNE_DATA` is the generic one and specific ones take precedence.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cbrnr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/mne.discourse.group/cbrnr/32/1409_2.png) [@cbrnr](https://mne.discourse.group/u/cbrnr)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://mne.discourse.group/t/documentation-for-mne-config-system/2608/3 "2021-01-28T14:25:30Z")

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Thanks @larsoner, that’s the page I was looking for. We could maybe add a link to it in the [API overview section](https://mne.tools/dev/python_reference.html#logging-and-configuration)?