Profiles and Pioneer Data

PIONEER_HOME selects Pioneer's durable local environment. If it is unset, the current Windows default is %USERPROFILE%\PioneerAI.

Different homes contain different configuration, sessions, Memory, Saved Flows, runs, logs, attachments, and tool state. They behave as isolated profiles.

Select a home

Before starting the backend:

$env:PIONEER_HOME = Join-Path $env:USERPROFILE "PioneerAI"

To clear the override for the next backend start:

Remove-Item Env:PIONEER_HOME -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Changing one terminal does not retarget an already-running process. Stop and start the backend, then verify Machine.

Verify profile identity

Machine shows the stable profile ID, resolved Pioneer home, and source. The ID is derived from the resolved path. Pioneer does not currently support a user-authored semantic profile name; a folder containing “Demo” is not proof of special product mode.

You can inspect the same redacted runtime identity with:

$runtime = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://127.0.0.1:8420/api/runtime/configuration"
$runtime.profile | Format-List

Durable state

Data	Location under the active home
Profile configuration	config.json
Sessions and Spine events	spine.db
Attachments and bounded artifacts	chat_evidence\
Memory	memory\memory.db
Saved Flows and schedules	etl\library.db
Execution history	etl\job_history.db plus related Spine events
Application logs	logs.db
MCP server/tool overrides	mcp\servers.db

Appearance, last composer model, current Chat selection, onboarding marker, and same-tab Canvas draft also use browser storage with different scopes. Ollama model files live in Ollama-managed storage outside Pioneer home.

Operational expectation

When history or Memory appears missing, verify the current profile before assuming deletion. Different profile isolation is the most common explanation.