Admin Settings

Manage runtime application configuration through the Admin Settings UI without restarting the application.

Overview

Admin Settings provides:

Runtime Configuration - Change settings without redeploying or restarting
LLM Provider Management - Configure and hot-swap AI providers at runtime
Change History - Full audit trail of all setting changes with user attribution
Encrypted Storage - Sensitive values (API keys, endpoints) encrypted in the database
Role-Restricted - Only Admin users can access settings

Accessing Admin Settings

Log in as an Admin user
Navigate to Admin Settings in the navigation menu
Configure settings across available tabs

Admin Settings is only visible to users with the Admin role or Super Admin flag.

Configuration Tabs

General Settings

Setting	Description	Example
Base URL	Application URL for notification links	`https://yourdomain.com/semantico`

The Base URL is used to generate clickable links in Teams/Slack notifications that take users to the Semantico UI.

AI Configuration

Configure the LLM provider for AI-powered features (documentation generation, natural language alerts).

Setting	Description	Required
Provider	LLM provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, AzureOpenAI, Bedrock)	Yes
API Key	Authentication key for the provider	Yes
Endpoint	Custom API endpoint URL	No
Region	AWS region (Bedrock only)	Bedrock only
Model	Primary model name	Yes
Fast Model	Lightweight model for quick operations	No
Max Concurrent Requests	Parallel request limit	No (default: 50)
Tokens Per Minute	Rate limit	No (default: 80,000)
Requests Per Minute	Rate limit	No (default: 1,000)
Monthly Budget	Cost cap in USD	No (default: $100)

API keys are encrypted before storage and masked in the UI. They are never exposed in plain text after saving.

Change History

View a complete audit log of all settings changes:

Setting Key - Which setting was changed
Old Value / New Value - Previous and new values (masked for sensitive fields)
Changed By - User who made the change
Changed At - Timestamp

Hot-Swap LLM Providers

One of the key features of Admin Settings is the ability to change the LLM provider at runtime without restarting the application.

How It Works

Admin updates LLM settings via the UI
AppSettingsService saves encrypted values to the database
LlmProviderManager receives the update via ILlmConfigurationUpdater
A new provider instance is created with the updated configuration
DelegatingLlmProvider (the proxy injected throughout the app) automatically delegates to the new provider
All subsequent AI requests use the new provider immediately

Architecture

AppSettingsService.SaveSettingsAsync()
    │
    ├── Save to database (encrypted)
    ├── Invalidate cache
    ├── Update SemanticoConfiguration singleton
    │
    └── ILlmConfigurationUpdater.UpdateConfiguration()
            │
            └── LlmProviderManager
                    ├── Mutate LlmConfiguration singleton
                    └── Recreate ILlmProvider via factory
                            │
                            └── DelegatingLlmProvider (proxy)
                                    └── All consumers use new provider

Example: Switching from OpenAI to Anthropic

Go to Admin Settings > AI Configuration
Change Provider to Anthropic
Update API Key to your Anthropic key
Change Model to claude-3-5-sonnet-20241022
Click Save
AI features immediately use Anthropic - no restart needed

Initial Configuration

Settings can be pre-configured in two ways:

Via appsettings.json (Startup Defaults)

{
  "Semantico": {
    "BaseUrl": "https://yourdomain.com/semantico",
    "LLM": {
      "Provider": "OpenAI",
      "ApiKey": "sk-your-api-key",
      "Model": "gpt-4o"
    }
  }
}

On startup, if Admin Settings in the database are empty, values from appsettings.json are used as defaults. Once saved via the Admin Settings UI, database values take precedence.

Via First-Run Setup

After creating the super admin during first-run setup, navigate to Admin Settings to configure the LLM provider and other settings.

Database Storage

Settings are stored in two tables:

app_settings

Column	Type	Description
`key`	string	Setting identifier (e.g., `LLM.ApiKey`)
`value`	string?	Setting value (encrypted if sensitive)
`category`	string	Grouping (General, LLM)
`is_sensitive`	bool	If true, value is encrypted

app_setting_history

Column	Type	Description
`setting_key`	string	Which setting changed
`old_value`	string?	Previous value (`***` if sensitive)
`new_value`	string?	New value (`***` if sensitive)
`changed_at`	DateTime	When the change occurred
`changed_by_user_id`	string?	Who made the change

Programmatic Access

Reading Settings

public class MyService
{
    private readonly IAppSettingsService _settingsService;

    public MyService(IAppSettingsService settingsService)
    {
        _settingsService = settingsService;
    }

    public async Task DoSomethingAsync()
    {
        var settings = await _settingsService.GetSettingsAsync();

        var baseUrl = settings.BaseUrl;
        var llmProvider = settings.LlmProvider;
        var llmModel = settings.LlmModel;
    }
}

Saving Settings

var settings = await _settingsService.GetSettingsAsync();
settings.BaseUrl = "https://new-domain.com/semantico";

await _settingsService.SaveSettingsAsync(settings, userId: currentUser.Id);

Viewing History

var history = await _settingsService.GetHistoryAsync();

// Filter by setting key
var llmHistory = await _settingsService.GetHistoryAsync(key: "LLM.ApiKey");

Implementing ILlmConfigurationUpdater

If you build custom services that need to react to LLM configuration changes, implement ILlmConfigurationUpdater:

public interface ILlmConfigurationUpdater
{
    void UpdateConfiguration(AppSettingsData settings);
}

This interface lives in Semantico.Core so that AppSettingsService can call it without depending on Semantico.AI. The implementation (LlmProviderManager) lives in the AI project.

Caching

Settings are cached in memory for 1 hour to minimize database queries. The cache is invalidated immediately when settings are saved via the Admin Settings UI.