# Node Tools >> Providence Analytics >> Local configuration ||40

The Providence configuration file is read by providence cli (optional) and by the dashboard (required).
It has a few requirements:

- it must be called `providence.conf.js` or `providence.conf.mjs`
- it must be in ESM format
- it must be located in the root of a repository (under `process.cwd()`)

## Meta data

### Category info

Based on the filePath of a result, a category can be added.
For example:

```js
export default {
  metaConfig: {
    categoryConfig: [
      {
        // This is the name found in package.json
        project: '@lion/root',
        // These conditions will be run on overy filePath
        categories: {
          core: p => p.startsWith('./packages/core'),
          utils: p => p.startsWith('./packages/ajax') || p.startsWith('./packages/localize'),
          overlays: p =>
            p.startsWith('./packages/overlays') ||
            p.startsWith('./packages/dialog') ||
            p.startsWith('./packages/tooltip'),
          ...
        },
      },
    ],
  },
}
```

> N.B. category info is regarded as subjective, therefore it's advised to move this away from
> Analyzers (and thus file-system cache). Categories can be added realtime in the dashboard.

## Project paths

### referenceCollections

A list of file system paths. They can be defined relative from the current project root or they can be full paths.
When a [MatchAnalyzer](../../../fundamentals/node-tools/providence-analytics/analyzer.md) like `match-imports` or `match-subclasses` is used, the default reference(s) can be configured here. For instance: ['/path/to/@lion/form']

An example:

```js
  referenceCollections: {
    // Our products
    'lion-based-ui': [
      './providence-input-data/references/lion-based-ui',
      './providence-input-data/references/lion-based-ui-labs',
    ],
    ...
  }
```

### searchTargetCollections

A list of file system paths. They can be defined relative from the current project root
or they can be full paths.
When not defined, the current project will be the search target (this is most common when
providence is used as a dev dependency).