import type { MEMOConfig } from './config.js';
/**
 * Locate the nearest settings file by walking up from `startDir`.
 *
 * Returns undefined when there is none, which is a normal state: a project with
 * no application settings is complete, because settings never carried meaning.
 */
export declare function findConfigFile(startDir: string): string | undefined;
/**
 * Load application settings from a file.
 *
 * Unknown fields are ignored here rather than merged: `checkSemanticFields`
 * owns rejecting the ones that used to mean something, and it produces a
 * message naming the native replacement. Silently reading them here would be
 * exactly the dual-read path the flip exists to remove.
 */
export declare function loadConfig(filePath: string): MEMOConfig;
/** Settings for a project that has none. Every command works from this. */
export declare function defaultConfig(projectName: string): MEMOConfig;
/**
 * Load settings for a project directory, or defaults when there are none.
 *
 * This replaces `loadAndResolveConfig`, which walked an `extends` chain and
 * merged kinds, layers, viewpoints, and workflows down it. There is nothing
 * left to merge.
 */
export declare function loadProjectSettings(projectRoot: string): MEMOConfig;
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