# Configuring RiskScape

## Projects

Most of the configuration RiskScape uses is specified in a :ref:`project file <projects>`.
The `project.ini` file is like a 'work-space' that tells RiskScape what :ref:`models` it can run,
and what :ref:`functions`, :ref:`Bookmarks <bookmarks>`, and :ref:`types` can be used in the model.

## Settings

The :ref:`settings_ini` can be used to configure *global* RiskScape settings.

The contents of the `project.ini` file will vary depending on what you are modelling,
whereas the `settings.ini` file contains a smaller subset of RiskScape configuration that
will apply *every* time you run RiskScape.

## Plugins

RiskScape has an extensible architecture. This means you can use :ref:`plugins` to enable or disable
related sets of functionality. By enabling optional plugins you can unlock more RiskScape features,
such as support for NetCDF input data.

## Custom INI format

Under development is a new parser for RiskScape's project files.  To enable this, add the
following to your :ref:`settings_ini`:

```
[engine]
use-ini-ng = true
```

This will enable new features like source locations in error messages and multi-line
configuration values, e.g.:

    [function echo]
    description = """
    This function demostrates the use of multi-line strings in RiskScape
    configuration (INI) files.
    """

    framework = cpython

    source = '''
    def function(message):
         return message + ' back at you'
    '''