Global Settings

Global settings control overall generation behavior.

Configuration

global:
  seed: 42                           # Random seed for reproducibility
  industry: manufacturing            # Industry preset
  start_date: 2024-01-01             # Generation start date
  period_months: 12                  # Duration in months
  group_currency: USD                # Base/reporting currency
  worker_threads: 4                  # Parallel workers (optional)
  memory_limit: 2147483648           # Memory limit in bytes (optional)

Fields

seed

Random number generator seed for reproducible output.

Property	Value
Type	`u64`
Required	No
Default	Random

global:
  seed: 42  # Same seed = same output

Use cases:

Reproducible test datasets
Debugging
Consistent benchmarks

industry

Industry preset for domain-specific settings.

Property	Value
Type	`string`
Required	Yes
Values	See below

Available industries:

Industry	Description
`manufacturing`	Production, inventory, cost accounting
`retail`	High volume sales, seasonal patterns
`financial_services`	Complex IC, regulatory compliance
`healthcare`	Insurance billing, compliance
`technology`	SaaS revenue, R&D
`energy`	Long-term assets, commodity trading
`telecom`	Subscription revenue, network assets
`transportation`	Fleet assets, fuel costs
`hospitality`	Seasonal, revenue management

start_date

Beginning date for generated data.

Property	Value
Type	`date` (YYYY-MM-DD)
Required	Yes

global:
  start_date: 2024-01-01

Notes:

First transaction will be on or after this date
Combined with period_months to determine date range

period_months

Duration of generation period.

Property	Value
Type	`u32`
Required	Yes
Range	1-120

global:
  period_months: 12    # One year
  period_months: 36    # Three years
  period_months: 1     # One month

Considerations:

Longer periods = more data
Period close features require at least 1 month
Year-end close requires at least 12 months

group_currency

Base currency for consolidation and reporting.

Property	Value
Type	`string` (ISO 4217)
Required	Yes

global:
  group_currency: USD
  group_currency: EUR
  group_currency: CHF

Used for:

Currency translation
Consolidation
Intercompany eliminations

worker_threads

Number of parallel worker threads.

Property	Value
Type	`usize`
Required	No
Default	Number of CPU cores

global:
  worker_threads: 4    # Use 4 threads
  worker_threads: 1    # Single-threaded

Guidance:

Default (CPU cores) is usually optimal
Reduce for memory-constrained systems
Increase may not improve performance beyond CPU cores

memory_limit

Maximum memory usage in bytes.

Property	Value
Type	`u64`
Required	No
Default	None (system limit)

global:
  memory_limit: 1073741824    # 1 GB
  memory_limit: 2147483648    # 2 GB
  memory_limit: 4294967296    # 4 GB

Behavior:

Soft limit: Generation slows down
Hard limit: Generation pauses until memory freed
Streaming output to reduce memory pressure

Environment Variable Overrides

Variable	Setting
`SYNTH_DATA_SEED`	`global.seed`
`SYNTH_DATA_THREADS`	`global.worker_threads`
`SYNTH_DATA_MEMORY_LIMIT`	`global.memory_limit`

SYNTH_DATA_SEED=12345 datasynth-data generate --config config.yaml --output ./output

Examples

Minimal

global:
  industry: manufacturing
  start_date: 2024-01-01
  period_months: 12
  group_currency: USD

Full Control

global:
  seed: 42
  industry: financial_services
  start_date: 2023-01-01
  period_months: 36
  group_currency: USD
  worker_threads: 8
  memory_limit: 8589934592  # 8 GB

Development/Testing

global:
  seed: 42                # Reproducible
  industry: manufacturing
  start_date: 2024-01-01
  period_months: 1        # Short period
  group_currency: USD
  worker_threads: 1       # Single thread for debugging

Validation

Check	Rule
`period_months`	1 ≤ value ≤ 120
`start_date`	Valid date
`industry`	Known industry preset
`group_currency`	Valid ISO 4217 code

SyntheticData Documentation