---
title: "Runtime configuration"
slug: "runtime-configuration"
abstract: "Describes how you can change configuration at runtime."
---
# Runtime configuration

You can alter from where and how  runtime plugins are loaded. The `sitecorehost.xml` file contains a `Plugins/Runtime` section  like this:

```xml
<Sitecore>
  <Plugins>
    <Runtime>
      <Location>sitecoreruntime</Location>
      <UseCustomAssemblyLoadContext>false</UseCustomAssemblyLoadContext>
    </Runtime>
  </Plugins>
</Sitecore>

```

You can set the `Location` and `UseCustomAssemblyLoadContext` :

- `Location`

    Specifies where the runtime data is located. The value can be either a relative or absolute path to the location. The default value is `sitecoreruntime`.

- `UseCustomAssemblyLoadContext`

    You can only use this if the host is targeting `netcoreapp2.0`.

    If set to *true*, a custom `AssemblyLoadContext` is used to load all plugin assemblies. This is useful if you want to to load a different version of a dependency into the process. For example, If the host process has a dependency on `Newtonsoft.Json` version 10, but a plugin has a dependency on version 11.

    If set to *false*, only `Newtonsoft.Json` assembly version 10 is loaded, for both host and runtime plugins.

    The default value is: *false*.

## Assembly loading in full .NET Framework applications

If the host process is targeting full framework (for example, `net471`), the runtime assemblies referenced by the plugins `sitecore.plugin.manifest` files (along with their dependencies) are located and loaded into the application domain.

All assemblies from the hosts `bin` directory are loaded into the assembly `Load` context, while the plugin assemblies are loaded into a separate `LoadFrom` context.

## Assembly loading in NetCore applications (netcoreapp)

If the host process is targeting `netcoreapp2.0` (or above), the runtime assemblies referenced by the plugins' `sitecore.plugin.manifest` files (along with their dependencies) are located and loaded into the default `AssemblyLoadContext` along with assemblies loaded from the `bin` directory of the host process.