---
title: "Settings"
description: "What lives in each section, and how the settings file works."
---

<kbd>⌘ ,</kbd> opens Settings. There is a search box at the top that matches
setting names *and* keywords, which is usually faster than remembering which
section something is in.

<Frame caption="Placeholder — screenshot: the Settings window with the section list on the left">
  <img src="/images/placeholder.svg" alt="tty7 Settings" />
</Frame>

## The eight sections

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Appearance" icon="palette" href="/customization/themes">
    Theme, sync with system, typography, cursor, transparency, language.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Terminal" icon="terminal">
    Shell and start directory, scrollback and scrolling, mouse, bell, per-pane
    history.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Input" icon="keyboard">
    Prompt features, selection & clipboard, keyboard (Option as Meta), links.
  </Card>
  <Card title="SSH" icon="server" href="/remote/ssh">
    Hosts, defaults, security, and every per-profile field.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Agents" icon="robot" href="/agents/status">
    Hook installation per agent and per machine, and the CLI on PATH.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Window & Tabs" icon="window-maximize">
    Startup window, tab bar position and grouping, notifications, tray icon.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Keybindings" icon="command" href="/customization/keybindings">
    Every shortcut, the tmux preset, the prefix.
  </Card>
  <Card title="About" icon="circle-info" href="/reference/updates">
    Version, update channel, and the updater.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## The settings file

Everything the Settings window writes goes to one file:

| | |
|---|---|
| macOS / Linux | `~/.config/tty7/config.json` |
| Windows | `%APPDATA%\tty7\config.json` |

Set `TTY7_CONFIG_DIR` to point the whole directory — config, themes, state —
somewhere else.

You can edit the file by hand; a handful of options exist only there. See the
[configuration reference](/reference/configuration) for every key, its type, and
its default.

### How it handles mistakes

The file is written atomically, and read forgivingly:

- **A missing key** means the default — you only have to write what you change.
- **An out-of-range number** is clamped into its band, not rejected.
- **An unrecognised enum value** falls back to the default with a log line,
  rather than failing the whole file.
- **An unparseable file** is not overwritten. tty7 starts on defaults, keeps a
  copy at `config.json.corrupt`, and says so in the log.

<Note>
  A UTF-8 BOM at the start of the file is tolerated, which matters if you edited
  it in a Windows editor.
</Note>

## Language

**Settings → Appearance → Language** switches the interface between English,
简体中文, and 日本語. The choice is explicit — the system language is never
inferred — and CLI output stays English regardless, so agent and script
integrations keep a stable surface.

```json
{ "gui_language": "zh-CN" }
```