Settings and Configuration

What you’ll learn

• How to change settings from the chat
• How to edit settings files and understand each setting
• How to give the assistant standing instructions
• How to add skills
• Which environment variables BoldCreate reads
• Where BoldCreate stores its files

The settings menu

Inside a chat, type /settings. Use ↑ / ↓ to move, Enter to change a value, and Escape to close. Changes are saved to your user settings file.

Tip: To save a default model, open the model picker (Ctrl+L), select a model, and press Ctrl+S.

Settings files

Settings are stored as JSON:

Example:

{
  "approvalMode": "manual",
  "defaultModel": "<MODEL_ID>",
  "defaultThinkingLevel": "high",
  "theme": "dark"
}

Settings reference

Settings a project can’t change

For safety, a project’s settings file can’t set approvalMode, autoApproveTools, or autoUpdate. Someone else’s project could otherwise turn off approvals. If a project file sets these, BoldCreate ignores them and shows a warning.

Mistakes in a settings file

BoldCreate does not refuse to start because of a settings file. It shows a warning and ignores the bad part:

Keep quotes around names and text values, and separate entries with commas.

Project instructions

You can give the assistant standing project instructions in Markdown files such as AGENTS.md. BoldCreate reads applicable files at the start of every session.

See Project context and instruction files for supported paths, precedence, imports, and size limits.

Skills

A skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file describing one kind of task. The assistant sees each skill’s name and description, and reads it when the task matches.

See Skills for skill format, locations, and invocation.

Environment variables

An environment variable is a named value set in your terminal that programs can read.

macOS (current terminal window):

export BOLDCREATE_MODEL="<MODEL_ID>"

Windows PowerShell (current window):

$env:BOLDCREATE_MODEL = "<MODEL_ID>"

Which model value wins

BoldCreate uses the first model value it finds:

1. --model
2. defaultModel in project settings, then user settings
3. BOLDCREATE_MODEL
4. The service’s default model

Where BoldCreate stores files