Settings

Two different settings surfaces exist in NEXUS, and they behave differently. This page is the control-by-control contract for both. For a narrative walkthrough, see the Settings guide.

App Settings (below) applies every change immediately — there is no Save step. Contextual settings — the panel that targets whatever is currently selected — stages edits for a Workspace, Session, Agent, Bit Page, or File: it shows Save and Cancel, and if you try to leave with something unsaved, a guard asks "Unsaved Changes — This panel has unsaved changes. Discard them?" with Discard Changes and Keep Editing as the two ways to answer. A neural-map Node and a multi-selection summary apply immediately instead, the same as App Settings, since neither stages a persisted field.

General

Label	What it does	Default
App / Version	Read-only: the installed app and its version number.	—
Language	Shows the interface language. Disabled — NEXUS ships with an English-only interface, so this can't be changed yet.	Not adjustable
Full Screen	Switches the window in or out of full screen; also the default for new windows and launches.	On
Show Workspace Insights	Opens the workspace insights view.	—
Browse Agent Skills	Opens the skills browser.	—
Restart Tour	Replays the short coach-mark tour that highlights the controls you use most.	—

Account

Label	What it does	Default
Sign In	Starts sign-in to your Chainabit account.	Signed out
Sign Out	Signs out of the current account.	—
Signed in as / Email / Role / Account ID	Read-only identity fields, shown once signed in.	—
Plan — Sessions / Agents / Workspaces	Shows your plan's numeric limits, or "Unlimited".	Depends on plan
Plan — Features	Lists which optional features your plan includes.	Depends on plan

Appearance

Label	What it does	Default
Theme mode	Auto, Light, or Dark.	Auto
Theme	A built-in color theme, chosen from a swatch list.	System
Sidebar Background	A custom sidebar color.	Not set
Reset to Default	Clears a custom sidebar color. Shown only once one is set.	—

Performance

Label	What it does	Default
Enable Nexus Overlay	Turns the ambient overlay effect on or off.	Off
Idle intensity	How strong the overlay effect is while idle.	50%
Refresh	How often system monitoring refreshes.	1000 ms
RAM alert	The memory-usage percentage that triggers a warning.	85%

Agents

3D Room

Label	What it does	Default
Status	Whether 3D Room is active, and whether your plan includes it.	Inactive
Activate 3D Room / Deactivate 3D Room	Turns the 3D renderer on or off. Requires a paid plan — if yours doesn't include it, this shows "Not entitled" with an "Upgrade to unlock 3D Room" link instead.	Off
Download Asset Bundle / Update	Downloads or updates the asset bundle 3D Room needs.	Not installed
Renderer	2D or 3D, once 3D Room is active.	2D
Movement speed	Camera movement speed in 3D.	5.0 m/s
Mouse sensitivity	Camera turn sensitivity in 3D.	0.3°/px
Field of view	Camera field of view in 3D.	75°
Invert Y axis	Inverts vertical look in 3D.	Off
Start in third-person mode	Starting camera mode in 3D.	Off
Head-bob	Camera head-bob amount in 3D.	0.04 m

Session Replay

Label	What it does	Default
Enable Session Replay	Turns on an experimental view that replays which files a past session touched, as a static map of the repository it ran in. Local-only; experimental and off by default.	Off

Mesh, Providers & Team Expansion

Label	What it does	Default
Mesh Messaging	Turns on agent-to-agent mesh messaging.	On
Sync Agents to All CLI Providers	Keeps your agent roster in sync across every configured CLI provider.	Off
Agents Can Expand Teams	Lets an agent request inviting or creating another agent. Any such request always arrives as a message you can see and choose to act on — never silently.	Off

Orchestration

Label	What it does	Default
Cross-Agent Orchestration	Lets agents compose — one agent triggering another, which can itself trigger, message, or write further — instead of only ever acting alone. Requires a paid plan; shows "Cross-Agent Orchestration is not included in your current plan" otherwise.	Off
Max chain depth	Caps how many hops a chain can run.	2 (range 1–10)
Max agents per chain	Caps how many distinct agents one chain can involve.	3 (range 1–10)
Require approval for each hop	Pauses for your approval before every hop, not only the first.	On
Allowed agent slugs (comma-separated)	The allow-list. Only agents named here can start a governed chain — empty means no agent can, so turning the master toggle on alone does not make orchestration usable.	Empty
Stop All Orchestration	Immediately halts every agent conversation and orchestration chain, app-wide.	—

Visual Effects

Label	What it does	Default
Terminal activity effect	A visual effect reflecting terminal output volume — never a measure of an agent's context usage.	Off

Persistence

Label	What it does	Default
Open in Finder	Opens the folder holding agent homes on disk (persona, memory, and bit files for every agent).	—
Backup & Sync — Status	Whether Backup & Sync is available on your plan.	Not entitled
Upgrade to unlock Backup & Sync	Shown instead of the controls below when your plan doesn't include Backup & Sync.	—
Backup Destinations	One or more folders NEXUS backs up to, once entitled. Add or remove them individually.	None

Notifications

General Notifications

Label	What it does	Default
Enable Notifications	Master switch for configurable terminal-event notifications across all workspaces. A workspace cannot override this switch while it is off.	On
Open System Notification Settings	Opens macOS's own notification settings for NEXUS.	—
Command Completed	Notify when a command finishes.	Off
Command Failed	Notify when a command fails.	On
Process Exited	Notify when a process exits.	On
Error	Notify on error.	On

The notification center also provides a scope filter with All Scopes, General, and one entry per workspace. Scope combines with the existing type, date, unread-only, and date-sort filters.

Voice

Voice Control

Label	What it does	Default
Enable voice control	Master switch for voice control.	Off
Activation	How you trigger listening: Click to record, Keyboard shortcut, Push to talk (hold), Wake phrase, or Text only (no microphone).	Keyboard shortcut
HUD style	Cinematic or Compact voice overlay.	Cinematic

Audio Devices

Label	What it does	Default
Microphone	Input device used for voice.	System default
Speak responses through	Output device used for spoken responses.	System default

Recognition

Label	What it does	Default
Voice language	Language used for recognition.	System default
Prefer on-device recognition	Uses on-device recognition when available.	On
Allow server-based recognition	Falls back to server-based recognition when needed.	Off
Silence auto-stop	How long a silence before recording stops automatically.	1.6 s (range 0.6–4.0 s)

Speech Provider

Label	What it does	Default
Provider	Which text-to-speech provider reads responses aloud: the built-in on-device voice, a self-hosted server, or a cloud provider you configure.	Built-in
Test voice	Plays a short sample with the current settings.	—

Responses

Label	What it does	Default
Speak responses	Reads responses aloud.	Off
Voice	Which system voice to use.	System default
Rate	Speaking rate.	0.5 (range 0.35–0.7)
Pitch	Speaking pitch.	1.0 (range 0.5–2.0)

Dictation

Label	What it does	Default
Open System Dictation…	Opens macOS's own dictation settings.	—

Wake Phrase

Label	What it does	Default
Enable wake phrase	Starts voice control by saying a wake phrase instead of a shortcut. Detected entirely on-device.	Off

Safety

Label	What it does	Default
Confirm commands	Which risk level of a voice-issued command requires confirmation before running: "Caution and above" or "Dangerous only". Commands NEXUS considers dangerous are always previewed before running regardless of this setting.	Caution and above

Privacy

Label	What it does	Default
Store transcripts on disk	Saves voice transcripts to disk. Audio itself is never stored unless this is on.	Off

Keyboard Shortcuts

This section is not a list of NEXUS's built-in shortcuts — for those, see the Keyboard Shortcuts reference. It covers terminal display and key behavior, and lets you define your own custom shortcuts.

Label	What it does	Default
Font size	The terminal's font size. Read-only — not adjustable in this release.	13 pt
Option (⌥) key	How the Option key behaves in the terminal: type characters (e.g. #, ~), act as a Meta key (Esc + key), or split so left Option types characters and right Option is Meta.	Type characters
Command Shortcuts	Your custom shortcuts — each has a name, a key combination, and the command it types into the active terminal, plus its own on/off toggle.	Two disabled examples ship by default: "Git Status" (⌃⇧S) and "List Files" (⌃⇧L)
Add…	Opens a form to create a new custom shortcut: name, command, key, and modifier keys.	Ctrl+Shift held by default
Open Config	Opens the underlying shortcuts file.	—
Reset	Restores the two built-in examples. Shown only once at least one shortcut exists.	—

Terms & Policies

Label	What it does	Default
Third-party attributions	Credits for third-party code and assets bundled with NEXUS.	—
Terms of Service	Opens Chainabit's Terms of Service in your browser.	—
Privacy Policy	Opens Chainabit's Privacy Policy in your browser.	—

Contextual settings

The panel that targets whatever is currently selected elsewhere in the app. Workspace, Session, Agent, Bit Page, and File stage their edits (Save / Cancel, with the unsaved-changes guard described above); a neural-map Node and a multi-selection summary apply immediately.

Workspace

Label	What it does	Default
Name	The workspace's display name.	—
Color	An accent color for the workspace.	Not set
Grid Columns	How many columns its pane grid uses.	2 (range 1–4)
Notification Behavior	Chooses Use General Settings, Customize This Workspace, or Mute This Workspace for terminal-event notifications. Customized events not explicitly changed continue to follow General Notifications. The General master switch always has final authority.	Use General Settings
Command Completed / Command Failed / Process Exited / Error	Per-event choices shown when Customize This Workspace is selected. They affect only this workspace.	Inherited until changed
Items	Read-only count of sessions and files inside it.	—
Delete Workspace	Permanently deletes the workspace and everything in it, after a confirmation step. Available only when more than one workspace exists.	—

Session

Label	What it does	Default
Name	The session's display name.	—
Pin as Project Rule…	Saves a note as a standing rule for this project, feeding the Neural Map's knowledge fabric.	—
Pin as Data Mapping…	Saves a note as a standing data mapping for this project.	—
Manage Pinned Memory…	Opens the list of pinned and agent-proposed notes, to edit, unpin, promote, or discard each.	—
Reveal Memory Folder	Opens the session's memory folder on disk.	—
Knowledge fabric enabled	Whether pinned notes for this session appear on the Neural Map.	On
Window Color / Background	A custom tint and background for the session's pane, with preset swatches.	Not set
View Session Replay…	Opens the (experimental) replay for this session — shown only when Session Replay is turned on and the session has a linked agent.	—

Agent

See Agents for the full persona and autonomy model. The contextual panel edits the same record as the agent's own page:

Label	What it does	Default
Name	The agent's display name.	—
Role, Focus, Communication style, Tools, Context Tags	The agent's persona fields.	Generic starting persona
Mode	Auto, Approval, Plan, or Plan (collect). Destructive actions always pause regardless of mode.	Approval
Window Color / Background Color	A custom tint and background for this agent's sessions, with preset swatches and a Reset Colors action.	Not set

Bit Page

Label	What it does	Default
Title	The page's title.	—
Accent	An accent color, with presets.	Not set
Lifecycle	Archive and recycle controls for bit pages. Not built yet — this section shows a note that it arrives in a future release.	—

File

Label	What it does	Default
Name / Path	Read-only file identity.	—
Workspace	Which workspace the file belongs to.	Current workspace
Reveal in Finder	Opens the file's location in Finder.	—
Remove File	Removes the file from NEXUS. Does not delete it from disk.	—

Neural-map node

Label	What it does	Default
Title / Kind / Weight / Synapses	Read-only: the node's identity, its connection strength, and how many connections touch it.	—
Status	Shown only when the node maps to a live session or agent.	—
Capture Bit	Turns a short note into a new bit linked to this node.	Empty

Multi-selection summary

Label	What it does	Default
Selected (N)	A count of each selected kind — agents, bit pages, files, and so on.	—
Clear Selection	Clears the current selection.	—

Where to go next

• Settings guide — a walkthrough of both surfaces.
• Agents guide — persona, autonomy, and mesh capabilities in depth.
• Neural Map guide — what a node and its Capture Bit action mean.