Settings
Open settings with Cmd+,, from the Sidequest menu bar > Settings…, or with the gear icon in the bottom toolbar.
Settings are organized into nine categories via the sidebar navigation. Theme and language also have quick toggles in the bottom toolbar.
General
Section titled “General”Language
Section titled “Language”Set the display language: English (default), Français, Español or 中文. The flag button at the right end of the bottom toolbar cycles languages too.
Preferred Editor
Section titled “Preferred Editor”The editor used by “Open in Editor” throughout the app and when you click a file path in the terminal or diff viewer.
| Editor | Opens with |
|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code (default) | code --goto file:line |
| IntelliJ IDEA | idea --line N file |
| Zed | zed file:line |
Preferred Terminal
Section titled “Preferred Terminal”The terminal app used by “Open in Terminal”: Terminal.app (default), iTerm2, Warp, Ghostty, WezTerm or Rio. WezTerm opens a new tab in the running instance. Hold Option on any “Open in” menu item to pick a different app for that one action.
On Linux the value is used as a command name, falling back to gnome-terminal, konsole, xfce4-terminal or xterm.
Setup Guide
Section titled “Setup Guide”Run Again re-runs the first-launch setup wizard. Useful if you skipped steps or need to reconfigure prerequisites like tmux or an agent CLI.
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”Diff Viewer
Section titled “Diff Viewer”Defaults for the Changes panel:
- View Mode — Side by Side (default), Unified or Hunk.
- Color Theme — Pierre (default), GitHub, One Dark, Dracula, Vitesse, Catppuccin, Everforest.
- Render Markdown — Render
.mdfiles with formatting in diff views. On by default.
Terminal
Section titled “Terminal”- Font Family — System default, or any monospace font Sidequest finds installed (Fira Code, MesloLGS, Hack and JetBrains Mono Nerd Fonts, SF Mono, Menlo, Monaco, Cascadia Code, IBM Plex Mono, Source Code Pro). Nerd Fonts render Claude Code’s icons best.
- Font Size — 9—24, default 13. This is the base size before zoom (Cmd+= / Cmd+-).
- Font Weight — Light, Regular (default), Medium, Semibold or Bold. A sample line previews the result.
Light, dark and system themes are switched from the sun/moon button in the bottom toolbar, not from this page. The embedded terminal always uses a dark palette.
Default Agent
Section titled “Default Agent”The agent new quests use unless you pick another one in the Create Quest dialog: Claude Code (default), Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI or OpenCode.
Claude Profiles
Section titled “Claude Profiles”Separate Claude accounts, each with its own configuration directory. Type a Profile name and click Add profile to log in through an embedded terminal. Each row shows the account’s email and plan with Log in / Switch account, Refresh and Delete. See Claude account profiles.
Claude Code
Section titled “Claude Code”| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CLI Path | auto-detect | Absolute path to claude if auto-detection fails. Shows Detected or Not found |
| Chrome Browser Tools | Disable | Pass --chrome so Claude can drive your browser through its Chrome extension |
| Auto Mode | Enable | Use --permission-mode auto (classifier-verified auto-approval). Disable to fall back to --dangerously-skip-permissions |
| Bypass Permissions in Home | Disable | Only shown when Auto Mode is on. Launch Home quests with --dangerously-skip-permissions, since auto mode escalates constantly outside a repository. Grants unrestricted access to your home directory |
| Effort Level | Extra High | Reasoning effort for new Claude Code sessions: Low, Medium, High, Extra High or Max. Quests and the smart router can override it |
Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, OpenCode
Section titled “Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, Copilot CLI, OpenCode”A CLI Path for each, with the same Detected / Not found indicator. Leave blank to auto-detect.
Routing
Section titled “Routing”Smart Routing
Section titled “Smart Routing”- Enable smart routing (on by default) — Automatically choose a model and effort per Claude Code quest. Off uses your Claude default.
- Fallback model — Haiku, Sonnet (default) or Opus; used when the router fails or times out.
Routing Rules
Section titled “Routing Rules”Edit routing rules opens the rules text with Save, Reset to default and Cancel. Your edits are stored in ~/.sidequest/router-rules.md. See Smart Router Rules.
System Tools
Section titled “System Tools”Override the auto-detected paths for Git and Tmux. The auto-discovered path is shown as placeholder text; leave the field blank to keep it.
Tmux Mode
Section titled “Tmux Mode”Controls how Sidequest handles mouse and keyboard input in the terminal panel. Changing it prompts you to reload so existing sessions pick it up.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Chill Mode (default) | Smart handlers give you scroll, click and drag without needing to know tmux. Best for most users. |
| Mouse Mode | Native tmux mouse mode. You can click panes and scroll, but text selection follows tmux behaviour and the right-click menu is unavailable. |
| Raw Tmux | No mouse mode, no training wheels. Pure keyboard-driven tmux. |
Tmux Config Recommendations
Section titled “Tmux Config Recommendations”Shows the three server options Sidequest applies to the running tmux server at startup, with a Copy snippet button so you can add them to ~/.tmux.conf permanently. See Tmux Configuration.
Notifications
Section titled “Notifications”Claude Code Integration
Section titled “Claude Code Integration”Sidequest can notify you when Claude stops and needs attention in any quest session. This works by installing a Claude Code Stop hook in ~/.claude/settings.json (and in each profile) that sends events to Sidequest over its local socket. The same hook powers the Needs attention status on quest cards and lets supervisors see what is waiting.
- Click Enable to install the hook.
- Choose a Notification Sound — None, Soft Chime (default), Bell, Alert, Ding, Coin, Success, Tone — or import your own MP3, WAV, OGG or M4A under Your Sounds.
- Optionally set a Custom Notification Command — a shell command that runs whenever a quest needs attention.
$SIDEQUEST_PROJECT_NAMEand$SIDEQUEST_QUEST_TITLEare available:
curl -d "$SIDEQUEST_PROJECT_NAME needs attention" https://example.com/notifyUse Test Command to verify it works before relying on it.
Per-project sounds are set in Project Settings. The bell button in the bottom toolbar mutes and unmutes sounds without changing these settings.
Model Providers
Section titled “Model Providers”Council Agent
Section titled “Council Agent”Which agent reviews your work when you ask the Council for feedback: Claude Code (default), Gemini CLI, Codex CLI or Copilot CLI. The selected agent must be installed and authenticated.
Extensions
Section titled “Extensions”Customize Bottom Bar — show, hide and reorder the extension buttons with drag handles and switches. The same dialog opens from right-clicking the bottom toolbar.
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| Live Stats | Real-time token usage, estimated cost, token-budget progress and tool/skill timing for the active session. |
| Toolkit | Manage Claude Code skills, commands and agents. See Toolkit. |
| Council | Second-opinion review of the current conversation. |
Only one extension panel can be open at a time; their order sets the Cmd+5, Cmd+6, Cmd+7 shortcuts.
Storage
Section titled “Storage”| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Handoff Retention | 30 days | Delete handoff summaries older than this (7, 30, 90 days or never). Cleanup runs on startup and periodically |
| Quest Retention | 2 hours | How long completed quests and their worktrees are kept before cleanup: 1, 2, 4, 8 or 24 hours, or Disabled (delete immediately). Completed quests can be restored during this window |
| Confirm before completing | On | Show the confirmation dialog when completing a quest. The dialog’s Don’t ask me again box turns this off. Always on when retention is disabled |
| Journal Retention | Off (audit by hand) | Archive or delete journals older than 30, 90, 180 or 365 days. Each option shows how many entries it would affect now |
| Journal Retention Action | Archive | Archive moves an entry into its folder’s archive/ subfolder; Delete removes the file. Folders you committed journals into are never touched |
| Review old journals | Opens the keep-or-kill review. See Journals |
Worktree Storage
Section titled “Worktree Storage”Shows how much disk Sidequest’s worktrees use and which can be reclaimed. Rows are tagged Orphaned (no quest refers to them) or Completed (the quest is in Recently Completed). Reclaim All or the per-row trash button removes the working copy; a completed quest keeps its branch and commits.
Orphaned Tmux Sessions
Section titled “Orphaned Tmux Sessions”Lists sq- tmux sessions that no longer belong to a quest or supervisor. Clean All kills them to free system resources.
Import and Export
Section titled “Import and Export”At the bottom of the settings sidebar:
- Export Settings — downloads
sidequest-settings.jsonwith all your non-internal settings. - Import Settings — loads settings from a previously exported JSON file.
Useful for syncing settings across machines or sharing your configuration with teammates. Layout state (panel widths, last active workspace) is excluded from exports.