Gemini CLI settings (/settings command)

Control your Gemini CLI experience with the /settings command. The /settings command opens a dialog to view and edit all your Gemini CLI settings, including your UI experience, keybindings, and accessibility features.

Your Gemini CLI settings are stored in a settings.json file. In addition to using the /settings command, you can also edit them in one of the following locations:

• User settings: ~/.gemini/settings.json
• Workspace settings: your-project/.gemini/settings.json

Note: Workspace settings override user settings.

Settings reference

Here is a list of all the available settings, grouped by category and ordered as they appear in the UI.

General

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Vim Mode	general.vimMode	Enable Vim keybindings	false
Default Approval Mode	general.defaultApprovalMode	The default approval mode for tool execution. 'default' prompts for approval, 'auto_edit' auto-approves edit tools, and 'plan' is read-only mode. YOLO mode (auto-approve all actions) can only be enabled via command line (--yolo or --approval-mode=yolo).	"default"
Enable Auto Update	general.enableAutoUpdate	Enable automatic updates.	true
Enable Notifications	general.enableNotifications	Enable run-event notifications for action-required prompts and session completion. Currently macOS only.	false
Plan Directory	general.plan.directory	The directory where planning artifacts are stored. If not specified, defaults to the system temporary directory.	undefined
Plan Model Routing	general.plan.modelRouting	Automatically switch between Pro and Flash models based on Plan Mode status. Uses Pro for the planning phase and Flash for the implementation phase.	true
Retry Fetch Errors	general.retryFetchErrors	Retry on "exception TypeError: fetch failed sending request" errors.	true
Max Chat Model Attempts	general.maxAttempts	Maximum number of attempts for requests to the main chat model. Cannot exceed 10.	10
Debug Keystroke Logging	general.debugKeystrokeLogging	Enable debug logging of keystrokes to the console.	false
Enable Session Cleanup	general.sessionRetention.enabled	Enable automatic session cleanup	true
Keep chat history	general.sessionRetention.maxAge	Automatically delete chats older than this time period (e.g., "30d", "7d", "24h", "1w")	"30d"

Output

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Output Format	output.format	The format of the CLI output. Can be text or json.	"text"

UI

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Auto Theme Switching	ui.autoThemeSwitching	Automatically switch between default light and dark themes based on terminal background color.	true
Terminal Background Polling Interval	ui.terminalBackgroundPollingInterval	Interval in seconds to poll the terminal background color.	60
Hide Window Title	ui.hideWindowTitle	Hide the window title bar	false
Inline Thinking	ui.inlineThinkingMode	Display model thinking inline: off or full.	"off"
Show Thoughts in Title	ui.showStatusInTitle	Show Gemini CLI model thoughts in the terminal window title during the working phase	false
Dynamic Window Title	ui.dynamicWindowTitle	Update the terminal window title with current status icons (Ready: ◇, Action Required: ✋, Working: ✦)	true
Show Home Directory Warning	ui.showHomeDirectoryWarning	Show a warning when running Gemini CLI in the home directory.	true
Show Compatibility Warnings	ui.showCompatibilityWarnings	Show warnings about terminal or OS compatibility issues.	true
Hide Tips	ui.hideTips	Hide helpful tips in the UI	false
Escape Pasted @ Symbols	ui.escapePastedAtSymbols	When enabled, @ symbols in pasted text are escaped to prevent unintended @path expansion.	false
Show Shortcuts Hint	ui.showShortcutsHint	Show the "? for shortcuts" hint above the input.	true
Hide Banner	ui.hideBanner	Hide the application banner	false
Hide Context Summary	ui.hideContextSummary	Hide the context summary (GEMINI.md, MCP servers) above the input.	false
Hide CWD	ui.footer.hideCWD	Hide the current working directory in the footer.	false
Hide Sandbox Status	ui.footer.hideSandboxStatus	Hide the sandbox status indicator in the footer.	false
Hide Model Info	ui.footer.hideModelInfo	Hide the model name and context usage in the footer.	false
Hide Context Window Percentage	ui.footer.hideContextPercentage	Hides the context window usage percentage.	true
Hide Footer	ui.hideFooter	Hide the footer from the UI	false
Show Memory Usage	ui.showMemoryUsage	Display memory usage information in the UI	false
Show Line Numbers	ui.showLineNumbers	Show line numbers in the chat.	true
Show Citations	ui.showCitations	Show citations for generated text in the chat.	false
Show Model Info In Chat	ui.showModelInfoInChat	Show the model name in the chat for each model turn.	false
Show User Identity	ui.showUserIdentity	Show the signed-in user's identity (e.g. email) in the UI.	true
Use Alternate Screen Buffer	ui.useAlternateBuffer	Use an alternate screen buffer for the UI, preserving shell history.	false
Use Background Color	ui.useBackgroundColor	Whether to use background colors in the UI.	true
Incremental Rendering	ui.incrementalRendering	Enable incremental rendering for the UI. This option will reduce flickering but may cause rendering artifacts. Only supported when useAlternateBuffer is enabled.	true
Show Spinner	ui.showSpinner	Show the spinner during operations.	true
Loading Phrases	ui.loadingPhrases	What to show while the model is working: tips, witty comments, both, or nothing.	"tips"
Error Verbosity	ui.errorVerbosity	Controls whether recoverable errors are hidden (low) or fully shown (full).	"low"
Screen Reader Mode	ui.accessibility.screenReader	Render output in plain-text to be more screen reader accessible	false

IDE

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
IDE Mode	ide.enabled	Enable IDE integration mode.	false

Billing

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Overage Strategy	billing.overageStrategy	How to handle quota exhaustion when AI credits are available. 'ask' prompts each time, 'always' automatically uses credits, 'never' disables credit usage.	"ask"

Model

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Model	model.name	The Gemini model to use for conversations.	undefined
Max Session Turns	model.maxSessionTurns	Maximum number of user/model/tool turns to keep in a session. -1 means unlimited.	-1
Context Compression Threshold	model.compressionThreshold	The fraction of context usage at which to trigger context compression (e.g. 0.2, 0.3).	0.5
Disable Loop Detection	model.disableLoopDetection	Disable automatic detection and prevention of infinite loops.	false
Skip Next Speaker Check	model.skipNextSpeakerCheck	Skip the next speaker check.	true

Context

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Memory Discovery Max Dirs	context.discoveryMaxDirs	Maximum number of directories to search for memory.	200
Load Memory From Include Directories	context.loadMemoryFromIncludeDirectories	Controls how /memory reload loads GEMINI.md files. When true, include directories are scanned; when false, only the current directory is used.	false
Respect .gitignore	context.fileFiltering.respectGitIgnore	Respect .gitignore files when searching.	true
Respect .geminiignore	context.fileFiltering.respectGeminiIgnore	Respect .geminiignore files when searching.	true
Enable Recursive File Search	context.fileFiltering.enableRecursiveFileSearch	Enable recursive file search functionality when completing @ references in the prompt.	true
Enable Fuzzy Search	context.fileFiltering.enableFuzzySearch	Enable fuzzy search when searching for files.	true
Custom Ignore File Paths	context.fileFiltering.customIgnoreFilePaths	Additional ignore file paths to respect. These files take precedence over .geminiignore and .gitignore. Files earlier in the array take precedence over files later in the array, e.g. the first file takes precedence over the second one.	[]

Tools

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Enable Interactive Shell	tools.shell.enableInteractiveShell	Use node-pty for an interactive shell experience. Fallback to child_process still applies.	true
Show Color	tools.shell.showColor	Show color in shell output.	false
Use Ripgrep	tools.useRipgrep	Use ripgrep for file content search instead of the fallback implementation. Provides faster search performance.	true
Tool Output Truncation Threshold	tools.truncateToolOutputThreshold	Maximum characters to show when truncating large tool outputs. Set to 0 or negative to disable truncation.	40000
Disable LLM Correction	tools.disableLLMCorrection	Disable LLM-based error correction for edit tools. When enabled, tools will fail immediately if exact string matches are not found, instead of attempting to self-correct.	true

Security

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Tool Sandboxing	security.toolSandboxing	Experimental tool-level sandboxing (implementation in progress).	false
Disable YOLO Mode	security.disableYoloMode	Disable YOLO mode, even if enabled by a flag.	false
Disable Always Allow	security.disableAlwaysAllow	Disable "Always allow" options in tool confirmation dialogs.	false
Allow Permanent Tool Approval	security.enablePermanentToolApproval	Enable the "Allow for all future sessions" option in tool confirmation dialogs.	false
Auto-add to Policy by Default	security.autoAddToPolicyByDefault	When enabled, the "Allow for all future sessions" option becomes the default choice for low-risk tools in trusted workspaces.	false
Blocks extensions from Git	security.blockGitExtensions	Blocks installing and loading extensions from Git.	false
Extension Source Regex Allowlist	security.allowedExtensions	List of Regex patterns for allowed extensions. If nonempty, only extensions that match the patterns in this list are allowed. Overrides the blockGitExtensions setting.	[]
Folder Trust	security.folderTrust.enabled	Setting to track whether Folder trust is enabled.	true
Enable Environment Variable Redaction	security.environmentVariableRedaction.enabled	Enable redaction of environment variables that may contain secrets.	false
Enable Context-Aware Security	security.enableConseca	Enable the context-aware security checker. This feature uses an LLM to dynamically generate and enforce security policies for tool use based on your prompt, providing an additional layer of protection against unintended actions.	false

Advanced

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Auto Configure Max Old Space Size	advanced.autoConfigureMemory	Automatically configure Node.js memory limits	false

Experimental

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Enable Tool Output Masking	experimental.toolOutputMasking.enabled	Enables tool output masking to save tokens.	true
Use OSC 52 Paste	experimental.useOSC52Paste	Use OSC 52 for pasting. This may be more robust than the default system when using remote terminal sessions (if your terminal is configured to allow it).	false
Use OSC 52 Copy	experimental.useOSC52Copy	Use OSC 52 for copying. This may be more robust than the default system when using remote terminal sessions (if your terminal is configured to allow it).	false
Plan	experimental.plan	Enable Plan Mode.	true
Model Steering	experimental.modelSteering	Enable model steering (user hints) to guide the model during tool execution.	false
Direct Web Fetch	experimental.directWebFetch	Enable web fetch behavior that bypasses LLM summarization.	false
Topic & Update Narration	experimental.topicUpdateNarration	Enable the experimental Topic & Update communication model for reduced chattiness and structured progress reporting.	false

Skills

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Enable Agent Skills	skills.enabled	Enable Agent Skills.	true

HooksConfig

UI Label	Setting	Description	Default
Enable Hooks	hooksConfig.enabled	Canonical toggle for the hooks system. When disabled, no hooks will be executed.	true
Hook Notifications	hooksConfig.notifications	Show visual indicators when hooks are executing.	true