Settings
How hob's settings are organized, the highlights of each category, and per-project overrides.
Open settings with Cmd/Ctrl+, or from the command palette. The sidebar groups everything
into categories — the highlights are below. Search within Settings with Cmd/Ctrl+F.
Many fields are hidden until you turn on Settings → General → Advanced mode. If you can't find a setting mentioned here, enable Advanced mode first.
General
App-wide behavior, including Advanced mode, the system file picker, and whether to show onboarding at startup. Advanced Linux graphics controls also live here because they affect the whole app rather than one workspace.
Appearance
- Theme — eight color themes (hob style is the default), each with a dark and light variant. See Themes.
- Color scheme — Dark, Light, or System (follow the OS).
- Typography — separate prose and code fonts, base size, UI zoom.
- Thinking indicator — how agent reasoning is shown while it streams.
- Files & icons — file icon style, hidden-file visibility, and code autosave.
- Layout — UI zoom, code word-wrap, minimum columns, dim inactive panes, toolbar side, and toolbar button order.
Workspace
Behavior shared by the work surfaces: Activity imports, project search exclusions, process environment variables, source-control behavior, and History & retention (trash retention, default 7 days, plus advanced output-truncation controls).
Terminal
- Terminal theme — Auto (match the UI) or any built-in theme.
- New terminal view — command blocks or classic terminal.
- Output wrap mode, and advanced output-collapse controls.
Agent
The home for agent behavior, organized into sub-sections:
- Agent defaults — backend and thinking level for new agent panes, plus the default permission mode (ask vs. approve all).
- Agent — conversation display, idle-process cleanup, instruction-file sync, managed hob guidance, and pane naming.
- Backend Profiles — each backend's model defaults, Codex sandbox policy, CLI flags, environment variables, accounts, and data configuration in one place. See Agent accounts for running multiple Claude Code, Codex, or OpenCode profiles side by side with separate config directories.
- Models and Model catalog — curate available models and refresh hob's model registry.
Automations
Automation-specific defaults stay together: the backend for automation agent steps and the initial view for a newly created automation (Configuration by default, with File as an option). The project scope also contains the advanced list of automations hidden from Activity.
Sandbox and permission modes
Sandboxing and permission prompts are separate controls. Ask Permission and Approve All decide how hob responds when a backend requests approval. A sandbox limits what the backend process can access even after a command is approved.
| Backend | Behavior in hob |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | Uses its permission system; hob does not add a separate project-directory sandbox. |
| Codex | Its filesystem and network sandbox is off by default so agents can use hob commands and access required paths outside the project. Turn it on per backend profile for stricter containment. Permission mode still applies either way. |
| OpenCode | Uses tool permissions, including an external_directory check for paths outside the project. hob does not expose a separate OS-sandbox toggle. |
The Codex sandbox setting is under Settings → Agent → Backend Profiles when Advanced mode is enabled. Changing it applies when the session is next launched or relaunched.
Issues & Plan
Defaults for issue-spawned agents (permission mode, start mode, backend/model/thinking), plan approval behavior, issue display, and GitHub/Gitea/Forgejo integrations used by remote issues and pull requests. See Issues.
Web
External-link behavior (open in your system browser or a web pane), shared global origins, and web data retention.
Remote
Remote IDE and roam access, credential persistence, and advanced server limits. See Remote access.
Updates
Version and update status, automatic update checks, and the release channel. (Some controls are managed by the store in App Store / Microsoft Store builds.)
Shortcuts
Opens the keyboard-shortcuts editor — see Keyboard shortcuts.
Project-specific overrides
Most agent settings, file-sync mode, git platform, and environment can be overridden per project from Project Settings. Project values take precedence over global defaults and travel with the project, so different repos can use different models, backends, or tokens.
Project-specific CLI flags and environment variables for built-in backends append to their global values. Custom profile launch configuration is global; variants inherit their base profile and apply their own flags and environment variables last. A few settings (search excludes, hidden automations, git platform) are project-only.
You can also give each project a custom icon in the project switcher.