Settings.

Open Settings with Command+,, from the app menu or the account menu, or by typing /config. Esc or the cross closes them.

General

• Theme: Dark (the default), Light or System.
• Zoom: everything larger or smaller. Command++ and Command+− do the same, Command+0 goes back to 100%.
• Interface language: the language of the app itself: English, Русский or Українська, or Same as the system. The account menu has it too, under Language.
• Reply language: the language Nilux answers in. Empty means the language you write in.
• Updates: Ask before downloading a new version, Automatic (the default) downloads it in the background for the next launch, Off never checks. Nilux never restarts by itself.

Model

• Default model and Effort: what new sessions start with. The model chip on the starting screen changes the same.
• Plan model: the model used in plan mode: Same as session (the default), Standard or Pro.
• Thinking mode: deep reasoning, on by default. It uses more tokens.
• Response streaming: Live shows the answer as it is written, Off waits for the whole answer.

Conversation

• Tool calls: One line folds a run of steps into one line you can open; Each call (the default) shows each step as its own row.
• Open tool results: show each step's output without a click.
• Name sessions automatically: once a reply has something to name, Nilux names the session in a few words. It costs a few tokens, billed with that reply. On by default.
• Auto-compact: condense the conversation automatically when the context window fills. On by default.
• Context limit: caps the size of the main conversation; agents are not affected. Auto is the largest the model allows.

Memory

Memory turns project memory on or off for every project. Under it, the app says where the project selected in the sidebar keeps its notes, or why it keeps none. A project's own switch and folder are in its project settings. How memory works, and the Memory window that /memory opens: Project memory.

Sessions

• Sleep idle sessions: When the cache expires (the default) or Never.
• Running at once: how many sessions run at the same time, from 2 to 20 (6 by default).

What sleeping means: Sessions and projects.

Agents and Workflows

Your own agents, the models of the built-in ones, and the limits of a workflow run: see Agents and workflows.

Trusted folders

The folders you have trusted on this Mac, with Remove to take one off. Nilux asks again the next time a session starts there.

Account

Who is signed in, with Log out; your Balance, with Top up, which opens the billing page in your browser; and Usage (Open usage): what each session used, by day. You pay as you go; nothing renews by itself.

When your balance drops below the level you set on the billing page, or runs out, a line above the message box says so, with Top up.

Shared with the terminal

Most settings live in ~/.nilux/config.json, which Nilux in the terminal uses too: the reply language, the default model and effort, the plan model, thinking mode, response streaming, auto-compact, the context limit, session names, memory, the models of the built-in agents and the workflow settings. The app and the terminal read the same values. What only the app has is kept in ~/.nilux/desktop.json: theme, zoom, interface language, tool calls, open tool results, the session settings and updates.

MCP servers, plugins, hooks and skills

These open from a session, with a command:

• /mcp opens MCP servers: each server of the session, Local or Remote, with its status (such as Connected, Needs sign-in or Could not connect), a button for what can be done now (Connect, Reconnect, Sign in, Disconnect) and a switch that turns it off without removing it.
• /plugins opens Plugins: install, update, remove and switch on or off the language servers that report new errors after Nilux edits code, and the browser plugin.
• /hooks opens Hooks: which hooks are loaded from your file and the project's, and why any of them is not running. Hooks that come with a project run only after you allow them here.
• /skills opens Skills: the session's skills and what each is for. Click one to start a message with it.

The app does not add MCP servers. Add one with nilux mcp add in a terminal, or in the configuration files: ~/.nilux/settings.json for all your projects, .mcp.json in a project for that project. See MCP servers. Hooks and skills are files too: see Hooks and Skills.

A chat runs no MCP servers or hooks: they work in sessions with a project.