Settings overview
Where settings live and how they're organized.
Mel keeps its settings in one full-window Settings view inside the app. Every control you see there is a real setting — a toggle only appears once the behavior behind it is actually wired up, so there are no dead switches.
Opening Settings
Click the avatar in the top-right of the titlebar and choose Settings from the dropdown. The same menu also gives you What's new, the keyboard-shortcuts reference, and Billing and usage (which opens Settings directly on that page). Press esc or click the ✕ in the corner to close the view.
Layout
The view is split in two:
- A left nav with a search box that filters the page list as you type.
- A right content pane showing the selected page's controls.
The pages are:
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Account | Sign-in status, log out, app version — see Account |
| Appearance | Zoom, block dividers, compact headers, pane dimming |
| AI | Agent input, thinking, voice, default models |
| Profiles | Default agent permissions (apply diffs / execute commands) |
| Features | Block cap, help block, notification duration |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Opens the searchable shortcuts reference |
| Privacy | What stays local and what reaches the backend |
| Sessions | SSH session behavior |
| Billing and usage | Plan status — see Billing and usage |
| About | Version and release info |
Where settings persist
Changes apply and save the moment you flip a toggle — there is no separate Save button. Everything on these pages is stored in a single JSON file:
~/.mel/settings.jsonThe </> Open settings file button at the bottom of the left nav opens that file directly in Mel's built-in editor, so you can inspect or hand-edit it. Fields you leave out fall back to their defaults, and out-of-range values are clamped (for example, the block cap never exceeds 5000).
A few things live elsewhere on purpose:
- Tab-bar preferences persist in
~/.mel/tab_settings.json. - Conversations, Drive objects, and your sign-in token live under
~/.local/share/mel/— see Privacy.