Terminal
Settings & files on disk
Where Mel stores settings, tab configs, and conversations.
Mel keeps its configuration in plain files — JSON and TOML you can read, edit, back up, or check into a dotfiles repo. Two roots matter: ~/.mel/ for settings and ~/.local/share/mel/ for data.
~/.mel/ — settings
| Path | What it holds |
|---|---|
settings.json | The unified settings store behind the Settings UI — appearance, AI, features, SSH, and agent-permission defaults. Written whenever you change a setting; safe to edit by hand (missing fields fall back to defaults). |
tab_configs/*.toml | Your tab configs — one TOML recipe per file. Every valid file appears in the + menu; parse errors are skipped. |
tab_settings.json | The sidebar rail's state: whether it's shown, density, primary info, subtitle, and hover details. See Tab customization. |
repos.json | The tracked-repository registry used by repo-type tab-config parameters and the + menu's worktree entries. |
default_tab_config | A one-line marker holding the path of the config bound to ctrl+T. Delete it (or right-click the config) to go back to plain new tabs. |
worktrees/<repo>/<branch> | Git worktrees Mel creates from the + menu — real git worktree add checkouts, one directory per branch. |
~/.local/share/mel/ — data
| Path | What it holds |
|---|---|
conversations/ | Saved agent conversations as JSON, written after every turn. These power the recents list, the /conversations picker, conversation minis, and the Prompts sources in command history. |
drive/ | Mel Drive: folders as directories, objects by extension — .workflow.json, .prompt.json, .env.json, .notebook.md. |
Practical notes
- Everything is created on demand — deleting a file resets that piece to defaults on next launch.
- Tab configs and Drive objects are the most rewarding to version-control: they're the parts you author.
- Provider API keys are never stored in any of these files; the app talks to Mel's relay, which holds keys server-side.
- On Windows the home directory resolves via
USERPROFILEinstead ofHOME.
Related
- Appearance — the settings behind
settings.json - Sessions — how saved conversations show up in scrollback