Settings reference

Most settings are easiest to change in the Settings window (see Settings). This page describes the files behind it, for when you want to edit, share or script them.

Files and layers

Settings are combined from three layers, each overriding the one before:

Built-in defaults.
The global file, settings.toml in the configuration directory:
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/ai.l0ng.openidea/settings.toml
- Windows: %APPDATA%\ai.l0ng.openidea\settings.toml
- Linux: ~/.config/ai.l0ng.openidea/settings.toml
The project file, <project>/.openidea/settings.toml, written when you save a page with This project selected.

A file holds only the values that differ from the layer below. Tables merge key by key; a value or array in a higher layer replaces the lower one entirely (for example, setting files.exclude in a project replaces the global list). Some settings are ignored in the project file: mcpServer and imported color schemes (editor.customSchemes) are global only. Project trust is never read from settings.

File format

The files are TOML. Keys use the camelCase names shown below; sections group them:

keymap = "intellij-windows"

[appearance]
theme = "dark"
zoom = 110

[editor]
fontFamily = "JetBrains Mono"
fontSize = 14

[files]
exclude = ["**/.git", "**/node_modules", "**/target", "**/dist"]

OpenIDEA keeps your comments and formatting when it writes a file.
If a file can’t be parsed, or a value has the wrong type, that whole file is ignored and a warning is written to the log. The other layers still apply.
OpenIDEA reads the files when a window loads its settings. After editing a file by hand, restart OpenIDEA (or reopen the project) to be sure the change is picked up.

Settings pages

Group	Pages
Appearance & Behavior	Appearance; System Settings (Language and Region, Date Formats, HTTP Proxy, Updates); Notifications
Keymap	Keymap
Editor	General (Auto Import, Appearance, Breadcrumbs, Code Completion, Code Folding, Editor Tabs, Gutter Icons, Inline Completion, Postfix Completion, Rich-Text Copy, Smart Keys, Sticky Lines); Code Editing; Font; Color Scheme; Code Style; Inspections; Natural Languages (Spelling); File and Code Templates; File Encodings; Live Templates; File Types; Inlay Hints; TODO; Vim
Plugins	Plugins
Version Control	Commit; Confirmation; Directory Mappings; Issue Navigation; Log; Shelf; Git; GitHub
Project Structure	Project Structure
Build, Execution, Deployment	CMake; Gradle; Maven; Console; Debugger (Data Views, Stepping); Python Debugger; Run/Debug; Run Targets; Deployment (Options)
Languages & Frameworks	Language Servers; Go (Build Tags, Go Modules); Java; Markdown; Node.js; PHP; Python Interpreter; Prettier; oxfmt; Ruff; Ruby; Rust; TypeScript; Plugin Formatters
Tools	Agents (Chat); Terminal; Actions on Save; External Tools; SSH Configurations; MCP Server
Security	Project Trust

Installed plugins can add pages, and file icon themes with options add one each. Plugin settings are stored under [plugins.<plugin-id>].

Common keys

Top level

Key	Default	Description
`keymap`	`intellij-macos` on macOS, `intellij-windows` elsewhere	Active keymap: `intellij-macos`, `intellij-windows`, `vscode-macos`, `vscode-windows`, `eclipse-macos`, `eclipse-windows`, or the id of a custom keymap.
`keymapOverrides`	empty	Action id → list of shortcuts on top of a bundled keymap; an empty list unbinds. See Keymaps.
`customKeymaps`	empty	Keymaps you created: `name`, `parent`, `overrides`.

`[general]`

Settings › Appearance & Behavior › System Settings, unless noted.

Key	Default	Description
`reopenLastProject`	`true`	Reopen projects on startup.
`openProjectIn`	`"ask"`	Where Open… puts a project while another is open: `ask`, `new` (new window), `same` (current window) or `attach` (add to the current project).
`defaultProjectDirectory`	`""`	Starting folder of the Open and Clone dialogs; empty uses the OS default.
`saveOnIdle` / `idleSeconds`	`false` / `15`	Save files if the IDE is idle for the given number of seconds.
`confirmExit`	`true`	Confirm before exiting the IDE.
`closeWithoutWelcome`	`false`	Close the window instead of showing the Welcome screen.
`closeTabsWithWindow`	`false`	Close all editor tabs when the window closes.
`powerSaveMode`	`false`	File › Power Save Mode: no automatic popups or background highlighting.
`autoCheckUpdates`	`true`	Check for updates automatically (Updates page).
`updateSource`	`"auto"`	Update source: `auto`, `github` or `cnb`.
`dateFormat.overrideSystem`	`false`	Override system date and time format (Date Formats page).
`dateFormat.pattern`	`"dd.MM.yyyy"`	Date pattern with `dd`, `MM`, `MMM`, `yy`, `yyyy`.
`dateFormat.use24Hour`	`true`	24-hour time.
`dateFormat.pretty`	`true`	”Today”, “Yesterday”, “5 min ago”.

`[appearance]`

Settings › Appearance & Behavior › Appearance, unless noted.

Key	Default	Description
`theme`	`"light"`	`light` (Islands Light), `dark` (Islands Dark), `dark-hc` (High Contrast), `solarized-light`, `solarized-dark`, `one-light`, `one-dark`, or a plugin theme as `plugin:<plugin-id>/<theme-id>`.
`syncWithOs`	`false`	Sync with OS.
`preferredLightTheme` / `preferredDarkTheme`	`"light"` / `"dark"`	Themes used with Sync with OS.
`accent`	`"#3871e1"`	Accent colour.
`fileIconTheme`	`""`	A plugin’s file icon theme as `<plugin-id>/<theme-id>`; empty uses the built-in icons.
`zoom`	`100`	Zoom, in percent (50 to 300).
`useCustomFont`	`false`	Use custom font: apply `uiFontFamily` and `uiFontSize`.
`uiFontFamily` / `uiFontSize`	`"Inter"` / `13`	UI font.
`uiFontFallback`	`""`	UI fallback font.
`contrastScrollbars`	`false`	Use contrast scrollbars.
`redGreenVision`	`false`	Adjust colors for red-green vision deficiency.
`compactMode`	`false`	Compact mode.
`showMainToolbar` / `showStatusBar`	`true` / `true`	Show main toolbar, Show status bar.
`navigationBar`	`"statusBar"`	Navigation bar: `top`, `statusBar` or `hidden`.
`mainMenuStyle`	`"hamburger"`	Main menu: `hamburger` or `merged` (with the main toolbar).
`ideAntialiasing` / `editorAntialiasing`	`"greyscale"`	`subpixel`, `greyscale` or `none`.
`locale`	`"en"`	Language (Language and Region page): `en`, `zh`, `ko`, `fr`, `pl`, `pt`, `es`.

`[editor]`

Key	Default	Description
`fontFamily` / `fontSize` / `lineHeight`	`"JetBrains Mono"` / `13` / `22`	Editor › Font.
`ligatures`	`false`	Enable ligatures.
`fallbackFont`	`""`	Fallback font.
`fontWeight` / `boldFontWeight`	`400` / `700`	Main font weight, Bold font weight.
`colorScheme`	`"theme-default"`	Editor color scheme; `theme-default` follows the UI theme, otherwise a theme id or an imported scheme.
`semanticHighlighting`	`false`	Semantic highlighting (Color Scheme › Language Defaults).
`rainbowBrackets`	`false`	Rainbow brackets (Color Scheme › Language Defaults).
`tabSize` / `insertSpaces`	`4` / `true`	Default tab size, and whether indentation uses spaces.
`softWrap`	`true`	Soft-wrap the files matching `general.softWrapFiles` (`.md; .txt; .rst; .adoc` by default).
`showWhitespace`	`false`	Show whitespaces.
`stickyScroll`	`true`	Show sticky lines while scrolling.
`inlayHints`	`true`	Show inlay hints.
`formatOnSave`	`false`	Reformat code on save (Tools › Actions on Save).

Sub-tables such as [editor.general], [editor.appearance], [editor.completion], [editor.tabs], [editor.codeStyle] and [editor.encodings] hold the options of the matching Editor pages.

`[files]`

Key	Default	Description
`autoSave`	`true`	Save files when switching to a different application or a built-in terminal.
`syncOnFocus`	`true`	Synchronize external changes when switching to the IDE window.
`exclude`	`["/.git", "/node_modules", "**/target"]`	Exclude patterns (Editor › File Types): globs hidden from the project tree and skipped by search and indexing.
`ignoredNames`	a built-in list	Ignore files and folders: names hidden everywhere, such as `.DS_Store`.
`trimTrailingWhitespace`	`true`	Remove trailing spaces on save.
`ensureFinalNewline`	`true`	End every saved file with a line break.
`localHistoryDays`	`5`	Keep local history for this many days with changes.
`localHistoryMaxMb`	`512`	Maximum local history size per project, in MB.

`[notifications]`

Key	Default	Description
`balloons`	`true`	Display balloon notifications.
`sound`	`false`	Play sound.
`groups.<group-id>.display`	`"balloon"`	Popup type per group: `balloon`, `sticky` or `none`.
`groups.<group-id>.log`	`true`	Also list the notification in the Notifications tool window.

`[terminal]`

Settings › Tools › Terminal.

Key	Default	Description
`shellPath`	`""`	Shell command line; empty starts your login shell.
`startDirectory`	`""`	Start directory; empty is the project root, relative paths resolve against it.
`env`	empty	Extra environment variables.
`tabName`	`"Local"`	Name of new tabs.
`useEditorFont`	`true`	Use the editor font; otherwise `fontFamily`, `fontSize`, `lineHeight`.
`overrideIdeShortcuts`	`true`	Let the shell receive keys that are also IDE shortcuts.
`escapeToEditor`	`false`	Escape moves focus to the editor instead of reaching the shell.
`optionAsMeta`	`false`	Use Option as Meta (macOS).
`copyOnSelection` / `pasteOnMiddleClick`	`false` / `true`	Clipboard behaviour.
`cursorShape` / `cursorBlink`	`"block"` / `true`	`block`, `underline` or `bar`.

`[proxy]`

Settings › Appearance & Behavior › System Settings › HTTP Proxy. Used by the IDE’s own downloads, the updater and the HTTP client; with a manual proxy, processes started by the IDE get HTTP_PROXY, HTTPS_PROXY and NO_PROXY.

Key	Default	Description
`mode`	`"auto"`	`none` (direct), `auto` (the system’s `HTTP_PROXY` / `HTTPS_PROXY` / `NO_PROXY`) or `manual`.
`kind`	`"http"`	`http` or `socks`.
`host` / `port`	`""` / `80`	Proxy address.
`noProxy`	`""`	Hosts reached directly, comma-separated; `*` matches any characters.
`authenticate` / `login`	`false` / `""`	Proxy credentials. The password is kept in the saved passwords, not in `settings.toml`.

Other sections

Key	Description
`[actionsOnSave]`	`optimizeImports`, `cleanup` (Tools › Actions on Save).
`[mcpServer]`	`enabled`: serve the IDE’s tools to agents on 127.0.0.1 (Tools › MCP Server, global only). See MCP server.
`[agents]`	What agent task headers show (Tools › Agents › Chat).
`[languages]`	Interpreters, SDKs and options per language, e.g. `[languages.java]`, `[languages.python]`, `[languages.go]`.
`[languageServers]`	Per language server, by name: launch and protocol options, or a server defined here.
`[tools]`	Language servers and debug adapters at a location you chose, by command name.
`[vcs]`, `[console]`, `[debugger]`, `[run]`	Version Control, Console, Debugger and Run/Debug pages.
`[inspections]`, `[spelling]`	Editor › Inspections, Editor › Natural Languages › Spelling.
`[ssh]`, `[deployment]`, `runTargets`, `[cmake]`	SSH Configurations, Deployment, Run Targets, CMake.
`[projectStructure]`	Source, test, resource and excluded folders (Project Structure).
`externalTools`	Tools › External Tools entries.
`[plugins.<plugin-id>]`	Settings that plugins declare.

The complete list of keys and their defaults is in the source: crates/ide-core/src/settings.rs and the other *_settings.rs files next to it.

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Reference

Settings reference

Files and layers

File format

Settings pages

Common keys

Top level

`[general]`

`[appearance]`

`[editor]`

`[files]`

`[notifications]`

`[terminal]`

`[proxy]`

Other sections

​Files and layers

​File format

​Settings pages

​Common keys

​Top level

​[general]

​[appearance]

​[editor]

​[files]

​[notifications]

​[terminal]

​[proxy]

​Other sections

Files and layers

File format

Settings pages

Common keys

Top level

`[general]`

`[appearance]`

`[editor]`

`[files]`

`[notifications]`

`[terminal]`

`[proxy]`

Other sections