User Preferences

Nanocoder automatically saves your preferences to remember your choices across sessions.

Preferences File Locations

Preferences follow the same location hierarchy as configuration files:

1. Project-level: nanocoder-preferences.json in your current working directory (overrides user-level)
2. User-level: Platform-specific configuration directory:
   • macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/nanocoder/nanocoder-preferences.json
   • Linux/Unix: ~/.config/nanocoder/nanocoder-preferences.json
   • Windows: %APPDATA%\nanocoder\nanocoder-preferences.json

What Gets Saved Automatically

Preference	Description
lastProvider	The AI provider you last selected
lastModel	The model you last used
providerModels	Your preferred model for each provider (remembered per-provider)
selectedTheme	The theme you last selected via /settings
titleShape	The title shape style (e.g., box, rounded)
nanocoderShape	The nanocoder ASCII art shape
trustedDirectories	Directories you've approved through the first-run security disclaimer
lastUpdateCheck	Timestamp of the last update check (used to avoid checking too frequently)
alternateScreen	When true, starts in fullscreen mode (alternate screen buffer with in-app scrolling) by default. The --alt-screen/--no-alt-screen CLI flags override this for a single run. See CLI Options.

Paste Configuration

The paste threshold is also stored in the preferences file under the nanocoder.paste namespace:

Option	Type	Default	Description
nanocoder.paste.singleLineThreshold	number	800	Maximum characters for a single-line paste to be inserted directly. Longer or multi-line pastes become [Paste #N: X chars] placeholders.

You can change this via /settings → Paste Threshold, or by editing the file directly:

{
  "nanocoder": {
    "paste": {
      "singleLineThreshold": 1500
    }
  }
}

Reasoning Traces

Expanding reasoning traces can also be configured in the preferences file with the reasoningExpanded field:

Option	Type	Default	Description
reasoningExpanded	boolean	false	When set to true, displays the full reasoning traces of models which support thinking

You can change this by editing the preferences file directly:

{
  "reasoningExpanded": true
}

Reasoning traces can also be toggled dynamically with the Ctrl+R keyboard shortcut.

Notification Configuration

Desktop notification preferences are stored under the nanocoder.notifications namespace:

Option	Type	Default	Description
nanocoder.notifications.enabled	boolean	false	Enable desktop notifications
nanocoder.notifications.sound	boolean	false	Play a sound with notifications
nanocoder.notifications.events.toolConfirmation	boolean	true	Notify when a tool needs approval
nanocoder.notifications.events.questionPrompt	boolean	true	Notify when the AI asks a question
nanocoder.notifications.events.generationComplete	boolean	true	Notify when a response is ready

You can change these via /settings → Notifications. See Desktop Notifications for full details including platform-specific setup.

When you restart Nanocoder, it automatically restores your last provider, model, theme, shape, paste threshold, and notification preferences.

Manual Management

• View current preferences: The file is human-readable JSON
• Reset preferences: Delete any nanocoder-preferences.json to start fresh

Application Data Directory

Nanocoder stores internal application data (such as usage statistics) in a separate application data directory:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/nanocoder
• Linux/Unix: $XDG_DATA_HOME/nanocoder or ~/.local/share/nanocoder
• Windows: %APPDATA%\nanocoder

You can override this directory using NANOCODER_DATA_DIR.