Configuration Not Applied

This page helps troubleshoot issues where settings.json configurations do not take effect as expected. For details on the configuration mechanism, see Configuration Files and Application Order and Configurations, environment variables, and file paths.

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Configuration Not in Effect

• Restart required: Some configuration items are marked as "restart required" and require restarting Qoder CLI to take effect after modification. Refer to Configurations, environment variables, and file paths to verify.
• Overridden by higher priority: Check if the same item is set at a higher priority level (Local Level > Project-Level > User Level), which overrides the lower priority setting.
• Command-line override: Configurations passed via --settings take precedence over all files and will override identically named items in the files.

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Review of Precedence Order

Configurations are merged from lowest to highest priority, with higher priorities overriding lower ones:

1. Built-in defaults
2. User Level (~/.qoder/settings.json)
3. Project-Level (<project>/.qoder/settings.json)
4. Local Level (<project>/.qoder/settings.local.json)
5. Command-line --settings

Objects are deeply merged by field; single values directly override existing ones; and certain arrays (such as disable/exclude lists) are union merged.

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Project Configuration Ignored

For security reasons, Project-Level and Local Level configurations are only applied when the current working directory is trusted. If settings.json within the project is completely ignored:

• Confirm that the current directory is trusted (security.folderTrust.enabled is enabled by default).
• When untrusted, only User Level configurations are loaded. Trust for the current working directory is determined by the trust prompt at startup (you can choose "this session only" or "remember", the latter of which is written to settings.local.json); you can also permanently trust frequently used directories using permissions.trustDirectories in the global settings.
• /add-dir and --add-dir only add additional trusted directories for the current session and cannot make an untrusted project directory trusted.

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Format Errors

• Configuration files are in JSON format, allowing // and /* */ comments (which are stripped before parsing). Common errors include trailing commas, mismatched quotes, and unclosed brackets.
• The BOM at the beginning of the file is automatically ignored, but it is still recommended to save the file as UTF-8 without BOM.
• Use your editor and JSON Schema (schemas/settings.schema.json) for validation and completion.
• Fields must be placed under the correct group (e.g., ui.theme instead of the top-level theme).
• Use the /settings panel to view and modify settings to avoid manual formatting errors.

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Verify Current Configuration

• Run /settings to view the currently applied configuration items.
• Troubleshoot layer by layer: temporarily remove Local Level/Project-Level files to identify which layer introduced the issue.

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Next Step

• Configuration mechanism: Configuration Files and Application Order.
• Full configuration reference: Configurations, environment variables, and file paths.
• Loading issues (Memory, Skills, and Agent not loaded): Memory, Skills, and Agent not loaded.