Settings Overview
How settings are organised, the two scopes they apply at, and how to find one fast.
Opening settings
- Press
Cmd+,(Ctrl+,on Windows and Linux) - Click the gear in the dock, available on every screen
- Open the command palette and search for a setting by name
The panel takes over the window. Cmd+W closes it and returns you to what you were doing, rather than closing PandaOS.
The categories
The sidebar groups thirteen categories into four blocks:
| Group | Categories |
|---|---|
| Workspace | General, Appearance, Shortcuts, Mobile Access |
| Account | Account, Profiles, Usage, Credits |
| AI | Models, Permissions, Execution Environment |
| Advanced | Advanced, About |
Only the category you are in expands its sections, so the sidebar stays readable. Advanced holds just two switches: Experimental Features, which reveals in-progress work such as the Canvas, and Developer Mode.
Finding a setting
The search box at the top of the sidebar searches every setting in every category by label and description, then jumps you to the row and highlights it. This is usually faster than remembering which tab a toggle lives on.
Global and per-project
Most settings are global: they apply everywhere. A few are decided per project on the project's own settings page, where they always win over the global default:
- Permission mode: inherit the global setting, auto-approve, or ask every time
- Execution environment: inherit, or a custom sandbox policy for this repo
- Which apps and MCP servers this project may use
- The workspace and colour the project shows in the sidebar
- The profile this project activates
Some settings are also machine-global rather than per profile, notably the update channels, because they describe this install rather than how you like to work.