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Settings

On this page
  • Accessing settings
  • Output formats
  • Settings reference
  • Telemetry and privacy
  • Chat interface
  • Knowledge base
  • Key bindings
  • Feature toggles
  • API and service
  • Model context protocol (MCP)
  • Common configuration examples
  • Basic setup
  • Knowledge base configuration
  • Enable experimental features
  • Performance tuning
  • Troubleshooting settings
  • Invalid setting values
  • Resetting settings
  • Settings file issues
  • Settings file location
  • Next steps

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Kiro CLI provides extensive customization through settings. You can configure everything from telemetry to chat behavior, key bindings, and feature toggles.

Accessing settings

Manage settings directly from the command line:

bash
# List all configured settings kiro-cli settings list # List all available settings with descriptions kiro-cli settings list --all # View a specific setting kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled # Set a setting kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled true # Delete a setting kiro-cli settings --delete chat.defaultModel # Open settings file in editor kiro-cli settings open

Output formats

bash
# Plain text (default) kiro-cli settings list # JSON kiro-cli settings list --format json # Formatted JSON kiro-cli settings list --format json-pretty

Settings reference

Telemetry and privacy

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
telemetry.enabledbooleanEnable/disable telemetry collectionkiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled true
telemetryClientIdstringClient identifier for telemetrykiro-cli settings telemetryClientId "client-123"

Chat interface

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
chat.defaultModelstringDefault AI model for conversationskiro-cli settings chat.defaultModel "claude-3-sonnet"
chat.defaultAgentstringDefault agent configurationkiro-cli settings chat.defaultAgent "my-agent"
chat.greeting.enabledbooleanShow greeting message on chat startkiro-cli settings chat.greeting.enabled false
chat.editModebooleanEnable edit mode for chat interfacekiro-cli settings chat.editMode true
chat.enableNotificationsbooleanEnable desktop notificationskiro-cli settings chat.enableNotifications true
chat.disableMarkdownRenderingbooleanDisable markdown formattingkiro-cli settings chat.disableMarkdownRendering false
chat.disableAutoCompactionbooleanDisable automatic conversation summarizationkiro-cli settings chat.disableAutoCompaction true
chat.enableHistoryHintsbooleanShow conversation history hintskiro-cli settings chat.enableHistoryHints true
chat.uiModestringUI variant to usekiro-cli settings chat.uiMode "compact"
chat.enableContextUsageIndicatorbooleanShow context usage percentage in promptkiro-cli settings chat.enableContextUsageIndicator true

Knowledge base

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
chat.enableKnowledgebooleanEnable knowledge base functionalitykiro-cli settings chat.enableKnowledge true
knowledge.defaultIncludePatternsarrayDefault file patterns to includekiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultIncludePatterns '["*.py", "*.js"]'
knowledge.defaultExcludePatternsarrayDefault file patterns to excludekiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultExcludePatterns '["*.log", "node_modules"]'
knowledge.maxFilesnumberMaximum files for indexingkiro-cli settings knowledge.maxFiles 1000
knowledge.chunkSizenumberText chunk size for processingkiro-cli settings knowledge.chunkSize 512
knowledge.chunkOverlapnumberOverlap between text chunkskiro-cli settings knowledge.chunkOverlap 50
knowledge.indexTypestringType of knowledge indexkiro-cli settings knowledge.indexType "fast"

Key bindings

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
chat.skimCommandKeycharKey for fuzzy search commandkiro-cli settings chat.skimCommandKey "f"
chat.autocompletionKeycharKey for autocompletion hint acceptancekiro-cli settings chat.autocompletionKey "Tab"
chat.tangentModeKeycharKey for tangent mode togglekiro-cli settings chat.tangentModeKey "t"
chat.delegateModeKeycharKey for delegate commandkiro-cli settings chat.delegateModeKey "d"

Feature toggles

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
chat.enableThinkingbooleanEnable thinking tool for complex reasoningkiro-cli settings chat.enableThinking true
chat.enableTangentModebooleanEnable tangent mode featurekiro-cli settings chat.enableTangentMode true
introspect.tangentModebooleanAuto-enter tangent mode for introspectkiro-cli settings introspect.tangentMode true
chat.enableTodoListbooleanEnable todo list featurekiro-cli settings chat.enableTodoList true
chat.enableCheckpointbooleanEnable checkpoint featurekiro-cli settings chat.enableCheckpoint true
chat.enableDelegatebooleanEnable delegate toolkiro-cli settings chat.enableDelegate true

API and service

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
api.timeoutnumberAPI request timeout in secondskiro-cli settings api.timeout 30

Model context protocol (MCP)

SettingTypeDescriptionExample
mcp.initTimeoutnumberMCP server initialization timeoutkiro-cli settings mcp.initTimeout 10
mcp.noInteractiveTimeoutnumberNon-interactive MCP timeoutkiro-cli settings mcp.noInteractiveTimeout 5
mcp.loadedBeforebooleanTrack previously loaded MCP serverskiro-cli settings mcp.loadedBefore true

Common configuration examples

Basic setup

bash
# Enable telemetry kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled true # Set default chat model kiro-cli settings chat.defaultModel "claude-3-sonnet" # Disable greeting message kiro-cli settings chat.greeting.enabled false

Knowledge base configuration

bash
# Enable knowledge base kiro-cli settings chat.enableKnowledge true # Set file patterns to include kiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultIncludePatterns '["*.py", "*.js", "*.md", "*.txt"]' # Set file patterns to exclude kiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultExcludePatterns '["*.log", "node_modules", ".git", "*.pyc"]' # Set maximum files to index kiro-cli settings knowledge.maxFiles 2000

Enable experimental features

bash
# Enable thinking tool kiro-cli settings chat.enableThinking true # Enable tangent mode kiro-cli settings chat.enableTangentMode true # Enable todo lists kiro-cli settings chat.enableTodoList true # Enable checkpoints kiro-cli settings chat.enableCheckpoint true # Configure key bindings kiro-cli settings chat.tangentModeKey "t" kiro-cli settings chat.delegateModeKey "d"

Performance tuning

bash
# Increase API timeout for slow connections kiro-cli settings api.timeout 60 # Adjust knowledge base chunk size kiro-cli settings knowledge.chunkSize 1024 # Disable auto-compaction for long conversations kiro-cli settings chat.disableAutoCompaction true

Troubleshooting settings

Invalid setting values

Boolean values: Use true or false (lowercase)

bash
kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled true # ✓ Correct kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled True # ✗ Wrong

Array values: Use JSON format with single quotes

bash
kiro-cli settings knowledge.defaultIncludePatterns '["*.py", "*.js"]' # ✓ Correct

String values: Use quotes for strings with spaces

bash
kiro-cli settings chat.defaultModel "claude-3-sonnet" # ✓ Correct

Resetting settings

Delete individual settings:

bash
kiro-cli settings --delete setting.name

Open settings file for manual editing:

bash
kiro-cli settings open

View current settings to identify issues:

bash
kiro-cli settings list --all

Settings file issues

If the settings file becomes corrupted:

  1. Back up current settings:

    bash
    kiro-cli settings list --format json > backup.json
  2. Open the settings file:

    bash
    kiro-cli settings open
  3. Verify JSON syntax or restore from backup

Settings file location

Settings are stored in:

  • macOS: ~/.kiro/settings.json
  • Linux: ~/.config/kiro/settings.json

You can edit this file directly, but using kiro-cli settings commands is recommended for validation.

Next steps

  • Configure custom agents
  • Set up MCP servers
  • Enable experimental features
  • CLI Commands Reference
Page updated: November 16, 2025
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