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Settings

Hive's Settings view is a single scrolling page of sections. Workspace-scoped config (runtimes, MCP servers) is written back to hive.config.toml; connection settings persist to a settings.json in the app data dir; the theme is stored locally per device.

Settings — runtimes

Identity

Your display name (the (@handle, device) pair Hive signs envelopes with) and the current device name.

Workspace

The workspace root path (drives the Diff canvas + git integration), the current git branch / dirty count, and an Open in editor shortcut.

Team sync

Everything needed to share a workspace, editable at runtime (applied within a few seconds, no restart). Teams are normally created/joined from the left rail (the ＋ button generates the room, key, and a shareable code for you); this section is the manual/advanced surface and the relay configuration:

  • Relay URL — peers on the same relay + room converge. Blank = local-only.
  • Relay access token — needed only for a gated/paid hosted relay; leave blank for a relay you host yourself (the open default). Sent as a bearer on every relay request; never echoed back.
  • Room + Workspace key (under Advanced) — the room id and the shared passphrase → end-to-end encryption; the relay sees only ciphertext (status shows 🔒 encrypted).

See Self-hosting a relay, the small-team deployment guide, and the pricing tiers.

Account (GitHub)

Sign in with GitHub (OAuth device flow) to get a stable identity across all your devices and to invite teammates by @handle. The same GitHub account on your laptop and desktop resolves to one member, two devices. See Identity & devices. Official builds ship with the OAuth App client id baked in; forks can paste their own.

Check for updates also lives here. The auto-updater is scaffolded and activates at public launch (for signed builds); on current unsigned dists it's inert.

Danger zone — Reset local data

The bottom of the Account tab has a Danger zone with "Reset local data": it wipes this device's chats, identity, keys, settings, and workspaces, then relaunches Hive fresh. It's the supported way to start over — uninstalling leaves data behind. See Reset local data for the per-OS data directories.

Providers, Models & Agents

LLM access is organized as a hierarchy:

  • Providers — anthropic, openAI, openRouter, ollama, custom, plus the claude CLI and subprocess agents (pi/aider). Each provider holds its own API key and optional base URL (so multiple providers can have distinct keys, including any generic OpenAI-compatible endpoint).
  • Models (runtimes) — a model on a provider (id + capability flags).
  • Agents — reusable personas (name + model/runtime + role + instructions) you can attach to any chat.

The default runtime is the claude CLI — no API key needed, it uses your Claude subscription. See Configuring a runtime.

Agent file access

Controls how agents are allowed to touch files — and this differs per agent type (Claude Code is not the only agent that edits files):

  • claude permission mode — Read-only (default; proposes edits but blocks writes), Accept edits (can write files), or Bypass all (also runs shell commands). Injected as --permission-mode into the claude CLI, which runs headless and can't show an interactive prompt.
  • aider / pi gate via their own flags.
  • API/MCP-backed agents gate via built-in-tool consent + per-tool MCP trust (see Tools, consent & trust).

MCP servers

Install / enable / remove Model Context Protocol servers. An installed server stays inert until you enable it — enabling is what launches the command or opens the connection. Two transports: stdio (Hive spawns the binary) and http. See MCP servers.

Appearance

  • Mode — Auto (follows your OS light/dark setting, any platform), Light, or Dark.
  • Theme — the accent family: pollen (the honey-gold default), studio (neutral graphite), harbor (ocean blue), or meadow (green). Each has a light and a dark variant; the mode picks which.

Notes

  • New chats are auto-titled from the opening exchange using the chat's primary runtime — no setting required.
  • Workspace config round-trips through the TOML encoder, so hand-edited and GUI-edited hive.config.toml files stay compatible (comments aren't preserved). See hive.config.toml reference.