Configuration

strix reads ~/.config/strix/config.toml (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/strix/config.toml). Every field is optional; defaults apply when the file or a field is missing.

# Theme: a built-in preset or the stem of a file in ~/.config/strix/themes/
theme = "tokyo-night"

# Default diff mode: "unified" or "side-by-side"
diff_mode = "unified"

# Auto-refresh: update the view live as the working tree / git state change.
# On by default; set false to disable the file watcher and refresh only with `r`.
auto_refresh = true

# Show line numbers in the diff gutter. On by default; toggle at runtime with `n`.
line_numbers = true

# Show the top menu bar (the `View`/`Theme` labels in the header). On by
# default; set false to start with it hidden, or toggle at runtime with `m`.
menu_bar = true

Keybindings

Override any default under [keys]. The value is a list of key chords; an action fires on any of them. Anything you don't list keeps its default.

[keys]
quit             = ["q", "ctrl-c"]
help             = ["?"]
refresh          = ["r"]
switch_pane      = ["tab"]
toggle_diff_mode = ["d"]
toggle_line_numbers = ["n"]
cycle_theme      = ["t"]
toggle_menu_bar  = ["m"]
toggle_changes   = ["b"]
toggle_history   = ["i"]
status_view      = ["1"]
history_view     = ["2"]
down             = ["j", "down"]
up               = ["k", "up"]
top              = ["g", "home"]
bottom           = ["G", "end"]
half_page_down   = ["ctrl-d"]
half_page_up     = ["ctrl-u"]
focus_staging    = ["h", "left"]
focus_diff       = ["l", "right"]
toggle_stage     = ["space", "enter"]
stage            = ["s"]
unstage          = ["u"]
discard          = ["x"]
comment          = ["c"]
next_comment     = ["]"]
prev_comment     = ["["]
delete_comment   = ["X"]

down/up and top/bottom are context-aware: they move the file cursor in the Changes pane and scroll the Diff pane, depending on which is focused. Staging actions (stage, discard, …) act on the selected file from either pane. comment/next_comment/prev_comment/delete_comment act on the diff-pane cursor in both the Status (working-tree) and Review diff panes — discard and delete_comment are independent actions, so remapping one never touches the other (unlike milestone 6, where deleting a comment was an overload of discard/x).

Chord syntax: a key name (a, enter, space, tab, esc, up, left, pageup, …) optionally prefixed with ctrl-, alt-, or shift- (e.g. ctrl-d). toggle_line_numbers also accepts the config-file names toggle-line-numbers / line-numbers; cycle_theme also accepts cycle-theme / theme; toggle_menu_bar also accepts toggle-menu-bar / menu-bar / menu.

The in-app help overlay (?) and the footer hints list the default keys, not any you've remapped here.

Assigning the same chord to two different actions in [keys] logs a warning to the log file (default verbosity; see Environment and Logs) rather than failing silently — the later assignment in the table wins.

Runtime changes persist

Pressing t (cycle theme), d (toggle diff mode), n (toggle line numbers), or m (toggle menu bar) writes the new value into config.toml immediately, so the choice survives the next launch. Only these four explicit actions write anything — [keys] and auto_refresh are never touched by strix itself. Picking diff mode, line numbers, or a theme from the View/ Theme menu bar dropdowns persists the same way as pressing its equivalent key, since it's the same action under the hood; picking Status/History from the View menu switches the view but doesn't persist, matching 1/2/i.

The write preserves everything else in the file: comments, unrelated keys and tables, and their formatting. Only the one changed value's own formatting may be normalized.

If config.toml exists but fails to parse, strix never overwrites it — the in-app change still takes effect for the running session, but the save fails and a footer notice reports it (couldn't save setting: …), leaving your file byte-for-byte as it was so you can fix it by hand.

--theme alone (a one-off override for a single run) never writes to the config file. Cycling the theme with t from a --theme override does persist — the newly chosen theme is what gets saved.

Running multiple strix instances against the same config directory is last-writer-wins: each write replaces the whole file, so if two instances save around the same time, one save can be silently lost. There's no cross-instance locking.

Comments are not part of this. Adding, editing, or deleting a comment — on uncommitted work in bare strix, or in a review session (c, X — see Comments) — writes to .git/strix/comments.json immediately, the moment you act — there's no "persists on next launch" delay like t/d/n, and nothing about it touches config.toml.

See Keybindings for the defaults and Theming for theme files.