Customization

Most of the UI bends to your preferences: keyboard shortcuts, layout density, the radial quick-actions menu, tool-block collapsing, models, and per-project behavior all live in one Settings widget.

The Settings widget

Press Ctrl+, (also Cmd+, on macOS proper — iPadOS reserves that chord) to open Settings. Six tabs:

Project

Shown when the active session has a working directory; settings here apply to that project only.

• Path and hash — where the project lives and its internal ID.
• Additional directories — extra paths passed to Claude via --add-dir, so it can read and edit outside the project root.
• Shadow Git — enable/disable the auto-journal for this project, toggle rich (AI-summarized) commits, and configure the commit sections the summary model fills in — enable/disable built-in sections or add custom ones with your own prompt instructions.

Shortcuts

Every keyboard shortcut, searchable and rebindable. Type a name to filter, or type a key combo (ctrl+k) to find what's bound to it; filters for "customized only" and "conflicts only" help audits. Click a binding slot and press the keys you want — the editor captures the chord directly and flags conflicts with other bindings. Reset All puts everything back to defaults (two-click confirm).

Your overrides are pushed to the server, so they follow you across browsers and devices. The full default map is in the keyboard shortcuts reference.

Appearance

• Layout density — Compact, Normal, or Spacious. One setting re-spaces the entire UI.
• Font size — 70–150% scale.
• Floating buttons — idle opacity for the FAB and chat navigator (10–100%).
• Tool blocks — a grid controlling how tool-call blocks render (expanded / compact / collapsed), independently for read, write, and execute tools, and separately for normal output, thinking blocks, and sub-agent activity.
• Widgets — text selection in file previews, and default sizes for the terminal and file-preview windows.
• Input — disable autocorrect (welcome on iPad), highlight thinking keywords, annotate images on paste (see Images & annotation), and shortcut hints — a configurable set of key-hint reminders shown in the UI.

Quick Actions

Configures the radial FAB menu (see below): FAB visibility (Always / Mobile / Disabled), behavior options (context-aware action swapping, tooltips, press-drag-release selection, haptic feedback on mobile), which action sits in each slot, and preset switching.

Claude

• Claude CLI — the binary path the bridge invokes, with the resolved version shown.
• Default effort and default token profile — output-budget defaults for new sessions.
• Default model — pre-selected model for new sessions (or leave it to the CLI default).
• Available models — the model catalog behind the model picker. Add entries by ID, edit labels/descriptions, or reset to the shipped list.
• Background models — which model writes the Shadow Git auto-journal summaries.

System

• Sessions — maximum concurrent tabs (1–20), how many sessions the welcome screen and search load, auto-retry count for transient API errors (500/529), and "Stop on questions" — interrupt Claude when it asks a multiple-choice question instead of letting it auto-answer and continue.
• Permissions — the default permission mode for new sessions.
• File downloads — what clicking a file download does: Auto, always Download, or Copy to clipboard.
• Additional directories (all projects) — like the Project tab's extra dirs, but global.
• Shadow Git defaults — journal on/off and rich commits for projects that haven't set their own.

Quick actions FAB

A floating action button that expands into a radial menu of up to 8 actions (top arc 1–4, bottom arc Q W E R while open; Ctrl+Q toggles it from the keyboard). Tap to open and tap an action, or use press-drag-release if you enabled it. The FAB itself is draggable — park it anywhere, the position sticks.

Right-click (or long-press) the FAB for its context menu: a search box over every registered action — not just the 8 in your slots — plus one-tap preset switching. Presets ship for common setups (Balanced, Power User, Minimalist, iPad User, Panel Focus, Debug) and are stored on the server as editable JSON under ~/.painapple-code/presets/, so you can add your own.

The left rail

The icon rail on the left edge holds panel toggles (files, git, logs, terminal, …) with running-state badges. Cmd+B / Ctrl+B — or the hamburger button — toggles it between icons-only and icons-with-labels on desktop and iPad; on phones it slides in as a drawer instead. The expanded state is remembered.

The rail also hosts the density button: a popup that flips Compact / Normal / Spacious live, without opening Settings — same setting as Appearance → Layout density, kept in sync.

Widget visibility scopes

Floating widgets are per-tab by default: switch session tabs and each tab's widgets swap in and out. The eye icon in a widget's header changes that per widget:

Scope	Meaning
This Tab	Only visible on the tab it was opened in (default)
Project	Visible on all tabs of the same project
All Tabs	Visible on every tab, hidden while the terminal is fullscreen
Everywhere	Always visible, even over a fullscreen terminal

Handy for pinning one terminal or file preview across a set of related sessions.

What syncs to the server

Some customization is stored server-side, so it follows you to any browser or device that logs into the same bridge; the rest is per-browser localStorage.

Server-side: shortcut overrides, quick-action presets, the model catalog and default model, per-project config (extra dirs, Shadow Git, commit sections), global Shadow Git defaults, global extra dirs, and tab state. Per-browser: appearance settings (density, font scale, opacity, tool-block modes), input toggles, and the FAB position/slots.

Related

• Custom slash commands — define your own /commands per project or globally: Slash & bang commands.
• Instance identity — name and accent-color each bridge instance (--instance-name DEV --accent red) so tabs, PWA icons, and the UI make it obvious which server you're on: Server CLI.