Settings is a full-window page in the main application, opened from the command bar. A navigation sidebar on the left selects which section appears on the right.
The sidebar lists fourteen sections in this order: Account, Appearance, API Key, General, Mobile Dashboard, Editor, Hotkeys, Plugins, Built-in Plugins, Project Settings, Migrate Extension, Debug, MCP Config, and Default Prompts. Account is selected when the page opens.
Several sections in the beta are partially or entirely inert — the controls render and respond, but nothing is saved or applied. Those are called out individually below, because the confirmation dialogs some of them show are misleading.
Where Settings Are Stored
Application settings are written to settings.json in the ThinkForge data root. In a release build that is:
Documents\Think Forge\settings.json
Themes, AI profiles, MCP client configuration, and Mobile Dashboard pairing state are stored separately rather than in settings.json. See Installation and Updates for the full map of on-disk locations.
Account
Shows ThinkForge sign-in state and hosts connected-service configuration.
When signed out, the section shows a description and a Sign In to ThinkForge button that opens the login window. When signed in, it shows the account email, the user ID, and a Sign Out button. Status reads "Signed In" or "Not Signed In". State updates without reopening the page.
Signing in provides access to ThinkForge services including n8n integrations and OAuth connections. It is not required for local project work, editing, search, Power Strip, or a locally configured AI provider.
The Connected Services panel is embedded directly beneath the account block. It is the same system documented in Tools / Connected Services and Tools / API Credential Management; this section is one of its entry points.
See Editions and Licensing for what the account controls.
Appearance
The theme picker. Every available theme is drawn as a card showing a background preview, an accent bar, four color swatches, and the theme name. Built-in presets appear first; a Custom Themes header and second row appear only when at least one custom theme exists.
Clicking a card applies that theme immediately. There is no save step and no confirmation. The active theme's card is drawn with an accent border and a semibold name.
Open Theme Editor opens the editor for building or cloning a theme. Built-in presets are read-only and must be cloned before editing.
Full detail lives in Theme System Overview and Creating Themes.
API Key
Configures the AI provider, model, and credential used by AI-backed skills, agents, and tools. This is the section Getting Started refers to as "configure an AI profile."
Global Default profile
The left column is headed Global Default and describes itself as the configuration used whenever an interface does not have its own override.
The profile system was designed for multiple named profiles, and Add Profile, Delete, and Make Active buttons exist in the layout. In the current build they are hidden, and the beta has exactly one profile. Treat multi-profile language in older material as unshipped.
Profile details
The profile form has seven fields: Profile Name, Provider, a provider-dependent model-source field, Model, Temperature, Max Tokens, and Endpoint. Temperature uses a slider with a live value readout. Changes are committed with Save Default.
Providers
Four providers ship by default:
OpenAI — base URL https://api.openai.com/v1, default model gpt-4o, tool calling supported.
OpenRouter — base URL https://openrouter.ai/api/v1, default model openai/gpt-4o-mini, tool calling supported.
Anthropic — base URL https://api.anthropic.com/v1, default model claude-3-7-sonnet-latest, tool calling supported.
Gemini — base URL https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta, default model gemini-2.0-flash, tool calling not supported.
The provider list and its default models can change without an app update. The model catalog offered per provider can also change on the provider's side independently of ThinkForge.
Keys
The API key editor holds the credential for the selected provider, with a Show toggle to reveal the stored value, Refresh to reload, and Delete Selected Key. A separate AI Routing Settings block covers routing behavior.
Credential storage is documented in Tools / API Credential Management.
General
Four groups. The default projects-location controls save their changes immediately; the other three groups do not save anything.
Default Projects Location
Shows the default root for newly created local projects, with three actions. Existing folders outside this root are added from the Projects page rather than from Settings.
Change Default Location… opens a folder picker, validates the target, and saves immediately on success. It does not move existing projects — it only repoints ThinkForge at the new location. A restart is required.
Move All Local Projects… copies the entire contents of the current projects root into the chosen destination, then repoints the setting at it. The confirmation dialog warns this can take a while for large projects. The original folder is deliberately left in place as a backup; the completion dialog tells you to verify the result and delete the old folder manually. A restart is required.
Reset to Default clears the custom path and returns to the default location. The button is hidden entirely when no custom path is set.
Both the desktop app and the Chrome extension use this default location. Changing it is global; it is not a setting for the currently open project.
Auto-Save, Startup, and Notifications — not implemented
These three groups render toggles and an interval dropdown, with defaults of auto-save enabled, a five-minute interval, start-with-system off, and notifications enabled. The interval dropdown correctly disables itself when the auto-save toggle is off.
None of it is saved. Save General Settings displays a "General settings saved successfully" dialog and does nothing else. The toggles reset to their defaults every time the page opens, and no other part of the app reads them. Document auto-save behavior is whatever the editors implement on their own; see Projects and Documents.
The Default Projects Location controls save through their own actions and are unaffected by this button.
Mobile Dashboard
Controls the local-network service that lets a paired ThinkForge Mobile device work with documents in the active project.
Enable Mobile Dashboard on this computer starts or stops the service immediately. Status reads "Running securely on the local network" when up, "Disabled" when off, or "Could not start —" followed by the error. On a start failure the panel suggests checking that ThinkForge is permitted through Windows Firewall on the local network. The installer adds those rules, so this usually means they were removed or blocked by policy.
Generate Pairing Code produces a one-time six-digit code, displayed large beneath the button. The button is disabled unless the service is running. The mobile app discovers the computer automatically on the same network, so no address needs to be entered anywhere.
Paired devices are listed by name with either a last-seen or paired-at timestamp, each with a Revoke button. Revoking takes effect immediately and the device must be paired again to regain access.
Access is limited to the local network, encrypted, and available only while ThinkForge is running.
Editor — not implemented
Offers a syntax-highlighting theme dropdown (Default, Monokai, Solarized Light, Solarized Dark, GitHub) plus toggles for line numbers, word wrap, and auto indent.
None of these are saved or applied. The save button shows an "Editor settings saved successfully" dialog and returns. Actual editor behavior is described in Document editor.
Hotkeys
The Hotkeys page is divided into Application, Power Strip, and Smart Clipboard sections.
Application shortcuts cover New Document, Open Document, Save Now, Close Tab, Toggle Power Strip, and Settings. They work while ThinkForge is focused, including while the rich-text or code editor owns focus. Save Now explicitly flushes the active document even when automatic save is disabled.
Power Strip lists its Windows-global toggle and each configured top-level command slot with a click action. Smart Clipboard lists its Windows-global overlay shortcut. A Power Strip command can also be assigned by right-clicking its button and choosing Assign Global Hotkey....
Select a field and press the desired combination. Backspace or Delete clears it. Changes save and activate immediately; there is no separate Save button. Global shortcuts require a modifier. Duplicate ThinkForge bindings and combinations already owned by Windows are refused, and the previous working shortcut remains active. Reset to Defaults also applies immediately. See Keyboard Shortcuts for defaults.
Plugins — not implemented
A placeholder. The description states the plugin system is being redesigned, the action buttons are disabled, and the list shows a "no plugins" message.
Built-in Plugins — not implemented
Titled Built-in Features in the content area. Another placeholder, with Refresh Features and Reset to Defaults both disabled.
Project Settings — not implemented
A large form covering Project Title, Project Type, and checkbox groups for game engines and frameworks, programming languages, game genres and types, target platforms, art style and graphics, audio and sound, and development environment.
The form has no save button and nothing entered here is stored or read. It is a leftover from an earlier design.
Project metadata that does persist is handled through tags and document metadata; see Tags and Metadata. Project scaffolding choices are made at creation time through templates; see Project Templates Overview.
Migrate Extension
A one-time import path for users coming from a standalone Think Forge Chat extension install.
Select Extension Projects Folder picks the source directory. The section validates the selection and reports "This folder does not appear to be a Think Forge Chat projects folder" or "No project folders found in selected directory" when the shape is wrong. Start Migration runs the import, with progress reported in the status line.
Debug
Scroll-input limiting, intended for mice whose wheel drifts and causes unwanted zoom. A warning banner states this scope explicitly.
Scroll Input Limiting toggles the protection. Minimum scroll delta accepts 0.01 to 2.0 in 0.1 steps, where smaller values are more sensitive. Minimum delay (ms) accepts 10 to 500 in steps of 10 and sets the time between accepted scroll events.
This section works: Save Debug Settings saves your values.
MCP Config
Manages the local MCP server and the AI clients connected to it.
The top of the section shows server status with a Refresh control. Below it is the client list, showing each detected IDE with its status, a Configure action for clients that are not yet set up, Remove for ones that are, and a Not Installed state for clients that were not found on the machine.
Add connection… points ThinkForge at any other MCP client by choosing that client's config file directly, with a Browse… picker. The transport chooser notes that most clients use Standard HTTP and that the stdio options exist for applications that cannot use an HTTP endpoint.
A separate toggle controls MCP keyword triggers. When enabled, phrases such as "use mcp", "search memory", or "use think-forge" in a chat activate ThinkForge tools. When disabled, the triggers are off.
The connection procedure for each supported client, including manual configuration, is documented in Using MCP with AI Clients.
Default Prompts
Assigns which stored prompt is used by default for specific system operations.
The section is split into three groups, and the headers state their own status.
ThinkForgeChat — marked "Configuration stored but not yet wired." Selections are saved but not used.
MindMap System — also marked "Configuration stored but not yet wired."
Tool Forge — marked "Active: these prompts are currently in use." Four assignments: Skills Tool, which validates that required skills exist for tool execution; Database Tool, which determines whether a tool needs a database and generates the schema; Widget Tool, which configures the UI widget for tool interaction; and Execution Tool, which assembles the final tool definition for execution.
Save Defaults commits the assignments and Reset to System Defaults restores the shipped ones.
These dropdowns select among existing prompts. They do not author prompt text.
Summary of Beta State
Sections that work: Account, Appearance, API Key, General's Default Projects Location, Mobile Dashboard, Migrate Extension, Debug, MCP Config, and Default Prompts.
Sections that render but save nothing: Editor, Plugins, Built-in Plugins, Project Settings, and General's Auto-Save, Startup, and Notifications groups.
The Editor and General save buttons display a success dialog regardless. That confirmation is not evidence anything was stored.