Settings

Settings open inside the bar, with a sidebar of pages, and every setting can be found by typing its name and changed from the keyboard.

Open Settings

In the bar, press ⌘,.
Type settings and run Saiki Settings.
Right-click the S in the menu bar and choose Settings….

The bar grows to make room: the sidebar of pages is on the left, the page you're on is on the right, with its settings in cards. Press esc (or click the back arrow next to the title) to go back to search.

Straight to one setting

You don't have to open Settings first. Type part of a setting's name in the bar, like reduce motion or open at login. It shows up in the results; ↵ on Change Setting opens Settings with that row selected.

Move around

Keys	What they do
`↑` `↓`	Move between the rows on the page.
`←`	Go to the sidebar. There, `↑` `↓` show the previous or next page.
`→` or `↵`	From the sidebar, go back into the page.
`⌘[` `⌘]`	Back and forward through the pages you've visited.
`↵`	Change the selected setting (see below).
`⌘⌫`	Reset the selected row, or remove it (an exclusion, an app you customized). The footer says which.
`⌘⇧⌫`	Reset every changed setting on this page. A card asks first; `⌘↵` confirms.
`esc`	Cancel what you're doing (a form, a recording, a search), then leave Settings.

You can click everything too. The footer pill always names what ↵ and ⌘⌫ will do on the selected row.

Change a setting

Select a row and press ↵. What happens depends on the row:

Switches turn on or off.
Choices (like Glass or Keep history for) step to the next option. The current option is shown on the right.
Hotkeys start recording: press the new shortcut. See Hotkeys and aliases.
Rows ending in … (like Add Exclusion…) open a small form. ↵ saves, esc cancels, and ⇥ moves between fields when a form has more than one.
Rows that change something outside Saiki, or delete something (like Clear History…), ask on a card first. ⌘↵ confirms, esc keeps things as they are.

Most rows have a short line under them saying what they do. Changes apply at once; there's no Save button. A setting you've changed from its default shows a small back arrow on the right: click it, or press ⌘⌫, to put it back.

Search settings

Just start typing, wherever the selection is. Settings searches every page, by name and by related words (typing dotfiles finds Include hidden files, for example). The sidebar narrows to the pages with matches, and each result shows its page and card. Press ↵ to jump to the setting on its page. ⌫ takes a letter back and esc clears the search.

Turn features off

A page that belongs to a feature has an on/off switch at its top right. Settings → Features lists every feature's switch on one page, with what it does and the permissions it uses.

A feature that's off doesn't run at all: no background work, nothing in search, none of its commands. Its settings stay where they are but are dimmed until you turn it back on. Turning off AI lets a reply that's still being written finish first.

Permissions. When every feature that uses a permission is off, Privacy & Permissions marks that permission as no longer needed. See Install and permissions.

The pages

Page	What it holds
General	The keys that open Saiki, how long it remembers your last search, Open at Login, the menu bar icon, Keep Awake with the lid closed, Now Playing, and your settings file.
About	Saiki's version and update status, the update switches and Check for Updates (see Updates), how much space Saiki keeps on this Mac with Show Saiki's Data in Finder, its source on GitHub, and the contact email.
Features	Every feature's switch in one list.
Hotkeys	A shortcut for any command, window command, Window Strip command or system command. See Hotkeys and aliases.
Appearance	Look, Glass, Glowing cursor and Reduce motion. See Looks and motion.
Menu Bar Panel	The panel's switch, its tabs, tools, controls and quick toggles to show, hide and order, and the menu bar icon. See Menu Bar Panel.
Search	Your search engine, web suggestions, Menu Item Search, site search shortcuts, and anything you hid or changed in search. See Web and site search.
Applications	Aliases, hotkeys and hiding for apps, and the Uninstaller's switch. See Applications.
Browser	What Saiki reads from Chrome, and whether tabs, history and bookmarks show in search. See Tabs.
File Search	The folders searched, exclusions, hidden files and searching inside files. See Files.
Clipboard	Clipboard History's hotkey, how long it keeps things, hiding secrets, text in images and ignored apps. See Clipboard History.
Calculator	Examples, and the developer text tools. See Calculator.
Emoji & Symbols	The picker's hotkey, skin tone and grid size. See Emoji and symbols.
Window Management	The window commands. See Window management.
Window Strip	The Window Strip's switch and options. See Window Strip.
Switch Windows	The window switcher's switch and options. See Switch Windows.
Cleaner	What the Cleaner looks for, and automatic cleanup. See Cleaner.
File Converter	Quality, metadata, where converted files go. See Convert files.
Quick Tools	Copy Text from Screen, Paste as Plain Text, the camera, disk images, wallpaper and Cleaning Mode. See Quick tools.
Homebrew	Grouping dependencies, and sorting search results by popularity. See Homebrew and app updates.
App Updates	When it last checked, your exceptions, the background check and the sources it uses. See Homebrew and app updates.
Scratchpad	Its hotkey, text size, and whether it clears itself after a while unused. See Quick tools.
URL Cleaner	Taking tracking parameters out of links you copy. See Quick tools.
Shelf	A place to drop files while you move them between apps. See Quick tools.
Screenshot	Capture hotkeys, a countdown, and whether a screenshot is saved, copied or both. See Screenshots and recording.
Screen Recorder	Its hotkey, countdown, frame rate, and recording sound and your microphone. See Screenshots and recording.
Task Manager	Its hotkey, how often it refreshes, the sort order, grouping by app, system processes and which columns show. See Task Manager.
Monitors	Its hotkey, which readings show, how often they refresh, units, history graphs and alerts. See Monitors.
Port Manager	How often the list refreshes and what `↵` does. See Port Manager.
System Commands	Disks Eject All leaves alone, and which commands ask first. See System commands.
Spaces	Names and order for your Desktops. See System commands.
Displays & Brightness	Brightness, display modes, mirroring and Night Shift. See Displays.
Bluetooth	The Bluetooth permission, favourite devices and their hotkeys, and turning Bluetooth off while the Mac sleeps. See Bluetooth.
Auto Quit	Apps that quit after a few idle minutes, quitting apps when their last window closes, and quit groups. See Auto Quit.
Sound	The Volume Mixer, device priority and mic mute. See Sound.
Mouse & Scrolling	Scrolling, mouse acceleration, focus follows mouse, mouse buttons, middle click and key filtering. See Mouse, keyboard and Finder.
Finder & Apps	Cut and paste in Finder, renaming with a shortcut, ⌘Q and ⌘W protection, and Dock clicks. See Mouse, keyboard and Finder.
macOS Tweaks	Hidden macOS settings by category, each with Put Back. See macOS Tweaks.
AI & Agents	Default AI, models and modes for new chats, and agent notifications. See Set up AI.
Dictation	Clean-up style, the speech and clean-up models, and your own words. See Dictation.
Privacy & Permissions	Every macOS permission, its status, and a Grant button. See Install and permissions.

General

Setting	What it does
Open Saiki	The main key that opens and closes the bar. Starts as a double tap of `Right ⌘`.
Open Saiki (backup)	A second key for the same thing. Starts as `⌥Space`.
Clear the last search after	Never (the default), 1, 5 or 15 minutes. Until then, reopening the bar brings back your last search.
Open at Login	Starts Saiki when you log in to your Mac.
Show in menu bar	The S icon, its panel and its menu. See Menu bar.
Keep Awake works with the lid closed	Only on Mac laptops. Lets Keep Awake hold a closed lid; macOS asks for your password once.
Now Playing	What's playing in the footer, and media commands like `pause` as you type. See Now Playing.

About

Settings → About comes right after General. Under the version card:

Card	What's there
Updates	Check for updates automatically (on), Show a new version in the bar (on) and Check for Updates. See Updates.
Storage	What Saiki keeps on this Mac, measured when you open the page: the app, dictation models, clipboard history, the file index, AI chats, the rest, and the total. Show Saiki's Data in Finder opens its folder.
Links	Source Code on GitHub, Contact: hello@trysaiki.com (writes an email) and Copy Email Address.

Your settings file

Saiki keeps every switch, choice, hotkey and file exclusion in one readable JSON file, settings.json, and keeps it in step with Settings both ways:

When you change a setting, the file is updated within half a second.
When you edit the file and save it, Saiki applies each value straight away. A value it can't use is skipped, the current setting stays, and Settings → General → Settings File says what was wrong.

The Settings File card on General has three actions:

Show in Finder opens the folder that holds the file.
Export Settings… saves a copy wherever you choose, for a backup or another Mac.
Import Settings… reads a file you pick and applies it the same way.

Some switches only turn on in Settings. A file can turn off, but never turn on, Dictation, Keep Awake works with the lid closed and Know when Codex in a terminal needs you, because they listen to your microphone, change your Mac's sleep, or read other apps' windows. Turn those on in Settings yourself.