07 · Settings

Astrolabe provides a Settings modal where users tune appearance, the spec editor, preview performance, and date formatting. All settings persist locally and apply across sessions on the same device. Settings load at startup; any unknown or missing value falls back to its factory default, so older or partial saved settings never break the app.

An entry in the application header opens the Settings modal.
The keyboard shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+, also opens it.
The modal is grouped into clearly titled sections: Appearance, Editor, Performance, and Formatting.
The modal can be dismissed with a Cancel action or the standard modal-close affordance; dismissing without applying discards any pending edits and restores the last saved values.

Settings

Appearance

Controls the overall UI theme. Choosing the Dark theme switches the whole application chrome to a dark presentation.

Setting	Options	Default
UI theme	Light, Dark	Light

The UI theme is also exposed as a header toggle for one-click switching; it reads and writes the same persisted ui.theme value as this Appearance control, so the two always agree. (The toggle shipped in M1.5, ahead of this modal.)

Editor

These settings configure the spec editor used to edit Vega-Lite specs (see Spec Editor & Draft/Published Workflow). They take effect in the editing surface for the snippet spec.

Setting	Options / Range	Default
Font size	10–18 px (integer)	12 px
Editor theme	Auto + explicit overrides (provisional — see note)	Auto
Minimap	On / Off	Off
Word wrap	On / Off	On
Line numbers	On / Off	On
Tab size	Integer number of spaces	2

Font size is chosen along a 10–18 range; the current value is shown alongside the control.
Editor theme controls the syntax/color presentation inside the editor. Provisional (to be finalized as we implement the editor): the default is Auto, which derives the editor theme from the app UI theme (light app theme → light editor theme, dark → dark), using custom Monaco themes that match the app chrome. The user may override Auto with an explicit editor theme; the exact override list (custom themes, and whether to include High Contrast or the stock Monaco themes) is deferred. Stored as editor.theme with an 'auto' sentinel for the follow-the-app default.
Minimap toggles the condensed overview strip beside the editor.
Word wrap toggles soft wrapping of long lines.
Line numbers toggles the line-number gutter.
Tab size sets the indentation width applied while editing.

Performance

Setting	Range	Default
Render debounce	500–5000 ms	1500 ms

Render debounce is the delay after the user stops typing before the preview re-renders (see Live Preview).
Tradeoff: a lower value makes the preview feel snappier and more immediate but re-renders more often and uses more CPU; a higher value keeps the app calmer and lighter but makes the preview feel laggier behind the spec.
The current value is shown alongside the control.

Formatting

Governs how dates are rendered throughout the app, for example the timestamps shown in the Snippet Library list.

Setting	Options	Default
Date format	Smart, ISO 8601, Custom	Smart
Custom date format	Free-text format string	(empty)

Smart: relative, human-friendly rendering (e.g. "Today", "Yesterday", "3d ago", falling back to a full date for older items).
ISO 8601: a full ISO 8601 timestamp.
Custom: dates render using the user-supplied format string.
The custom format string field is only relevant when Date format is set to Custom; it is shown only in that case (placeholder guidance such as yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm).

The following preferences also persist locally across sessions but are managed outside this modal and are documented in their own sections:

Preview fit mode — how the preview is sized/fit; see Live Preview.
Snippet sort preference — the snippet list's sort field and direction; see Snippet Library.

Behaviors

Apply / save: An explicit Apply action writes all changes; they take effect immediately (e.g. the UI theme switches at once).
Dirty indication: While the form differs from the last saved state, the modal shows an "Unsaved changes" indicator.
Cancel / dismiss: Closing without applying reverts the form to the last saved values and leaves stored settings untouched.
Reset to defaults: A Reset action restores every setting to its factory default. It requires explicit confirmation before applying, then saves the defaults.
Startup load: Settings are read on startup and applied to the UI and editor; missing or unrecognized values silently use their defaults.

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