Settings Overview
Open Settings with Cmd+, / Ctrl+, or via Quick Actions (Cmd+K / Ctrl+K) → “Open Settings”.
Settings are organized into tabs:
| Tab | Contents |
|---|
| General | About Me (conductor profile), shell configuration, input send behavior, default toggles (history, thinking), automatic tab naming, power management, updates, privacy, usage stats, storage location |
| Display | Font family and size, terminal width, log level and buffer, max output lines per response, document graph settings, context window warnings |
| Shortcuts | Customize keyboard shortcuts (see Keyboard Shortcuts) |
| Themes | Dark, light, and vibe mode themes, custom theme builder with import/export |
| Notifications | OS notifications, custom command notifications, toast notification duration |
| AI Commands | View and edit slash commands, Spec-Kit, and OpenSpec prompts |
| SSH Hosts | Configure remote hosts for SSH agent execution |
| WakaTime (in General tab) | WakaTime integration toggle, API key, detailed file tracking |
Conductor Profile
The Conductor Profile (Settings → General → About Me) is a short description of yourself that gets injected into every AI agent’s system prompt. This helps agents understand your background, preferences, and communication style so they can tailor responses accordingly.
To configure:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Find the About Me text area at the top
- Write a brief profile describing yourself
What to Include
A good conductor profile is concise (a few sentences to a short paragraph) and covers:
- Your role/background: Developer, researcher, team lead, etc.
- Technical context: Languages you work with, tools you prefer, platforms you use
- Communication preferences: Direct vs. detailed, level of explanation needed
- Work style: Preferences for how agents should approach tasks
Example Profile
Security researcher. macOS desktop. TypeScript and Python for tools.
Direct communication, no fluff. Action over process. Push back on bad ideas.
Generate markdown for Obsidian. CST timezone.
How Agents Use It
When you start a session, Maestro includes your conductor profile in the system prompt sent to the AI agent. This means:
- Agents adapt their response style to match your preferences
- Technical context helps agents make appropriate assumptions
- Communication preferences reduce back-and-forth clarification
Using in Custom Commands
You can reference your conductor profile in slash commands using the {{CONDUCTOR_PROFILE}} template variable. This is useful for commands that need to remind agents of your preferences mid-conversation.
Global Environment Variables
Configure environment variables once in Settings and they automatically apply to all AI agent processes and terminal sessions. This is perfect for managing API keys, proxy settings, custom tool paths, and other shared configuration.
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Expand Shell Configuration section
- Scroll to Global Environment Variables
- Add your variables in
KEY=VALUE format (one per line)
- Variables apply immediately to new agent sessions and terminals
Example Configuration
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-proj-xxxxx
HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy.company.com:8080
HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.company.com:8080
DEBUG=maestro:*
MY_TOOL_PATH=~/tools/custom
Important Features
- Path expansion: Use
~/ for home directory (e.g., ~/workspace expands to /Users/username/workspace)
- Quotes for special characters: Variables with spaces or special characters should be quoted
- Applied to both agents and terminals: Global vars are available to all agent processes (Claude, OpenCode, etc.) and all terminal sessions
- Agent-specific overrides: You can override global variables with agent-specific settings (in agent configuration)
- Persist across sync: Global environment variables are included when you export or sync settings to another device
Environment Variable Precedence
When an agent or terminal is spawned, variables are merged in this order (highest to lowest priority):
- Session-level overrides - Temporary per-session customizations
- Global environment variables (Settings) - Applied to all agents and terminals
- Agent-specific configuration - Default settings for a particular agent
- System environment - System and parent process variables
This means a session-level override will take precedence over the global setting, which takes precedence over agent defaults.
Use Cases
- API keys: Set
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY once → all Claude sessions can access it
- Proxy settings: Set
HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY → all network requests respect the proxy
- Custom tool paths: Set
MY_TOOLS=/opt/mytools → agents can find custom utilities
- Debugging: Set
DEBUG=maestro:* → enable consistent logging across all sessions
- Language settings: Set
LANG=en_US.UTF-8 → consistent text encoding
Agent-Specific Overrides
To override a global variable for a specific agent:
- In the agent configuration panel, scroll to Environment Variables (optional)
- Add the variable with the override value
- This session-specific value takes precedence over the global setting
Checking for Updates
Maestro checks for updates automatically on startup (configurable in Settings → General → Check for updates on startup).
To manually check for updates:
- Quick Actions:
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K → “Check for Updates”
- Menu: Click the hamburger menu (☰) → “Check for Updates”
When an update is available, you’ll see:
- Current version and new version number
- Release notes summary
- Download button to get the latest release from GitHub
- Option to enable/disable automatic update checks
Pre-release Channel (Beta Opt-in)
By default, Maestro only notifies you about stable releases. If you want to try new features before they’re officially released, you can opt into the pre-release channel.
To enable beta updates:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Toggle Include beta and release candidate updates on
What changes:
- Update checks will include pre-release versions (e.g.,
v0.11.1-rc, v0.12.0-beta)
- You’ll receive notifications for beta, release candidate (rc), and alpha releases
- The Update dialog will show all available pre-release versions
Pre-release version types:
| Suffix | Description |
|---|
-alpha | Early development, may be unstable |
-beta | Feature-complete but still testing |
-rc | Release candidate, nearly ready for stable |
-dev | Development builds |
-canary | Cutting-edge nightly builds |
Pre-release versions may contain experimental features and bugs. Use at your own risk. If you encounter issues, you can always download the latest stable release from GitHub Releases. Notifications & Sound
Configure audio and visual notifications in Settings (Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → Notifications tab.
OS Notifications
Enable desktop notifications to be alerted when:
- An AI task completes
- A long-running command finishes
- The agent requires attention
To enable:
- Toggle Enable OS Notifications on
- Click Test Notification to verify it works
Custom Notification
Execute a custom command when AI tasks complete. Use any notification method that fits your workflow.
To configure:
- Toggle Enable Custom Notification on
- Set the Command Chain — the command(s) that accept text via stdin:
- macOS:
say (text-to-speech), afplay /path/to/sound.wav (audio file)
- Linux:
notify-send "Maestro", espeak, paplay /path/to/sound.wav
- Windows: PowerShell scripts or third-party tools
- Custom: Any command or script that accepts stdin
- Click Test to verify your command works
- Click Stop to interrupt a running test
Command chaining: Chain multiple commands together using pipes to mix and match tools. Examples:
say — speak aloud using macOS text-to-speechtee ~/log.txt | say — log to a file AND speak aloudnotify-send "Maestro" && espeak — show desktop notification and speak (Linux)afplay ~/sounds/done.wav — play a sound file (macOS)
Toast Notifications
In-app toast notifications appear in the corner when events occur. Configure how long they stay visible:
| Duration | Behavior |
|---|
| Off | Toasts are disabled entirely |
| 5s / 10s / 20s / 30s | Toast disappears after the specified time |
| Never | Toast stays until manually dismissed |
When Notifications Trigger
Notifications are sent when:
- An AI task completes (OS notification + optional custom notification)
- A long-running command finishes (OS notification)
Sleep Prevention
Maestro can prevent your computer from sleeping while AI agents are actively working, ensuring long-running tasks complete without interruption.
To enable:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Scroll to the Power section
- Toggle Prevent sleep while working on
When Sleep Prevention Activates
Sleep prevention automatically activates when:
- Any session is busy (agent processing a request)
- Auto Run is active (processing tasks)
- Group Chat is in progress (moderator or agents responding)
When all activity stops, sleep prevention deactivates automatically.
| Platform | Support Level | Notes |
|---|
| macOS | Full support | Equivalent to running caffeinate. Check Activity Monitor → View → Columns → “Preventing Sleep” to verify. |
| Windows | Full support | Uses SetThreadExecutionState. Verify with powercfg /requests in admin CMD. |
| Linux | Varies by desktop environment | Works on GNOME, KDE, XFCE via D-Bus. See notes below. |
Linux Desktop Environment Notes
Sleep prevention on Linux uses standard freedesktop.org interfaces:
- GNOME, KDE, XFCE: Full support via D-Bus screen saver inhibition
- Minimal window managers (i3, sway, dwm, bspwm): May not work. These environments typically don’t run a screen saver daemon.
If sleep prevention doesn’t work on Linux:
- Ensure
xdg-screensaver is installed
- Verify a D-Bus screen saver service is running
- Some systems may need
gnome-screensaver, xscreensaver, or equivalent
On unsupported Linux configurations, the feature silently does nothing — your system will sleep normally according to its power settings.
WakaTime Integration
Maestro integrates with WakaTime to track coding activity across your AI sessions. The WakaTime CLI is auto-installed when you enable the integration.
To enable:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Toggle Enable WakaTime tracking on
- Enter your API key (get it from wakatime.com/settings/api-key)
What Gets Tracked
By default, Maestro sends app-level heartbeats — WakaTime sees time spent in Maestro as a single project entry with language detected from your project’s manifest files (e.g., tsconfig.json → TypeScript).
Detailed File Tracking
Enable Detailed file tracking to send per-file heartbeats for write operations. When an agent writes or edits a file, Maestro sends that file path to WakaTime with:
- The file’s language (detected from extension)
- A write flag indicating the file was modified
- Project name and branch
File paths (not file content) are sent to WakaTime’s servers. This setting defaults to off and requires two explicit opt-ins (WakaTime enabled + detailed tracking enabled).
File heartbeats are generated for write operations across all supported agents:
| Agent | Tracked Tools |
|---|
| Claude Code | Write, Edit, NotebookEdit |
| Codex | write_to_file, str_replace_based_edit_tool, create_file |
| OpenCode | write, patch |
Activity Categories
Maestro assigns WakaTime categories based on how the session was initiated:
- Interactive sessions (user-driven) are tracked as
building
- Auto Run / batch sessions are tracked as
ai coding
This lets you distinguish time you spent actively directing agents from time the AI worked autonomously on your WakaTime dashboard.
Storage Location
Settings are stored in:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/maestro/
- Windows:
%APPDATA%/maestro/
- Linux:
~/.config/maestro/
Cross-Device Sync (Beta)
Maestro can sync settings, sessions, and groups across multiple devices by storing them in a cloud-synced folder like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive.
Setup:
- Open Settings (
Cmd+, / Ctrl+,) → General tab
- Scroll to Storage Location
- Click Choose Folder… and select a synced folder:
- iCloud Drive:
~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/Maestro
- Dropbox:
~/Dropbox/Maestro
- OneDrive:
~/OneDrive/Maestro
- Maestro will migrate your existing settings to the new location
- Restart Maestro for changes to take effect
- Repeat on your other devices, selecting the same synced folder
What syncs:
- Settings and preferences
- Session configurations
- Groups and organization
- Agent configurations
- Session origins and metadata
What stays local:
- Window size and position (device-specific)
- The bootstrap file that points to your sync location
Important limitations:
- Single-device usage: Only run Maestro on one device at a time. Running simultaneously on multiple devices can cause sync conflicts where the last write wins.
- No conflict resolution: If settings are modified on two devices before syncing completes, one set of changes will be lost.
- Restart required: Changes to storage location require an app restart to take effect.
To reset to the default location, click Use Default in the Storage Location settings.