---
title: "Configuration File"
description: "Complete reference for the Devin CLI config file format"
icon: "file-code"
---

Devin CLI uses JSON files (with comment support) for configuration. This page documents all available options.

---

## File Locations

| File | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `~/.config/devin/config.json` | User-wide settings |
| `.devin/config.json` | Project settings (committed) |
| `.devin/config.local.json` | Project local overrides (gitignored) |

<Note>
On Windows, the user config path is `%APPDATA%\devin\config.json` (e.g. `C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\devin\config.json`), not `~\.config\devin\config.json`.
</Note>

---

## Full Config Reference

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="User config">
    ```json
    // ~/.config/devin/config.json
    {
      // Agent behavior
      "agent": {
        "model": "swe-1-6-fast",           // Default model
        "show_history_on_continue": true  // Show messages when resuming
      },

      // Theme
      "theme_mode": null,            // "light", "dark", "terminal-dark", "terminal-light", "nocolor", or null (auto)

      // Permissions
      "permissions": {
        "allow": [],
        "deny": [],
        "ask": []
      },

      // MCP servers
      "mcpServers": {},

      // Display
      "show_path": false,             // Show CWD in input border
      "unicode_mode": "auto",         // "auto", "unicode", or "ascii"
      "show_hints": true,             // Show tips between turns

      // File completion
      "include_gitignored_files": false, // Include gitignored files in @ completions

      // File access
      "respect_gitignore": false,        // Block tool access to gitignored paths

      // Updates
      "auto_update": true,            // Install new versions in the background

      // Notifications
      "notify": "smart",              // "never" | "smart" | "always" — terminal notifications

      // Proxy settings for CLI HTTP traffic
      "proxy": {
        "mode": "system",           // "system" | "manual" | "off"
        "url": null,                // Proxy URL (required for manual mode)
        "no_proxy": null            // Comma-separated bypass list
      },

      // Sandbox network filtering
      "sandbox": {
        "allowed_domains": [],       // Domain allowlist (empty = no filtering)
        "denied_domains": [],        // Domain denylist (takes precedence)
        "network_mode": "full"       // "full" or "limited" (GET/HEAD/OPTIONS only)
      },

      // Import settings from other tools
      "read_config_from": {
        "cursor": true,
        "windsurf": true,
        "claude": true
      }
    }
    ```
  </Tab>
  <Tab title="Project config">
    ```json
    // .devin/config.json
    {
      // Permissions
      "permissions": {
        "allow": [],
        "deny": [],
        "ask": []
      },

      // MCP servers
      "mcpServers": {},

      // Import settings from other tools
      "read_config_from": {
        "cursor": true,
        "windsurf": true,
        "claude": true
      }
    }
    ```
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

---

## Options Reference

<Note>
Options marked with **User only** can only be set in the user config (`~/.config/devin/config.json`; `%APPDATA%\devin\config.json` on Windows). Only `permissions`, `mcpServers`, `read_config_from`, and `hooks` are available in project configs.
</Note>

### agent <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|--------|------|---------|-------------|
| `model` | string | `"swe-1-6-fast"` | Default AI model |
| `show_history_on_continue` | boolean | `true` | Show previous messages when resuming a session |

### theme_mode <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `null` | Auto-detect (asks on first run) |
| `"light"` | Light theme |
| `"dark"` | Dark theme |
| `"terminal-dark"` | Dark theme quantized to 16 ANSI colors (respects terminal color scheme) |
| `"terminal-light"` | Light theme quantized to 16 ANSI colors (respects terminal color scheme) |
| `"nocolor"` | No color output (monochrome, useful for VT100 terminals) |

### permissions

See [Permissions](/cli/reference/permissions) for full documentation.

```json
{
  "permissions": {
    "allow": ["Read(**)", "Exec(git)"],
    "deny": ["Exec(sudo)"],
    "ask": ["Write(**/.env*)"]
  }
}
```

### mcpServers

Map of server name to server configuration. Supports both local command (stdio) and remote HTTP servers. See [MCP Configuration](/cli/extensibility/mcp/configuration).

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "server-name": {
      "command": "executable",
      "args": ["arg1", "arg2"],
      "env": { "KEY": "value" }
    },
    "remote-server": {
      "url": "https://mcp.example.com/mcp",
      "transport": "http"
    }
  }
}
```

### show_path <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Show the current working directory path in the input border. When enabled, the top border of the input box displays your prettified CWD (e.g. `~/projects/my-app`).

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `false` | Hidden (default) |
| `true` | Show CWD path in input border |

### unicode_mode <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Controls whether the terminal UI uses Unicode symbols or ASCII-safe fallbacks. Set to `"ascii"` if your terminal or font does not render Unicode glyphs correctly (e.g. the ⏺ symbol appearing as a box).

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `"auto"` | Detect Unicode support from environment (default) |
| `"unicode"` | Always use Unicode symbols |
| `"ascii"` | Always use ASCII-safe characters |

### show_hints <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Show occasional tips between turns (e.g. "Did you know: Use /model to switch between available models"). Useful for discovering CLI features; set to `false` to suppress them once you're familiar.

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `true` | Show tips occasionally (default) |
| `false` | Never show tips |

### include_gitignored_files <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Include gitignored files in `@` tab completion results. When enabled, files matching `.gitignore` patterns will appear in `@` mention completions. This is useful if you store documentation or other files in gitignored directories that you want to reference.

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `false` | Exclude gitignored files from completions (default) |
| `true` | Include gitignored files in `@` completions |

### respect_gitignore <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Control whether the agent respects `.gitignore` when reading or writing files via tools. When enabled, tool calls that access gitignored paths are blocked. This is separate from `include_gitignored_files`, which only affects `@` tab completion.

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `false` | Agent can access all files regardless of `.gitignore` (default) |
| `true` | Block tool access to gitignored paths |

### auto_update <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Control background auto-update on macOS and Linux. When enabled, new releases are downloaded and activated while Devin CLI runs, so the next invocation of `devin` picks up the latest version automatically. The currently running session is unaffected — a swap of the `current` symlink only takes effect on the next launch.

The update is designed to be safe against interruption: every filesystem step is staged to a temp path and promoted with an atomic rename, and concurrent updaters are serialized with a file lock. Quitting mid-update cannot leave the installation in a broken state — you'll just come back up on the old version.

Only applies to self-managed installations (`curl | bash` on macOS/Linux). Installations bundled with another product (e.g. Windsurf) ignore this setting and update through their parent application.

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `true` | Download and install new versions in the background (default) |
| `false` | Only check for new versions; install manually via `/update` |

### notify

Control terminal notifications when the agent finishes or needs user input. The CLI writes a BEL character (triggers terminal bell / visual bell), an OSC 9 escape sequence (triggers a system notification in iTerm2 and compatible terminals), and an OSC 777 sequence (desktop notification in rxvt-unicode and other terminals). Terminals that do not recognize these sequences safely ignore them.

| Value | Behavior |
|-------|----------|
| `"never"` | No notifications |
| `"smart"` | Notify only when the terminal window is unfocused (uses OSC focus reporting) (default) |
| `"always"` | Notify on every qualifying event regardless of focus |

### read_config_from

Control importing from other AI tool configurations:

| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|--------|------|---------|-------------|
| `cursor` | boolean/null | `true` | Import from `.cursor/rules/` |
| `windsurf` | boolean/null | `true` | Import from `.windsurf/rules/` |
| `claude` | boolean/null | `true` | Import from `.claude/` |

Set to `false` to disable a specific import. `null` is treated as `true`.

### proxy <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

Configure how the CLI routes its own outbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic (API calls, updates, MCP servers, etc.). This does not affect sandbox child-process networking (see `sandbox` below).

The `mode` field selects the proxy strategy:

| Mode | Behavior |
|------|----------|
| `"system"` (default) | Respect environment variables (`HTTP_PROXY`, `HTTPS_PROXY`, `ALL_PROXY`) and platform-native PAC (Proxy Auto-Configuration) on macOS and Windows |
| `"manual"` | Route all CLI traffic through the explicit `url` |
| `"off"` | Connect directly — no proxy |

| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|--------|------|---------|-------------|
| `mode` | string | `"system"` | Proxy strategy: `"system"`, `"manual"`, or `"off"` |
| `url` | string/null | `null` | Proxy URL. Required when `mode` is `"manual"`. Supports `http://`, `https://`, and `socks5://` schemes |
| `no_proxy` | string/null | `null` | Comma-separated list of hosts/domains that bypass the proxy. Uses the same syntax as the `NO_PROXY` environment variable (e.g. `"localhost,127.0.0.1,.corp.example.com"`). Applies in any mode |

**Example — corporate proxy:**

```json
{
  "proxy": {
    "mode": "manual",
    "url": "http://proxy.corp.example.com:8080",
    "no_proxy": "localhost,127.0.0.1,.internal.corp"
  }
}
```

**Example — disable proxy:**

```json
{
  "proxy": {
    "mode": "off"
  }
}
```

<div id="sandbox" />

### sandbox <span style={{fontSize: '0.7em', color: 'gray'}}>(user only)</span>

<Warning>
Sandbox network filtering is currently unstable. If you need this feature, please reach out to your account representative for stability timelines.
</Warning>

Configure domain-level network filtering for the sandbox. When `--sandbox` is active and domain filtering is configured, a managed network proxy starts on loopback and the sandbox restricts all child traffic to route through it.

The `--sandbox` flag enforces the active Read and Write permission scopes at the OS level. Writable roots are derived from granted `Write(...)` scopes plus workspace directories; readable roots come from `Read(...)` scopes (with platform defaults always readable). Scopes granted mid-session dynamically expand the sandbox for subsequent commands.

<Note>
If `--sandbox` is passed but sandbox resolution fails (e.g., sandboxing tools are unavailable on the current platform), the CLI will refuse to start rather than running unsandboxed. This fail-closed behavior ensures the security intent of `--sandbox` is never silently bypassed.
</Note>

| Option | Type | Default | Description |
|--------|------|---------|-------------|
| `allowed_domains` | string[] | `[]` | Domain patterns allowed through the proxy. When non-empty, only matching domains are allowed (allowlist mode) |
| `denied_domains` | string[] | `[]` | Domain patterns always blocked. Deny rules take precedence over allow rules |
| `network_mode` | string | `"full"` | `"full"` allows all HTTP methods; `"limited"` allows only GET/HEAD/OPTIONS |

**Domain pattern syntax:**

| Pattern | Matches |
|---------|---------|
| `example.com` | Exact match only |
| `*.example.com` | Any subdomain (not the apex) |
| `**.example.com` | Apex domain and any subdomain |

**Example:**

```json
{
  "sandbox": {
    "allowed_domains": [
      "github.com",
      "**.npmjs.org",
      "**.crates.io",
      "**.pypi.org"
    ],
    "denied_domains": ["evil.example.com"],
    "network_mode": "full"
  }
}
```

<Note>
Domain filtering applies when the sandbox is active (`--sandbox`). Without `--sandbox`, the sandbox section is ignored.
</Note>

<Note>
For enterprise teams, admins can override domain lists via [Team Settings](/cli/enterprise/team-settings#domain-filtering). Enterprise allowlists are authoritative (they replace your local `allowed_domains`), while enterprise denylists are additive (merged with your local `denied_domains`).
</Note>

---

## JSON with Comments

Config files support JavaScript-style comments:

```json
{
  // Line comments
  "agent": {
    "model": "sonnet"  // Inline comments
  },
  /* Block
     comments */
  "permissions": {}
}
```
