Settings reference

Three levels. Library settings travel with the folder (<library>/.niman/settings.json, hand-editable, unknown keys preserved). How a library looks on this screen — the tree’s width, the text size, the editor and its toggles — is per library too, but kept on the device, so a phone and a desktop each keep their own. App settings (language, theme, layout, debug log) stay on the device for every library.

The Settings screen

Settings is split into areas, grouped by what they change: App (appearance, themes, editor, keyboard shortcuts, commands, updates, diagnostics), the open Library (folders, journal, trash and history, sync, transcription, reminders), and Maintenance (re-index, rebuild the index, switch or close the library; in the settings window only the first two, since the rail’s library window switches and closes). Rebuilding deletes the library’s index file and reads every note into a fresh one — the repair for an index a full disk or an interrupted update left unreadable, which a re-index over the same file could not fix. The library itself is untouched: it stays on the list, with what was open in it, its settings and its sync. The search at the top looks through the settings themselves, not only the area names, and takes you to the row it found.

Wide windows (desktop, tablets, phones in landscape): Settings opens as a floating window over the note, from the gear at the foot of the rail or its key, and closes back to it. The note, its tabs and the tree stay where they were. Esc or a click outside closes it; from a screen an area opened, Esc steps back first. Inside are two columns: the search and the areas on the left, the selected area on the right, so nothing navigates. What an area opens, such as the toolbar arrangement or the trash, stays in the window with a way back. A search result shows its row on the right and flashes it; the results stay, one click from the next. The window is at most 960 × 680 and shrinks with a small window.
Phones: the list of areas, each opening a screen of its own.

Every setting reads the same on both: its name, a line saying what it does, and the control under that. A switch flips in place; anything with more than two choices shows its current value in a field that opens the choices.

Library settings (`LibraryConfig`)

These describe the library itself, and travel with it (and with the sync) in .niman/settings.json.

Key	Default	Meaning
`trashEnabled`	true	Deletes move to `.trash/`; false = hard delete
`trashAutoEmptyDays`	0 (= never)	Days an item waits in `.trash/` before the library opening deletes it for good (1–3650; anything else reads as never)
`historyVersions`	10	Kept `.history/` versions per note (0–100, 0 = none)
`historyIntervalMinutes`	5	Least minutes between two versions kept while editing (1–60)
`quickNotePath`	null (= `Quick note.md` at root)	Quick-note target, library-relative
`listNoteFolder`	`Lists`	Where new list notes go
`templateFolder`	`Templates`	Where note templates live
`attachmentsFolder`	`assets`	Where copied-in images and voice clips live, under the library root
`annotationsFolder`	`Annotations`	Where a note annotating a PDF or a book is made, when the file has none yet (see organization)
`linkType`	`wikilink`	What the link button inserts (`wikilink` or `markdown`)
`missingNoteLocation`	`currentFolder`	Where a note created from a dead link lands (`libraryRoot` or `currentFolder`)
`indentWidth`	2	Spaces per indent (2–8, clamped)
`tidyOnClose`	true	Tidy the Markdown of a note closed after an edit (Settings → Editor → Tidy the Markdown on close); notes over 4 MB are left as they are
`cascadeChecklist`	true	Ticking a checklist item ticks the tasks nested under it (Settings → Editor → Tick nested checkboxes); clearing a parent leaves its children as they are
`frontmatterPanel`	true	Whether a note’s frontmatter is drawn as the properties panel above it (Settings → Editor → Properties panel): closed until it is opened, away while the note is scrolled past its head. Off, a note is its own text everywhere (see frontmatter)
`lintRulesOff`	[] (= all rules)	The #72 rules turned off, by id (`tight-lists`, `task-marker`, `list-spacing`, `closing-fence`, `fence-language`), chosen in Settings → Editor → Markdown rules; a rule added in a later build runs unless it is turned off
`spellDictionaries`	[] (= locale default)	hunspell dictionaries, selection order
`reminderShowTokens`	false	Keep `+`/`@`/`#` markers in reminder notifications
`journalFolder`	`Journal`	Where the journal’s entries go (empty = the root)
`journalEntryName`	`YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD`	An entry’s name: `YYYY` `MM` `M` `DD` `D`, `/` for a folder, `'quoted'` text
`journalTemplate`	none (= a heading with the date)	The template an entry is made from, library-relative
`journalDayStart`	0	The hour a new day begins (0–6): at 4, until four in the morning is still yesterday

The Diagnostics and info area also carries the first run again (#266): What Niman can do reopens the welcome deck read-only, and Take the tour runs the guided tour — resuming one left halfway, starting a finished one over. Both are device settings, like the deck’s Markdown answer themselves.

Library settings kept on this device

Per library, but in the app’s own storage rather than the folder: what suits a desktop’s wide window does not suit a phone. The first time a library is opened by a version with this split, the device takes these values from settings.json; after that, it keeps its own, and they leave the file at its next write.

Key	Default	Meaning
`editorKind`	`source`	`source` or `wysiwyg`
`enabledEditors`	both	Which editors the settings screen offers (never none)
`treeSort`	`nameAsc`	Tree order (`nameAsc`, `nameDesc`)
`pinnedCollapsed`	false	Tree’s pinned section rolled up
`lineNumbers`	true	Editor row-number column
`readableLineLength`	true	Keep a note’s text in a centred column
`noteColumnWidth`	700	That column’s text width, px (480–1400, clamped)
`typewriter`	false	Keep the line being written in the middle of the editor
`editorAutofocus`	false	Raise the keyboard on note open
`editorToolbar`	”” (= shipped)	Arranged toolbar layout
`uiTextScale`	1.0	Interface text size (0.8–1.8)
`noteTextScale`	1.0	Note text size, editor + preview (0.8–1.8); the list and quote columns, the spacing, the bullets, checkboxes and numbers grow with it
`sourceFont`	`monospace`	The source pane’s face (Settings → Editor → Source editor font): `monospace`, `sansSerif` or `serif`; the preview and `live` keep the note’s own face
`treeWidth`	340	Tree pane width, px (200–600)
`dockWidth`	280	Side panel width, px (200–600); drag its left edge
`epubTheme`	none (= the app’s)	The theme the EPUB books wear: a theme id, a shipped one or `custom:…`
`epubBrightness`	none (= the app’s)	The books’ brightness: `system`, `day` or `night`
`epubFont`	`literata`	The books’ face: `literata`, `serif`, `sans` or `mono`
`epubTextScale`	1.0	The books’ text size (0.8–1.8)

The four folder keys — listNoteFolder, templateFolder, attachmentsFolder, annotationsFolder — are paths under the library root, created the first time something is written there. Their picker lists the folders the library actually holds, so a default naming one it has never had (assets, until an image or a voice clip is copied in) starts out unselected: New folder then builds it at the library root, and only nests it inside a folder you selected yourself.

A missing, unreadable, or malformed file reads as defaults — it never takes the app down. Writes are atomic (temp file + rename).

App settings (on device)

Brightness (day / night / system) and the theme the app wears are on Themes (below); UI language, last opened library, debug log toggle (default on), the keyboard shortcuts and the formatting keys, the commands pinned in the palette, and — on the desktops — Close to the tray (default on: the window’s × hides Niman and leaves it running).

Themes

The app’s colors have their own area: Settings → Themes. Brightness — day, night, or whatever the device says — is its first row, and under it sit the themes, each with its colors in front of you: the palettes Niman ships (System, Niman, Catppuccin, Solarized, Gruvbox) and the themes of your own.

Making one, editing its colors, renaming it, deleting it, exporting it into a .json file and importing one back are all there. The whole story is in themes.md; the themes do not live in the library — they are the installation’s, so a copied folder does not carry them.

Sync

Sync → WebDAV holds the open library’s sync destination: folder address, user, the password (in the device keychain), what the server can do, when to sync (automatically, how often to check the server, Wi-Fi only on phones), and Disconnect. It is per library and per device — not in settings.json, so a copied folder never starts syncing into the original’s server. See sync.md.

Updates

Automatic updates (default off) checks GitHub Releases shortly after launch and then every 6 hours, quietly: a failure (offline, no network) is a skipped check, never an error dialog. When a newer release is found, a banner offers the download:

Android: downloads the .apk into the app folder and opens the system installer — confirm there, including the per-app “unknown apps” allowlist.
Windows: downloads the setup .exe and launches the installer.
Linux: downloads the installed variant (AppImage, .tar.gz, Arch package) into Downloads; when the variant cannot be detected, the release’s Linux assets are listed instead.

Check for updates runs the same check on demand and downloads immediately when newer; it works even with automatic updates off.

The Diagnostics and info section holds two read-only facts about the installation: the app’s own Version, and Changelog, which opens the full list of shipped versions, newest first. Each entry’s bullets are Markdown — their bold, code and links read as they would in a note. The same changelog appears as a dialog on the first launch after an update, listing only what is new since the version you last saw. Beside them, the Markdown cheatsheet: every construct Niman reads, written and shown (see editing); from here its examples are copied, since no note is open to insert them in.

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