General Settings
Open Settings → Settings (the app-wide preferences page at /settings/general) to configure how Tarsk looks and runs. You can reach it from the Profile menu in the activity bar, or the VS Code embed Settings button.
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”Font Size
Section titled “Font Size”Adjust the Font size slider to scale text across the app. On mobile viewports, Tarsk applies an additional multiplier so text remains readable on smaller screens.
Color Scheme
Section titled “Color Scheme”Choose Light, Dark, or System (follows your OS setting).
Primary Color
Section titled “Primary Color”Pick a Primary color accent used across the app. Click the color label to reset to the default.
Agent Limits
Section titled “Agent Limits”Maximum Turn Count
Section titled “Maximum Turn Count”Set how many agent tool-call rounds a single response can use before Tarsk asks whether to continue. Lower it when you want tighter control over agent autonomy; leave at the default for most work.
AI Voice Cleanup
Section titled “AI Voice Cleanup”Toggle AI Voice Cleanup to run voice transcriptions through AI after you stop recording. When enabled, the AI removes filler words, false starts, and repetitions from the raw transcription before inserting it into the chat input.
Speech recognition runs inside the Tarsk server process, which downloads a roughly 40 MB WebAssembly model on first use. Your audio streams to that server. The app falls back to the browser’s Web Speech API when the server reports that it cannot dictate.
Pick Spend in the Profile menu to see today’s spend; the row opens a dialog with Today, This Chat, and Last 30 Days tabs.
Hover the amount to see a tooltip with today’s spend, last 30 days total, and average daily spend. Click it to open a detailed dialog that also shows token counts, prompt-cache usage, and tool output compression savings.
Screen & Audio Recording (macOS)
Section titled “Screen & Audio Recording (macOS)”On macOS, Tarsk needs Screen & Audio Recording permission to capture screen content for browser tools and screen sharing features. This page shows the current permission status and provides a button to open System Settings directly.
If permission is denied, grant it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & Audio Recording.
Confirm Commands
Section titled “Confirm Commands”Toggle Confirm Commands to require approval before the agent runs bash commands, skill scripts, and browser shell calls. When off (default), commands run without per-command prompts.
When confirm commands is enabled, allowed command patterns listed on the same page (and patterns you save from approval prompts) run automatically without prompting. See Permissions.
Sandbox (macOS)
Section titled “Sandbox (macOS)”When supported, Sandbox runs bash and skill script execution inside a macOS seatbelt sandbox. This limits what commands can access on your system. The toggle is disabled if the sandbox fails its health check.
While sandbox is on, Tarsk sets npm_config_cache to <project>/.npm-cache for those tools so npx and npm can download packages without writing to ~/.npm. A cache path you already set is kept only when it is inside the project.
You can also toggle sandbox temporarily from the chat mode selector menu.
Logging
Section titled “Logging”Toggle Enabled in Logs to raise application log verbosity; recent entries appear in the same view. Tarsk no longer writes a log file. Agent runs are stored in the local database, not in a log.
When BETTERSTACK_SOURCE_TOKEN and BETTERSTACK_INGESTING_HOST are set before starting Tarsk, the same toggle also sends logs to Better Stack. Restart Tarsk after configuring those variables. Tarsk only posts to Better Stack ingest hosts on its allowlist — in.logs.betterstack.com, or a *.betterstack.com / *.betterstackdata.com host, optionally with a port. Any other value leaves Better Stack logging off.
--debug raises log verbosity for the current process.
Mobile & Network Access
Section titled “Mobile & Network Access”Turn this on under Settings → Remote Access (page header Mobile & Network Access, route /settings/remote-machines) to reach Tarsk from a phone or another computer. You must be signed in. Tarsk opens a public address on tarsk.net.
| Setting | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Off | Use the runtime’s default bind address (default) |
| On | Open a public address |
When it is on, Tarsk shows a public address (https://<id>.tarsk.net). Tarsk keeps the same id for this computer.
Restart Tarsk after changing this setting. Anyone who opens the public address must sign in as the same account. The address stops working when you turn this off and restart.
Do not use Off as a security boundary. Tarsk leaves the bind hostname unset in this mode. Use your firewall to restrict access.
QR Code
Section titled “QR Code”With network access on, the address appears with a QR code you can scan to open the public URL in a browser. See Remote Access for the full page.
Reset Onboarding
Section titled “Reset Onboarding”Triple-click the Settings item in the settings sidebar to re-run the onboarding wizard.
Related
Section titled “Related”- Remote Access — public address and Remote Machines
- Installation — CLI flags including
--server - Chat — speech input and daily spend in the chat header