What happened?
Even when settings appear to be active in the current session (or even persist across restarts like "Compact Tool Output"), a manual inspection of the ~/.gemini/settings.json file reveals that the changes are never actually written to the disk.
Settings NOT found in settings.json (i did not do an exhaustive search, so there could be others):
- compact tool output
- hide sandbox status
- use alternate screen buffer
- render process
- terminal buffer
- incremental rendering
- screen reader mode
- ide mode
- compress compression threshold
- enable git worktrees
- memory manager agent
- use the generalist profile to manage agent context
- enable context management
- topic & update narration
A search of the entire ~/.gemini/ directory (including state.json and projects.json) confirmed that keywords like "compact," "render," and "incremental" do not appear in any configuration file, despite being enabled in the UI.
What did you expect to happen?
Every setting change made through the CLI should be serialized to the global ~/.gemini/settings.json file (or the active project-level .gemini/settings.json) immediately upon being set.
Client information
Client Information
Run gemini to enter the interactive CLI, then run the /about command.
> /about
# paste output here
╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ │
│ About Gemini CLI │
│ │
│ CLI Version 0.38.0 │
│ Git Commit 3f0873a83 │
│ Model Auto (Gemini 3) │
│ Sandbox no sandbox │
│ OS linux │
│ Auth Method Signed in with Google (kurokirasama@gmail.com) │
│ Tier Gemini Code Assist in Google One AI Pro │
│ │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
Login information
google account
Anything else we need to know?
The only setting that appears to correctly map and write to the JSON file is enable session cleanup (mapped to general.sessionRetention.enabled). All other verified changes seem to exist only in the application's active memory or are being read from a non-standard/hidden location that is not the documented settings.json.
What happened?
Even when settings appear to be active in the current session (or even persist across restarts like "Compact Tool Output"), a manual inspection of the
~/.gemini/settings.jsonfile reveals that the changes are never actually written to the disk.Settings NOT found in settings.json (i did not do an exhaustive search, so there could be others):
A search of the entire
~/.gemini/directory (includingstate.jsonandprojects.json) confirmed that keywords like "compact," "render," and "incremental" do not appear in any configuration file, despite being enabled in the UI.What did you expect to happen?
Every setting change made through the CLI should be serialized to the global
~/.gemini/settings.jsonfile (or the active project-level.gemini/settings.json) immediately upon being set.Client information
Client Information
Run
geminito enter the interactive CLI, then run the/aboutcommand.Login information
google account
Anything else we need to know?
The only setting that appears to correctly map and write to the JSON file is
enable session cleanup(mapped togeneral.sessionRetention.enabled). All other verified changes seem to exist only in the application's active memory or are being read from a non-standard/hidden location that is not the documentedsettings.json.