Configuration

We support --dangerously-skip-permissions (alias: --yolo) to bypass permission prompts. See Permissions at the bottom of this page.

Slate can be configured using a slate.json (or slate.jsonc) file placed in your project root or global config directory.

{
  "$schema": "https://randomlabs.ai/config.json",
  "permission": {
    "*": "allow",
    "bash": "ask"
  }
}

File locations

Configuration files are merged together, not replaced. Settings from all sources are combined — later sources override only conflicting keys.

Global config

User-wide preferences at ~/.config/slate/slate.json. Applies to all projects.

Project config

slate.json in your project root (or any parent up to the git root). Safe to check into git.

Inline override

SLATE_CONFIG_CONTENT env var as a JSON string. Highest precedence.

Project config applies only to that project. Global config applies everywhere.

Options

Keybind syntax supports ctrl, alt (also meta/option), shift, and super, plus <leader> combos. Use commas for alternatives (for example, ctrl+n,down), none to disable a binding, and note leader mode times out after 2s.

Theme config supports built-in dark and light, with /theme as the in-app picker. Advanced theme JSON can define defs and theme with $ref values and per-token dark/light variants.

General

Field	Type	Description
`privacy`	`boolean`	Disables telemetry and logging when `true`.

Permissions

Control which actions require your approval before Slate proceeds.

{
  "$schema": "https://randomlabs.ai/config.json",
  "permission": {
    "*": "allow",
    "bash": "ask",
    "read": {
      "*.env": "ask",
      "*": "allow"
    }
  }
}

Each permission key maps to an action ("allow", "ask", or "deny"), or a pattern object for fine-grained control.

Permission	Description
`*`	Wildcard — sets the default for all tools
`read`	Reading files
`edit`	Writing / editing files
`bash`	Running shell commands
`grep`	Searching file contents
`webfetch`	Fetching web pages
`websearch`	Web searches

Models

Set preferred default models for each slot.

{
  "$schema": "https://randomlabs.ai/config.json",
  "models": {
    "main": { "default": "anthropic/claude-opus-4.6" },
    "subagent": { "default": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6" },
    "search": { "default": "anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5" },
    "reasoning": { "default": "openai/gpt-5.3-codex" }
  }
}

Slot	Config key	Description
Main	`models.main`	Primary model for the main agent
Subagent (Execute)	`models.subagent`	Execution-oriented subagents — edits, commands, task completion
Subagent (Search)	`models.search`	Search-oriented subagents — exploration, retrieval, codebase investigation
Reasoning	`models.reasoning`	Complex reasoning tasks
Vision	`models.vision`	Vision-enabled multimodal tasks
Image Gen	`models.image_gen`	Image generation tasks

MCP Servers

Connect Model Context Protocol servers for additional tools.

{
  "$schema": "https://randomlabs.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "my-tool": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "@my-org/mcp-server"],
      "environment": { "API_KEY": "{env:MY_API_KEY}" },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Custom Commands

Define custom /commands for repetitive tasks.

{
  "$schema": "https://randomlabs.ai/config.json",
  "command": {
    "commit": {
      "description": "Write a commit message for staged changes",
      "template": "Write a concise git commit message for these changes: $ARGUMENTS",
      "agent": "build"
    },
    "review": {
      "description": "Review the code in a file",
      "template": "Review @$ARGUMENTS for correctness, clarity, and edge cases."
    }
  }
}

Invoke with /commit or /review in the TUI. $ARGUMENTS captures text typed after the command name.

Advanced

Additional configuration keys supported in slate.json. Some are partially wired and may evolve.

Key	Type	Description
`terminal`	`object`	Terminal/PTY settings (e.g., `maxConcurrent`)
`externalWorkspaces`	`string[]`	Default external workspace paths attached to new sessions
`experimental`	`object`	Experimental toggles and feature flags
`dataTier`	`"normal" \| "privacy"`	Data retention tier
`autoupdate`	`boolean \| "notify"`	Auto-update behavior
`server`	`object`	Server-mode configuration (forward-compatibility, partially wired)
`modelSets`	`object[]`	Named presets bundling model + thinking level per slot
`skills`	`object`	Additional skill folder paths
`watcher`	`object`	File watcher ignore patterns
`instructions`	`string[]`	Extra instruction files or patterns to include

Environment variables

Variable	Description
`SLATE_API_KEY`	Skip the authentication dialog on launch
`SLATE_CONFIG`	Path to a custom config file
`SLATE_CONFIG_DIR`	Path to a custom config directory
`SLATE_CONFIG_CONTENT`	Inline JSON config (highest precedence)
`SLATE_PERMISSION`	JSON permission config override
`SLATE_DISABLE_PROJECT_CONFIG`	Disable project-level `slate.json` discovery
`SLATE_DANGEROUSLY_SKIP_PERMISSIONS`	Set to `1` to bypass all permission checks (hard bypass). Also set automatically by `--dangerously-skip-permissions` / `--yolo`. To restore normal permissions, restart without `--yolo` and set this env var to `0` (or unset it). ⚠️ Skips all safeguards including destructive operations.

CLI flags

Run slate --help to see all available flags.

Sessions

Flag	Alias	Description
`--continue`	`-c`	Resume the most recent session instead of starting a new one. Useful for picking up where you left off.
`--resume <id>`		Resume a specific session by its session ID.
`--recent`	`-r`	Open the session picker on launch so you can choose which past session to load.

Sending a prompt

Flag	Alias	Description
`<prompt>`		Pass a prompt directly as a positional argument. Slate runs the prompt and exits after completion.
`--prompt <text>`	`-p`	Start interactive mode with an initial prompt.

Queue file

Flag	Alias	Description
`--queue <file>`	`-q`	Load a markdown file and queue messages separated by `---` delimiters. Each block between `---` lines becomes a separate queued message.

Workspace

Flag	Alias	Description
`--workspace <path>`	`-w`	Add a directory to Slate’s workspace. Can be specified multiple times to add several directories at once.

Headless / scripting

Headless mode lets you use Slate non-interactively — pipe in prompts, pipe out structured results — useful for CI or scripting.

Command / Flag	Description
`run [prompt]`	Run a one-shot prompt non-interactively.
`run --output-format <fmt>`	Set output format: `text`, `json`, or `stream-json`.
`run --input-format <fmt>`	Set stdin format: `text` or `stream-json`.
`run --workspace <path>`	Add one or more workspace directories for this run.
`run --dangerously-skip-permissions`	Bypass permission checks for automation/CI runs. Alias: `--yolo`.

Note: use --output-format stream-json for JSONL output in this CLI. The standalone --stream-json flag is not supported on run.

# Run a one-shot prompt and get JSONL output
slate run "Summarize the changes in the last commit" --output-format stream-json

# Pipe a prompt in as plain text
echo "What does this codebase do?" | slate run --output-format json --input-format text

# Pipe JSONL stdin and interpret it as stream-json input
printf '{"role":"user","content":"What changed in the last commit?"}\n' | slate run --output-format json --input-format stream-json

Server mode

Server mode is command-based. Start the server with serve, then connect with attach.Upgrade command: slate upgrade [target] (optional target version). Use --method / -m to choose install method: curl, npm, pnpm, bun, brew, choco, or scoop.

Command / Flag	Default	Description
`serve`		Start Slate as an HTTP API server instead of launching the TUI.
`serve --port <number>`	`7777`	Port to listen on in server mode.
`serve --host <string>`	`0.0.0.0`	Host to bind to in server mode.
`attach <url>`		Connect the TUI to an already-running Slate server (for example `http://localhost:7777`).
`attach --dir <path>`	local cwd	Set the local working directory while attached to a server.
`attach --session <id>`		Resume a specific session while attached.
`attach --continue`		Continue the latest session while attached.
`attach --fork`	`false`	Fork the session when continuing. Requires `--continue` or `--session`.
`attach --password <text>`	env	Basic auth password for server attach. Alias: `-p`. Defaults to `SLATE_SERVER_PASSWORD` when set.

# Terminal 1 — start the server
slate serve --port 7777

# Terminal 2 — connect the TUI to it
slate attach http://localhost:7777 --dir /path/to/workspace

Permissions

Flag	Default	Description
`--dangerously-skip-permissions`	`false`	Bypass all permission checks including config plan rules. Alias: `--yolo`. Sets `SLATE_DANGEROUSLY_SKIP_PERMISSIONS=1` internally. Intended for CI pipelines and automation where interactive prompts are not possible. ⚠️ Auto-allows all tool calls including destructive shell commands and file writes.

Restart without --yolo and set SLATE_DANGEROUSLY_SKIP_PERMISSIONS to 0 (or unset it) to restore normal permission prompts.

# Run non-interactively with all permissions bypassed
slate run "Run the test suite and fix any failures" --output-format stream-json --dangerously-skip-permissions

​File locations

​Options

​Environment variables

​CLI flags

File locations

Options

Environment variables

CLI flags