Config

Atuin maintains two configuration files in ~/.config/atuin/, and stores data in ~/.local/share/atuin (unless overridden by XDG_*).

The full path to the config file would be ~/.config/atuin/config.toml

The config location can be overridden with ATUIN_CONFIG_DIR

db_path

Default: ~/.local/share/atuin/history.db

The path to the Atuin SQLite database.

db_path = "~/.history.db"

key_path

Default: ~/.local/share/atuin/key

The path to the Atuin encryption key.

key_path = "~/.atuin-key"

session_path

Default: ~/.local/share/atuin/session

The path to the Atuin server session file. This is essentially just an API token

session_path = "~/.atuin-session"

dialect

Default: us

This configures how the stats command parses dates. It has two possible values

dialect = "uk"

or

dialect = "us"

auto_sync

Default: true

Configures whether to automatically sync, when logged in.

auto_sync = true/false

update_check

Default: true

Configures whether to automatically check for updates.

update_check = true/false

sync_address

Default: https://api.atuin.sh

The address of the server to sync with!

sync_address = "https://api.atuin.sh"

sync_frequency

Default: 1h

How often to automatically sync with the server. This can be given in a "human-readable" format. For example, 10s, 20m, 1h, etc.

If set to 0, Atuin will sync after every command. Some servers may rate limit frequent syncs, but this won't cause any issues.

sync_frequency = "1h"

search_mode

Default: fuzzy

Which search mode to use. Atuin supports prefix, fulltext, fuzzy, daemon-fuzzy, and skim search modes.

• prefix mode searches for "query*".
• fulltext mode searches for "*query*".
• fuzzy applies the fuzzy search syntax.
• skim applies the skim search syntax.

search_mode = "fuzzy"

search_mode = "daemon-fuzzy"

[daemon]
enabled = true
autostart = true

fuzzy search syntax

The fuzzy and daemon-fuzzy search syntax is based on the fzf search syntax.

A single bar character term acts as an OR operator. For example, the following query matches entries that start with core and end with either go, rb, or py.

^core go$ | rb$ | py$

filter_mode

Default: global

The filter mode that interactive search starts in. Accepted values are global, host, session, directory, workspace, and session-preload — see Filter mode for what each one searches.

Whichever mode you start in, you can still cycle through the rest with ctrl-r.

filter_mode = "host"

search_mode_shell_up_key_binding

Default: fuzzy

The default search mode to use when searching and being invoked from a shell up-key binding.

Accepts exactly the same options as search_mode above

search_mode_shell_up_key_binding = "fuzzy"

Defaults to the value specified for search_mode.

filter_mode_shell_up_key_binding

Default: global

The default filter to use when searching and being invoked from a shell up-key binding.

Accepts exactly the same options as filter_mode above

filter_mode_shell_up_key_binding = "session"

Defaults to the value specified for filter_mode.

inline_height_shell_up_key_binding

The maximum number of lines the interface should take up when atuin is invoked from a shell up-key binding.

The accepted values are identical to those of inline_height.

When unset, the value from inline_height is used.

inline_height_shell_up_key_binding = 10

workspaces

Default: false

This flag enables a pseudo filter-mode named "workspace": the filter is automatically activated when you're in a git repository.

With workspace filtering enabled, Atuin will filter for commands executed in any directory within a git repository tree.

Filter modes can still be toggled via ctrl-r.

workspaces = false

style

Default: compact

Which style to use. Possible values: auto, full and compact.

• compact:

• full:

With auto, Atuin uses full mode, but automatically switches to compact mode when the terminal window is too short for full to display properly.

style = "compact"

invert

Default: false

Invert the UI - put the search bar at the top.

invert = true/false

inline_height

Default: 40

Set the maximum number of lines Atuin's interface should take up.

If set to 0, Atuin will always take up as many lines as available (full screen).

inline_height = 40

show_preview

Default: true

Configure whether to show a preview of the selected command.

Useful when the command is longer than the terminal width and is cut off.

show_preview = true

max_preview_height

Default: 4

Configure the maximum height of the preview to show.

Useful when you have long scripts in your history that you want to distinguish by more than the first few lines.

max_preview_height = 4

show_help

Default: true

Configure whether to show the help row, which includes the current Atuin version (and whether an update is available), a keymap hint, and the total amount of commands in your history.

show_help = true

show_tabs

Default: true

Configure whether to show tabs for search and inspect.

show_tabs = true

auto_hide_height

Default: 8

Hide extra UI lines when the available height falls below this number of rows. This has no effect except when compact style is being used (see style above), and currently applies to only the interactive search and inspector. It can be turned off entirely by setting to 0.

auto_hide_height = 8

exit_mode

Default: return-original

What to do when the escape key is pressed when searching

Pressing ctrl+c or ctrl+d will always return the original command-line value.

exit_mode = "return-query"

history_format

The default format used by history list. It can also be specified per invocation with the --format argument, which takes precedence over this config value.

More on history list

history_format = "{time}\t{command}\t{duration}"

history_filter

Use the history filter to exclude commands from history tracking - maybe you want to keep ALL of your curl commands totally out of your shell history, or maybe just some matching a pattern.

This supports regular expressions, so you can hide pretty much whatever you want!

## Note that these regular expressions are unanchored, i.e. if they don't start
## with ^ or end with $, they'll match anywhere in the command.
history_filter = [
   "^secret-cmd",
   "^innocuous-cmd .*--secret=.+"
]

cwd_filter

Use the cwd filter to exclude directories from history tracking.

This supports regular expressions, so you can hide pretty much whatever you want!

## Note that these regular expressions are unanchored, i.e. if they don't start
## with ^ or end with $, they'll match anywhere in the path.
# cwd_filter = [
#   "^/very/secret/directory",
# ]

After updating that parameter, you can run the prune command to remove old history entries that match the new filters.

store_failed

Default: true

store_failed = true

Configures whether to store commands that failed (those with non-zero exit status) or not.

secrets_filter

Default: true

secrets_filter = true

Matches each command against a set of built-in regular expressions, and refuses to save it if any of them match. The patterns currently cover:

For the exact expressions, see secrets.rs.

macOS Ctrl-n key shortcuts

Default: true

macOS doesn't have an Alt key, although terminal emulators can often be configured to map the Option key to be used as Alt. However, remapping Option this way may prevent typing some characters, such as using Option+3 to type # on the British English layout. For such a scenario, set the ctrl_n_shortcuts option to true in your config file to replace Alt+0 to Alt+9 shortcuts with Ctrl+0 to Ctrl+9 instead:

# Use Ctrl-0 .. Ctrl-9 instead of Alt-0 .. Alt-9 UI shortcuts
ctrl_n_shortcuts = true

show_numeric_shortcuts

Default: true

Whether to show numeric shortcuts (1..9) beside list items in the TUI. Set this to false to hide the moving numbers if you find them distracting.

show_numeric_shortcuts = true

network_timeout

Default: 30

The max amount of time (in seconds) to wait for a network request. If any operations with a sync server take longer than this, the code will fail - rather than wait indefinitely.

network_timeout = 30

network_connect_timeout

Default: 5

The max time (in seconds) Atuin waits for a connection to become established with a remote sync server. Any longer than this and the request will fail.

network_connect_timeout = 5

extra_headers

Default: {}

Extra HTTP headers to send on every request to the sync server. This is useful when a self-hosted server sits behind a proxy or access gateway that requires its own authentication header — for example Cloudflare Access.

Headers that Atuin sets itself (such as Authorization) can't be overridden, because Atuin's values always win.

To avoid leaking credentials, Atuin refuses to follow cross-origin redirects when extra headers are configured — they're never sent to an origin other than the one you configured.

extra_headers = { "CF-Access-Client-Id" = "...", "CF-Access-Client-Secret" = "..." }

local_timeout

Default: 5

Timeout (in seconds) for acquiring a local database connection (SQLite).

local_timeout = 5

command_chaining

Default: false

Use this to build a command chain with the && or || operator. When enabled, opening Atuin will search for the next command in the chain, and append to the current buffer.

command_chaining = false

enter_accept

Default: false

When set to true, Atuin will default to immediately executing a command rather than the user having to press enter twice. Pressing tab will return to the shell and give the user a chance to edit.

This technically defaults to true for new users, but false for existing. We have set enter_accept = true in the default config file. This is likely to change to be the default for everyone in a later release.

enter_accept = false

keymap_mode

Default: emacs

The initial keymap mode of the interactive Atuin search (for example, started by the keybindings in the shells). Four values are supported: "emacs", "vim-normal", "vim-insert", and "auto". The keymap mode "emacs" is the most basic one. In the keymap mode "vim-normal", you may use K and J to navigate the history list as in Vim, whilst pressing

I changes the keymap mode to "vim-insert". In the keymap mode "vim-insert", you can search for a string as in the keymap mode "emacs", while pressing Esc switches the keymap mode to "vim-normal". When set to "auto", the initial keymap mode is automatically determined based on the shell's keymap that triggered the Atuin search. "auto" isn't supported by Nushell at present, where it will always trigger the Atuin search with the keymap mode "emacs".

keymap_mode = "emacs"

keymap_cursor

Default: (empty dictionary)

The terminal's cursor style associated with each keymap mode in the Atuin search. This is specified by a dictionary whose keys and values being the keymap names and the cursor styles, respectively. A key specifies one of the keymaps from emacs, vim_insert, and vim_normal. A value is one of the cursor styles, default or {blink,steady}-{block,underline,bar}. The following is an example.

keymap_cursor = { emacs = "blink-block", vim_insert = "blink-block", vim_normal = "steady-block" }

If the cursor style is specified, the terminal's cursor style is changed to the specified one when the Atuin search starts with or switches to the corresponding keymap mode. Also, the terminal's cursor style is reset to the one associated with the keymap mode corresponding to the shell's keymap on the termination of the Atuin search.

prefers_reduced_motion

Default: false

Enable this, and Atuin will reduce motion in the TUI as much as possible. Users with motion sensitivity can find the live-updating timestamps distracting.

Alternatively, set env var NO_MOTION

prefers_reduced_motion = false

search

filters

The list of filter modes available in interactive search, in the order they cycle through when you press ctrl-r. By default, all modes are enabled. Removing a mode from this list disables it entirely. The workspace mode is skipped when not in a git repository or when workspaces = false. See Filter mode for a description of each mode.

The filter_mode setting selects the initial mode from this list. If filter_mode is set to a mode not in the list, the first available mode is used instead.

[search]
filters = ["global", "host", "session", "directory"]

Score multipliers

For the "daemon-fuzzy" search mode, you can control the scoring of matched items. The system scores matches based on three numbers: frequency, recency, and frecency:

• Frequency — how often this exact match has been run, with diminishing returns
• Recency — how recently this exact match was last run
• Frecency — a combination of frequency and recency

The frecency calculation is Recency Score * Recency Multiplier + Frequency Score * Frequency Multiplier. By changing the options below, you can customize the relative importance of each part of the score calculation.

For each setting, a value of 1.0 (the default) means the score is used as-is. Values less than 1.0 decrease that score's influence, and values greater than 1.0 increase that score's influence.

For example, if you cared a lot about how frequently you run a command but not as much how recently, you could set frequency_score_multiplier to 10.0 and recency_score_multiplier to 0.1.

frequency_score_multiplier

Default: 1.0

The multiplier to apply to the frequency score in the frecency calculation. Setting this to 0 disables the frequency part of the frecency scoring altogether.

frequency_score_multiplier = 1.0

recency_score_multiplier

Default: 1.0

The multiplier to apply to the recency score in the frecency calculation. Setting this to 0 disables the recency part of the frecency scoring altogether.

recency_score_multiplier = 1.0

frecency_score_multiplier

Default: 1.0

The multiplier used for the final frecency score. Setting this to 0 disables frecency scoring altogether, relying solely on the fuzzy matcher's score.

frecency_score_multiplier = 1.0

Example:

search_mode = "daemon-fuzzy"

[daemon]
enabled = true
autostart = true

[search]
recency_score_multiplier = 10.0
frequency_score_multiplier = 0.8
frecency_score_multiplier = 2.0

Filtering by author

Interactive search shows only commands you ran yourself, hiding those recorded by AI coding agents through agent hooks. This isn't currently configurable in config.toml.

To filter by author on the command line, use atuin search --author. See Filtering by Author for the available values.

shells

Atuin version: >= 18.18

Default: "auto"

Filter interactive search results by the shell that was used to run each command.

The current shell is detected from the ATUIN_SHELL environment variable (set by the shell init script).

[search]
# Default: show commands from the current shell. Atuin will show Bash commands
# when invoked from Bash, Zsh commands when invoked from Zsh, etc. Also
# includes commands that have no shell recorded (most likely from an older
# version of Atuin).
shells = "auto"

# Show commands from all shells.
# shells = "all"

# Show only Bash and Zsh commands.
# shells = ["bash", "zsh"]

Stats

This section of client config is specifically for configuring Atuin stats calculations

[stats]
common_subcommands = [...]
common_prefix = [...]

common_subcommands

Default:

common_subcommands = [
  "apt",
  "cargo",
  "composer",
  "dnf",
  "docker",
  "git",
  "go",
  "ip",
  "jj",
  "kubectl",
  "nix",
  "nmcli",
  "npm",
  "pecl",
  "pnpm",
  "podman",
  "port",
  "systemctl",
  "tmux",
  "yarn",
]

Configures commands where Atuin should consider the subcommand as part of the statistics. For example, consider kubectl get rather than just kubectl.

common_prefix

Default:

common_prefix = [
  "sudo",
]

Configures commands that should be totally stripped from stats calculations. For example, 'sudo' should be ignored.

dotfiles

Default: false

To enable sync of shell aliases between hosts.

Add the new section to the bottom of your config file, for every machine you use Atuin with

[dotfiles]
enabled = true

Manage aliases using the command line options

# Alias 'k' to 'kubectl'
atuin dotfiles alias set k kubectl

# List all aliases
atuin dotfiles alias list

# Delete an alias
atuin dotfiles alias delete k

After setting an alias, you will either need to restart your shell or source the init file for the change to take effect

keys

This section of the client config is specifically for configuring key-related settings.

[keys]
scroll_exits = [...]
prefix = 'a'

scroll_exits

Default: true

Configures whether the TUI exits, when scrolled past the last or first entry.

scroll_exits = true

prefix

Default: a

Which key to use as the prefix. Prefix mode is a two-step shortcut system: you press Ctrl and the prefix key to enter prefix mode, then press a second key to trigger an action. For example, with the default prefix a, pressing Ctrl+A then D deletes the selected entry.

See the key binding page for the full list of default prefix shortcuts, or the advanced key binding page to customize them.

prefix = "a"

exit_past_line_start

Default: true

Exits the TUI when scrolling left while the cursor is at the start of the line.

exit_past_line_start = true

accept_past_line_end

Default: true

The right arrow key performs the same functionality as Tab and copies the selected line to the command line to be modified.

accept_past_line_end = true

accept_past_line_start

Default: false

The left arrow key performs the same functionality as Tab and copies the selected line to the command line to be modified.

accept_past_line_start = false

accept_with_backspace

Default: false

The backspace key performs the same functionality as Tab and copies the selected line to the command line to be modified.

accept_with_backspace = false

preview

This section of the client config is specifically for configuring preview-related settings. (In the future the other 2 preview settings will be moved here.)

[preview]
strategy = [...]

strategy

Default: auto

Which preview strategy is used to calculate the preview height. It respects max_preview_height.

By using auto a preview is shown, if the command is longer than the width of the terminal.

strategy = "auto"

tmux

When you're inside tmux, open the search UI in a popup floating above your current pane, instead of drawing over the pane itself. The popup opens in your current working directory, and closes when you accept a command or exit.

[tmux]
enabled = true
width = "80%"
height = "60%"

Atuin falls back to its normal rendering, with no error, whenever the popup can't be used — outside tmux, on tmux older than 3.2, or in a shell that doesn't support it.

These settings are read by atuin init and passed to the shell plugin through environment variables, so restart your shell after changing them. To disable the popup for a single session without touching your config, set ATUIN_TMUX_POPUP=false before Atuin's key bindings run.

enabled

Default: false

Whether to show the search UI in a tmux popup.

enabled = true

width

Default: "80%"

Width of the popup, passed to tmux display-popup -w. Accepts a percentage of the terminal width, or an absolute number of columns.

width = "80%"

height

Default: "60%"

Height of the popup, passed to tmux display-popup -h. Accepts a percentage of the terminal height, or an absolute number of rows.

height = "60%"

Daemon

enabled

Default: false

Enable the background daemon

Add the new section to the bottom of your config file

[daemon]
enabled = true

autostart

Default: false

Automatically start and manage the daemon when needed. This isn't compatible with systemd_socket = true. If a legacy experimental daemon is already running, restart it manually once before using autostart.

autostart = false

sync_frequency

Default: 300

How often the daemon should sync, in seconds

sync_frequency = 300

socket_path

Default:

socket_path = "~/.local/share/atuin/atuin.sock"

Where to bind a Unix socket for client -> daemon communication

If XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is available, Atuin uses this directory instead.

pidfile_path

Default:

pidfile_path = "~/.local/share/atuin/atuin-daemon.pid"

Path to the daemon pidfile used for process coordination.

systemd_socket

Default false

Use a socket passed via systemd socket activation protocol instead of the path

systemd_socket = false

tcp_port

Default: 8889

The port to use for client -> daemon communication. Only used on non-Unix systems.

tcp_port = 8889

logs

Behavior of log files.

[logs]
enabled = true
dir = "~/.atuin/logs"
level = "info"
retention = 4

enabled

Default: true

Whether to enable file-based logging.

enabled = true

dir

Default: "~/.atuin/logs"

The directory in which to store log files.

dir = "~/.atuin/logs"

level

Default: "info"

The logging level to use. Valid values are "trace", "debug", "info", "warn", and "error", in order of highest-to-lowest verbosity.

level = "info"

retention

Default: 4

How many days of log files to keep (per file type). Files older than this will be removed.

retention = 4

ai

A sub-object with specific options for AI logging:

• enabled - whether to output AI logs; defaults to logs.enabled
• file - the filename to use for the AI logs; defaults to "ai.log". Always relative to logs.dir.
• level - override the log level for the AI logs; defaults to logs.level
• retention - how many days to store AI logs; defaults to logs.retention

[logs.ai]
enabled = true
file = "ai.log"
level = "info"
retention = 4

daemon

A sub-object with specific options for daemon logging:

• enabled - whether to output daemon logs; defaults to logs.enabled
• file - the filename to use for the daemon logs; defaults to "daemon.log". Always relative to logs.dir.
• level - override the log level for the daemon logs; defaults to logs.level
• retention - how many days to store daemon logs; defaults to logs.retention

[logs.daemon]
enabled = true
file = "daemon.log"
level = "info"
retention = 4

search

A sub-object with specific options for search logging:

• enabled - whether to output search logs; defaults to logs.enabled
• file - the filename to use for the search logs; defaults to "search.log". Always relative to logs.dir.
• level - override the log level for the search logs; defaults to logs.level
• retention - how many days to store search logs; defaults to logs.retention

[logs.search]
enabled = true
file = "search.log"
level = "info"
retention = 4

theme

The theme to use for showing the terminal interface.

[theme]
name = "default"
debug = false
max_depth = 10

name

Default: "default"

A theme name that must be present as a built-in (unset or default for the default, else autumn or marine), or found in the themes directory, with the suffix .toml. By default this is ~/.config/atuin/themes/ but can be overridden with the ATUIN_THEME_DIR environment variable.

name = "my-theme"

debug

Default: false

Output information about why a theme won't load. Independent from other log levels as it can cause data from the theme file to be printed unfiltered to the terminal.

debug = false

max_depth

Default: 10

Number of levels of "parenthood" that will be traversed for a theme. This shouldn't need to be added in or changed in normal usage.

max_depth = 10

ui

Configure the interactive search UI appearance.

[ui]
columns = ["duration", "time", "command"]

columns

Default: ["duration", "time", "command"]

Columns to display in the interactive search, from left to right. The selection indicator (" > ") is always shown first implicitly.

Each column can be specified as: - A plain string (uses default width): "duration" - An object with type and optional width/expand: { type = "directory", width = 30 }

Available column types

Column options

• type: The column type (required when using object format)
• width: Custom width in characters (optional, uses default if not specified)
• expand: If true, the column fills remaining space. Default is true for command, false for others. Only one column should have expand = true.

Examples

# Minimal - more space for commands
columns = ["duration", "command"]

# With custom directory width
columns = ["duration", { type = "directory", width = 30 }, "command"]

# Show host for multi-machine sync users
columns = ["duration", "time", "host", "command"]

# Show exit codes prominently
columns = ["exit", "duration", "command"]

# Make directory expand instead of command
columns = ["duration", "time", { type = "directory", expand = true }, { type = "command", expand = false }]

syntax_highlight

Default: true

Syntax highlight commands in the search results, parsed with the grammar for the shell that ran them: bash/zsh/sh use the bash grammar, fish uses the fish grammar, and shells without a grammar (nu, xonsh, PowerShell) are shown unhighlighted. The selected row keeps its usual single highlight color.

The default colors are ANSI palette colors, so they automatically match your terminal's color scheme. They can also be customized via the Syntax* keys in a theme.

Not available on platforms where tree-sitter doesn't build (for example, Windows), so commands are shown unhighlighted there.

syntax_highlight = false

ai

The settings for Atuin AI are listed in a separate section.