ADR-0085: Agent configuration lives in Preferences

• Status: Accepted
• Date: 2026-09-09
• Deciders: jka
• Decision: D85

Context

As the agent grew, the Settings menu gathered a column of agent items: the provider picker, an API key cascade, Agent Prompts…, Allowed commands…, and two toggles. The Preferences Agent page already carried all of them.

Decision

The top-level menu holds fast runtime switches; the Preferences window holds configuration.

• Settings menu keeps: Agent Provider ("which model am I talking to right now"), and the quick toggles for auto-accept and compare-complex-edits (later the Agent Mode cascade of ADR-0102).
• Preferences ▸ Agent only: API keys, Agent Prompts…, Allowed commands….

Nothing was reimplemented; the same dialogs are no longer reachable from the menu. User-facing messages that named the old location, including provider error messages, were updated.

Consequences

• Configuration has one home that can grow (scope selectors, key fields) without crowding the menubar, and the menu and window cannot drift apart for these items.
• The general rule applies beyond the agent: a menubar entry must be a quick, low-ceremony switch.