User preferences are personal settings that follow you across all workspaces. They are managed in the Account section of the settings modal.
Profile
Your profile information is displayed to other workspace members in comments, task assignments, and the members list.
Name
Your first name is shown alongside your avatar throughout the UI. Update it in Settings → Account → Profile. Your name auto-saves when you click away from the field.
Email
Your email address is pulled from your GitHub account and is read-only. It is used for notifications and account recovery.
GitHub Username
Your GitHub username is set during sign-up via GitHub OAuth and cannot be changed within Whim. It is used for git operations and @mention notifications.
Avatar
Upload a custom profile photo by hovering over your avatar in the profile settings and clicking Upload photo. Whim includes a built-in image cropper so you can adjust the framing before saving.
- Supported formats: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF
- Maximum file size: 5 MB
- Images are cropped to a circle
If no custom avatar is uploaded, Whim displays your GitHub profile photo.
Theme
Whim supports light and dark themes. Toggle between them using the theme switcher in the app. Your preference is saved locally in your browser and persists across sessions.
- Light — a warm, light background optimized for well-lit environments
- Dark — a dark background that reduces eye strain in low-light settings
If no preference has been set, Whim defaults to dark mode.
Notifications
Browser notifications keep you informed when you’re not actively looking at Whim. Configure them in Settings → Account → Notifications.
Enabling Notifications
Before individual notification types can work, you need to:
- Grant browser permission — click Enable Notifications in the settings panel. Your browser will prompt you to allow notifications from Whim.
- Turn on the master toggle — the “Enable all notifications” switch must be on.
If you previously blocked notifications for Whim, you’ll need to unblock them in your browser’s site settings (click the lock icon in the address bar).
Notification Types
Once notifications are enabled, you can toggle each type independently:
| Notification | Description |
|---|
| Claude waiting for input | Fires when the AI agent finishes and is waiting for your response |
| Comments on my tasks | Fires when someone comments on a task you created |
| When I’m @mentioned | Fires when someone mentions you with @username |
| Reactions to my comments | Fires when someone reacts to one of your comments |
Notifications only appear when you’re not actively viewing the relevant task. If you have the task open, you won’t receive a duplicate notification.
Default AI Provider and Model
Your default AI provider and model are used when creating new tasks. These settings live in Settings → Configuration → Providers under the User Defaults tab.
AI Provider
Choose which coding runtime powers your tasks:
| Provider | Description |
|---|
| Claude | Anthropic’s Claude Code CLI |
| Codex | OpenAI’s Codex CLI |
| CCR | Claude models via OpenRouter |
Default Model
Select a default model for each provider. When you create a new task, this model is pre-selected. You can always override the model on a per-task basis.
Permission Mode
Set your preferred permission mode for each provider. This controls how aggressively the AI agent acts without asking for confirmation. See Workspace Configuration for the full list of options.
Layout Preferences
Whim remembers your panel layout across sessions:
| Preference | Description |
|---|
| Left panel | The task list sidebar. Toggle visibility to maximize your terminal view. |
| Right panel | The detail/conversation panel. Toggle to focus on the terminal or the conversation. |
User-Level Environment Variables
In addition to workspace environment variables, you can define personal environment variables that apply to every workspace you belong to. These are configured in Settings → Configuration → Configurations under the User Defaults tab.
Common use cases:
- Personal API keys that you use across multiple projects
- Tool configuration (e.g.,
EDITOR=vim)
- Feature flags for your personal workflow
User-level env vars are merged with workspace-level env vars. If the same key exists at both levels, the source order setting determines which value takes priority. See Workspace Configuration for details on merge behavior.
Environment variables containing secrets (API keys, tokens, passwords) are automatically masked in the UI, but they are available in plaintext inside task containers. Do not share workspace access with untrusted users if your env vars contain sensitive credentials.
