> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.research.prbe.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Settings

> Turn tracking, session capture, agent rules and updates on or off, and set what a new session does by default.

```bash theme={null}
npx probe-research            # → Settings
probe wizard --action settings
```

Five rows in two groups. `Space` toggles, `Enter` applies, `Esc` leaves without changing anything.

The boxes read as the **union across this device's agents**: a row is ticked if this device does that thing at all. Applying a change leaves untouched rows exactly as they were.

## What Probe does here

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="CLI + MCP" icon="terminal">
    *Track runs in your coding agents; search lab history read-only.*

    This is the tracking plugin: the skills that teach your agent the workflow, and the read-only MCP server it searches with. The box answers "is this installed here", which is what toggling it changes.

    <Info>
      A plugin that is installed but signed out is a different problem, and this row will not tell you about it. `probe doctor` owns that diagnosis.
    </Info>
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Session capture to the knowledgebase" icon="message">
    *Sends this device's coding-agent sessions to your team's search.*

    Off stops the upload immediately and unpairs this device's capture credential.

    <Warning>
      A capture credential can resolve from three places: the paired file, your environment, or the Probe config. Turning the row off clears the file — but if `PROBE_INGEST_TOKEN` is exported in your shell, capture can resume at the next session start. The wizard says so when it detects one, because it cannot unset a variable in your parent shell.
    </Warning>
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Rules in your global instructions" icon="file-pen">
    *Prompts your coding agents to search and track research in Probe.*

    A managed block in each selected agent's global instruction file. Everything outside the block is left alone. `probe agent-rules refresh` rewrites the block when it is older than the CLI.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Automatic updates" icon="arrows-rotate">
    *Upgrades the CLI and plugins in the background at session start.*

    Off means you update deliberately, with `npx probe-research` and **Update to the latest version**. `probe doctor` still grades your versions either way.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Defaults

### Probe in new sessions

This row cycles rather than toggles, because its three states are three different disclosures. It sets what [the switch](/agents/overview) starts at when a new coding-agent session opens.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="on">
    Sessions will be tracked through your coding agent.

    Reads and writes. The agent records work as it happens.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="read">
    Write commands are blocked. Searching your team's prior work still works, and so does reporting what it finds.

    The read surface stays live, so the agent keeps its memory of the lab — it just stops adding to it.
  </Tab>

  <Tab title="off">
    No Probe calls at all — a new session will not search your team's prior work either, and cannot tell you what it missed.

    This is the state to choose deliberately, not by accident. An agent with no reads does not know what it is not seeing.
  </Tab>
</Tabs>

A single conversation can always override the default with `/probe on`, `/probe read` or `/probe off`, or from a shell:

```bash theme={null}
probe session state read       # this conversation only
probe session default on       # the device-wide default
probe session status           # what this conversation is doing, and how that was decided
```

## From a script

Every row is a flag, and omitting one preserves what is already configured:

```bash theme={null}
probe wizard --no-capture --yes                    # capture off, everything else untouched
probe wizard --tracking --agent-rules --yes        # ensure both on
probe wizard --no-auto-update --yes                # stop background upgrades
```

See [Unattended use](/wizard/flags).