Defaults
Set the starting behavior for workspaces, agents, scripts, and review.
Defaults reduce repeated setup across repositories and chats. Proliferate keeps two kinds: agent launch defaults (personal, apply everywhere) and per-repo defaults (apply to that repository's workspaces, cloud and local tracked separately).
Agent launch defaults
Settings → Agents → Defaults sets what a new chat starts with:
| Default | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Default agent | Which installed agent (Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, Grok, ...) new chats launch with. |
| Default model per agent | Which model each agent starts a new chat on. |
| Launch controls | Per-agent defaults for permissions mode, reasoning, reasoning effort, and fast mode, where the agent supports them. |
| Model visibility | Which models from an agent's catalog show up in the composer's model picker at all. |
Screenshot: Settings > Agents > Defaults
The Defaults page under the Agents scope, showing the default-agent picker and a per-agent defaults section with model and launch-control pickers.
Changing a default only affects chats you start afterward. A chat that is already running keeps the agent, model, and mode it was launched with.
Per-repository defaults
Settings → Repo picks one repository and lets you set defaults for it. Configure and Actions each split into a Cloud and a Local view, because a repo's cloud workspaces and local worktrees can run different setup.
| Page | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Configure | Default branch new workspaces and pull requests are based on. Local defaults to auto-detecting the repo's current branch; you can pin an explicit one instead. |
| Actions | The setup script that runs when a workspace is created, and the run command used by the workspace's Run action. |
| Environment | Env vars and files synced into this repo's cloud workspaces. See Secrets. |
Screenshot: Settings > Repo > Actions (Local)
The Actions page for a repository's Local context, showing the setup-script editor with detected setup-command suggestions and the run-command field.
Local setup scripts run inside the new worktree with PROLIFERATE_WORKTREE_DIR,
PROLIFERATE_REPO_DIR, PROLIFERATE_BRANCH, and PROLIFERATE_BASE_REF
available as variables. Proliferate detects common build tools and ignored
secret files in the repo and offers them as one-click additions to the setup
script.
Related preferences
Settings → User → General has one more default that applies at workspace-creation time: whether ⌘N starts a new worktree or opens the repo locally. See Preferences.
Defaults are not policy. An org admin can restrict which agents and authentication routes members may use at all; see Allowed harnesses.