Config

Configuration File

The hai configuration file is stored in ~/.hai/hai.toml where ~ is your home directory.

Creation

You won't find the configuration file until you've launched hai at least once.

Default AI model

default_ai_model = "gpt-5.1-chat"

The /ai-default command is a REPL-command that updates this key-value.

Default editor

Some commands require an editor, for example, editing an asset. vim is the default editor, but you can change it to anything that takes a file path as argument including emacs, code, kate, and nano:

default_editor = "vim"

Some editors require additional arguments to prevent forking. For example, VSCode is best configured as follows:

default_editor = "code --new-window --disable-workspace-trust --wait"

Default shell

Programs are executed using a shell. By default, the shell is bash except on Windows where it's powershell.

default_shell = "bash"

Check for updates

To disable automatic anonymous version checks when hai is launched, set:

check_for_updates = false

Pro Privacy

By default (check_for_updates = true), this version check is the only outgoing request that hai makes automatically. All other requests occur solely as a result of explicit user actions. You can verify this with the hai/code task.

Tool confirmation

You can require confirmation before executing any tool:

tool_confirm = true

Use this if you're worried about your AI going rogue.

Temperature

By default, temperature is set to 0 across all AIs. That's hacker-friendly because it works uniformly across providers (minus some reasoning AIs) and optimizes for highest likelihood answers rather than whimsical exploration.

To use the default temperature set by AI providers, set:

default_ai_temperature_to_absolute_zero = false

Alternatively, you can use the /temperature command in the REPL.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables are recognized:

Environment variable	Description
OPENAI_API_KEY	API key for OpenAI.
GOOGLE_API_KEY	API key for Google AI.
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY	API key for Anthropic.
DEEPSEEK_API_KEY	API key for DeepSeek.
XAI_API_KEY	API key for xAI.
HAI_NO_PRETTY_IMAGES	Disables high-resolution terminal image protocols (set to any value to enable).
HAI_IMAGE_HEIGHT	Set height of images drawn in terminal with /load (default: 20).