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Settings Reference

To customize your Podman Desktop experience, modify the settings.json file located in your user configuration directory. You can also adjust these settings, except for internal settings, through the Settings > Preferences page in Podman Desktop.

Configuration File Location​

Your user settings are stored in a JSON file at the following locations:

%USERPROFILE%\.local\share\containers\podman-desktop\configuration\settings.json

User Settings​

SettingTypeDefaultDescription
dockerCompatibility.enabledbooleanfalseEnable Docker compatibility section
editor.integrated.fontSizenumber10Editor font size (6-100 px)
extensions.autoCheckUpdatesbooleantrueAuto-check for extension updates
extensions.autoUpdatebooleantrueAuto-install extension updates
extensions.catalog.enabledbooleantrueShow the extension catalog in the UI
extensions.customExtensions.enabledbooleantrueWhen disabled, the Install custom... button on the Extensions page will not appear.
extensions.ignoreBannerRecommendationsbooleanfalseDisable recommendation banners
extensions.ignoreRecommendationsbooleanfalseDisable extension recommendations
extensions.localExtensions.enabledbooleantrueShow the local extensions tab
feedback.dialogbooleantrueShow periodic feedback reminder for experimental features
kubernetes.Kubeconfigstring"~/.kube/config"Path to kubeconfig file
kubernetes.statesExperimentalobjectnullEXPERIMENTAL: New context monitoring. Example: {}
preferences.appearancestring"system"Theme: "system", "dark", or "light"
preferences.ExitOnClosebooleanPlatformQuit app on close vs minimize to tray
preferences.login.minimizebooleanfalseMinimize on login
preferences.login.startbooleantrueStart on login
preferences.navigationBarLayoutstring"icon + title"Deprecated since 1.29. Navigation style: "icon + title" or "icon". Replaced by preferences.navigationBarWidth.
preferences.navigationBarWidthnumber160Width of the navigation bar in pixels (48–240). Drag the bar edge to resize.
preferences.OpenDevToolsstring"undocked"DevTools position in dev mode
preferences.TrayIconColorstring"default"Tray icon color (requires restart)
preferences.update.reminderstring"startup"Update reminders: "startup" or "never"
preferences.update.appUpdatebooleantrueEnable or disable application updates
preferences.zoomLevelnumber0Zoom level (-3 to 3)
preferences.{extensionId}.engine.autostartbooleantrueAutostart engine on launch (e.g., preferences.podman.engine.autostart)
providers.allowUpdatearray["*"]List of extension IDs permitted to register provider engine updates (e.g., ["podman-desktop.podman"]). Use ["*"] to allow all extensions (default). Use [] to block all updates. This is a hidden setting intended for managed configuration
proxy.enablednumber0Proxy mode: 0=System, 1=Manual, 2=Disabled
proxy.httpstring""HTTP proxy URL
proxy.httpsstring""HTTPS proxy URL
proxy.nostring""No-proxy pattern (comma-separated)
registries.defaultsarray[]Default registries and mirrors for container image pulls. See Managed configuration use cases and containers-registries.conf
statusbarProviders.showProvidersobjectnullEXPERIMENTAL: Show providers in status bar. Example: {"remindAt": 1758312136049, "disabled": false}
tasks.managerobjectnullEXPERIMENTAL: New task manager widget. Example: {}
tasks.statusBarobjectnullEXPERIMENTAL: Show tasks in status bar. Example: {}
tasks.toastbooleanfalseShow task creation notifications
telemetry.enabledbooleantrueSend anonymous usage data to Red Hat. Ignored in a CI environment, see Telemetry in a CI environment
terminal.integrated.fontSizenumber10Terminal font size (6-100 px)
terminal.integrated.lineHeightnumber1Terminal line height (1-4)
titleBar.searchBarobjectnullEXPERIMENTAL: Enable titlebar searchbar. Example: {}
userConfirmation.bulkbooleantrueConfirm bulk actions
userConfirmation.fetchImageFilesbooleantrueConfirm fetching image layers
window.restorePositionbooleantrueRestore window position on restart

Internal Settings​

These settings are automatically managed by Podman Desktop and should not typically be modified manually:

SettingTypeDefaultDescription
exploreFeatures.expandedbooleantrueExplore features expanded state
exploreFeatures.hiddenFeaturesarraynullHidden feature IDs
extensions.developmentExtensionsFoldersarray[]Development extension folders
extensions.registryUrlstring"https://registry.podman-desktop.io/api/extensions.json"Extensions catalog URL
learningCenter.expandedbooleantrueLearning center expanded state
libpodApi.forImageListbooleantrueUse libpod API for images
list.{listKind}arrayDynamicColumn preferences per list type (e.g., list.containers, list.images)
navbar.disabledItemsarray[]Disabled navigation items
preferences.update.disableDifferentialDownloadbooleanPlatformDisable differential download
releaseNotesBanner.showstring"show"Release notes banner state
statusBar.pinnedItemsarray["podman"]Pinned status bar items
telemetry.checkbooleanfalseTelemetry dialog shown
welcome.versionstring"undefined"Welcome page version shown
window.boundsobjectnullWindow position and size. Example: {"x": 2008, "y": 310, "width": 1022, "height": 795}

Telemetry in a CI environment​

Podman Desktop never sends telemetry when it detects that it runs in a CI environment, whatever the value of the telemetry.enabled setting. You therefore do not need to turn telemetry off in your pipelines, for example before running end-to-end tests.

At startup, Podman Desktop looks for the environment variables set by the most common CI providers:

Environment variableSet by
CI, CONTINUOUS_INTEGRATIONMost CI providers, such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or Travis
BUILD_NUMBERJenkins, TeamCity
RUN_IDTaskCluster, dsari
APPVEYOR, BITBUCKET_BUILD_NUMBER, BUILDKITE, CIRCLECIAppVeyor, Bitbucket Pipelines, Buildkite, CircleCI
CODEBUILD_BUILD_ID, DRONE, GITHUB_ACTIONS, GITLAB_CIAWS CodeBuild, Drone, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI
HUDSON_URL, JENKINS_URL, SEMAPHORE, TEAMCITY_VERSION, TF_BUILDHudson, Jenkins, Semaphore, TeamCity, Azure Pipelines
TRAVISTravis CI

A variable set to an empty value, false, or 0 does not flag a CI environment, so that you can run Podman Desktop with telemetry on a machine where such a variable is defined but no build is running.

When a CI environment is detected, Podman Desktop logs a warning:

CI environment detected: telemetry is disabled for this run.

Detecting a CI environment only turns the reporting off for the current run: your settings file is left untouched, and the welcome screen keeps prompting for telemetry as usual.

Example Configuration​

{
  "preferences.appearance": "dark",
  "preferences.zoomLevel": 0,
  "telemetry.enabled": false,
  "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 12,
  "editor.integrated.fontSize": 14,
  "preferences.update.reminder": "never",
  "kubernetes.Kubeconfig": "~/.kube/config",
  "preferences.login.start": true,
  "extensions.autoUpdate": true,
  "userConfirmation.bulk": true,
  "proxy.http": "https://127.0.0.1:8081",
  "statusbarProviders.showProviders": {
    "remindAt": 1758312136049,
    "disabled": false
  },
  "window.bounds": {
    "x": 2008,
    "y": 310,
    "width": 1022,
    "height": 795
  }
}

See Also​