Settings
The Settings window and every key in the library's settings.jsonc.
Almost every setting belongs to the open library and lives in its settings.jsonc, so a copied or moved library keeps its choices. The app itself remembers only which library to reopen, your recent libraries, and the last few Ask sentences.
Open Settings with ⌘,. It has three tabs: General, Account and Properties.
General
| Section | Control | Does |
|---|---|---|
| Play options | Consolidate to mono | Every audio channel is heard from both speakers while playing. The file is not changed. |
| iPhone audio | Preferred audio track: Stereo, Spatial, Mono | On a QuickTime file with several audio tracks, the one chosen here plays by default. Set on import and, when changed, across the open library. Only the file header changes. |
| Export options | Consolidate to mono | Exported copies and highlight renders of clips with two or more channels get one merged mono track. The export panel can still choose per export. |
| AI tagging | Tag with AI when importing | The default for the import sheet's toggle. |
| AI tagging | About this library | The opening line of every tagging prompt and of the Ask planner's prompt. Save writes it; Reset to Default clears it. |
| AI tagging | Preview the whole prompt | The prompt as it will be sent, with every AI property and tag filled in. |
The AI tagging section also shows whether this Mac is connected to a BetterApps account.
Account
See Account and credits.
Properties
The property manager. See Properties and tags.
settings.jsonc
The file sits in the library folder. It is JSON with // comments allowed. The app rewrites it whenever a setting changes, keeps keys it does not know, and drops hand-written comments. betterlibrary settings set edits it from the terminal.
| Key | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
libraryDescription | text | a built-in line | What the library is about: the opening of the tagging and Ask prompts. Settings › General, About this library. |
autoTag | true or false | true | Tag imported clips with AI. Both toggles named Tag with AI write it. |
aiConcurrency | 1 to 8 | 4 | How many clips are tagged at once. Out-of-range values are clamped. Only editable in the file or with the tool. |
geminiModel | text | gemini-3.6-flash | The tagging model. |
aiGatewayModel | text | alibaba/qwen3.8-max | The model behind Ask and the schema proposal. |
modelPricing | object | none | Per-model prices in USD per million tokens, {"<model>": {"input": x, "output": y}}, for the library's own call log. It does not change what your account charges. |
playbackMono | true or false | true | Play options › Consolidate to mono. |
exportMono | true or false | true | Export options › Consolidate to mono. |
preferredAudioTrack | stereo, spatial, mono | stereo | iPhone audio › Preferred audio track. |
skimming | true or false | true | Skimming in the clip window, toggled with S. |
importDefaults | object | none | The properties the last import set, to prefill the next import sheet: {"tagIDs": [...], "values": {"<fieldId>": true, "<fieldId>": 3}}. |
readyView, allView, inProgressView, archiveView | object | none | Each shelf's look: layout (grid or table), sort, columns (the table's column state as JSON), wrapped (column ids whose text wraps). Written as you change the shelf; Reset View clears them. |
Keys the app used in earlier versions (browserLayout, tableColumns, libraryView, inboxView) are read once and replaced.