Appearance

General Settings ​

The General settings tab controls your workspace, default editor mode, and AI response length.

Workspace Directory ​

A workspace is a folder on your computer that contains your content project. It can hold chapters, character sheets, style guides, world-building notes -- whatever your project needs.

margin comes with a sample-workspace that has example files to help you get started. To use your own:

  1. Type the absolute path to your folder (e.g., /Users/name/my-project on macOS, C:\Users\name\my-project on Windows), or
  2. Click Browse... to pick a folder using your system's file picker, then
  3. Click Link Path.

To reset to the default sample workspace, click Reset to default fallback workspace.

Your workspace path is stored in your platform's config directory (~/.config/slm-writing-engine/settings.json on Linux, ~/Library/Application Support/slm-writing-engine/settings.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\slm-writing-engine\settings.json on Windows) and never sent anywhere.

Default Mode ​

Choose which AI assist mode opens by default:

  • Edit Document: Highlight text in the editor, describe the change you want, and the AI rewrites it inline.
  • Conversational Chat: Ask questions, brainstorm ideas, or have back-and-forth conversations about your content. The AI can see your cursor position and any selected text.

You can switch between modes at any time while using the AI assistant.

Default Verbosity ​

Controls how much text the AI generates per response:

  • No Limit: Let the AI decide.
  • Concise: Short responses (~250 tokens).
  • Balanced: Moderate responses (~500 tokens).
  • Expansive: Detailed responses (~1000 tokens).

The default is Balanced, which works well for most situations.

Higher verbosity settings consume more tokens. If you're using a smaller local model or have a limited context window, stick with Concise or Balanced.