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Appearance

Appearance and app settings ​

Desktop settings in the dock opens five sections: Desktop, Terminal, Text editor, Files and Hosts. Everything here is stored on your own computer and applies immediately.

Prerequisites ​

None. Settings work without a connection; the Hosts section additionally shows the workspace you are connected to.

Steps ​

Desktop — theme, wallpaper and size ​

  • Theme. Canvas is built in and ships light and dark variants. Choose Light, Dark or Follow system.
  • Install theme file adds a theme from a .json file of up to 32 KB, and Install from GitHub takes an owner/repository and a branch, tag or commit. Themes are data only — colours and styling, with no scripts, network access or host access — and ShellCanvas says so before installing.
  • Wallpaper. Use the theme's landscape, one of the built-in images, or Choose a photo — PNG, JPEG or WebP up to 20 MB and under 80 megapixels, stored on this device. Photo placement offers Fill screen, Fit whole image or Tile.
  • Size & comfort. Interface scale from 80% to 150%, top toolbar height 36–64 px, dock icons 32–64 px.
  • Clock & motion. Time format (system, 12-hour, 24-hour), seconds on or off, and Reduce motion. The clock shows your computer's time, not the server's.

Terminal ​

Text size (11–24 px), cursor shape (Bar, Block, Underline), cursor blinking, and scrollback from 1,000 to 100,000 lines. Changes reach open terminals immediately; reducing scrollback discards older local output while the shells stay connected.

Text editor ​

Text size, what Tab inserts (two spaces, four spaces or a tab), Wrap long lines, and Show line numbers — shown when wrapping is off. Preferences apply to open editors, and drafts are never saved automatically.

Files ​

Show hidden files (on by default, because dotfiles matter on servers), Keep folders first, the default Sort by and order, and Compact rows. These apply to every Files window; each window keeps its own folder and selection. The Drive Bridge section lives here too.

Hosts ​

The current workspace, your saved and imported connections with their source marked Saved or SSH config, and a link into the host manager. Passwords and key passphrases are not saved, and changes to a connection apply the next time you connect.

Restore defaults ​

The footer shows Changes apply immediately · Saved on this device and a Restore defaults button, which asks for confirmation before resetting every preference.

Expected result ​

The desktop matches your taste and your screen, and stays that way across restarts. Nothing here touches the remote machine: these are local preferences, not server configuration.

Limitations ​

  • Per device, not synchronised. Preferences live in this computer's browser storage for ShellCanvas, and wallpapers in a local database. Another machine starts from defaults.
  • Debug and release builds share the same stored preferences on one machine.
  • Themes are data only. They set colours, radii and sizes within fixed ranges; they cannot add layouts, fonts or behaviour.
  • If preferences cannot be read, ShellCanvas keeps working with defaults and tells you; Restore defaults is then the only change it will save.
  • Window layouts are not preferences and are not restored after a restart.

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