Settings

Settings decide what a review uses when you do not name a reviewer, model or effort. You can keep them in two files, or change them on the dashboard’s Settings page, which writes the same files.

Where settings live

File	Applies to
~/.cross-review/config.json	Every workspace (global)
<workspace>/.cross-review/config.json	One workspace; git ignores it with the rest of .cross-review/

Both files are optional. A missing file means no settings at that level.

Keys

Key	Type	Where	Default	What it does
reviewer	name of a reviewer	global, workspace	codex	Which reviewer CLI runs the review. Codex is the only one today.
model	model name	global, workspace, per skill	the reviewer’s own model	The model the reviewer uses. Model names contain no spaces.
effort	lowercase word, such as high	global, workspace, per skill	high	How much effort the reviewer spends. Use a level the model supports.
open_dashboard	true or false	global, workspace	false	When on, each new review opens in the dashboard in your browser. See Dashboard.
open_plans	true or false	global, workspace	false	When on, each plan that loop-plan finishes opens on its Plan tab. See Plans.
track_plans	true or false	global, workspace	false	When on, plans can be committed to git. See Plans.
check_updates	true or false	global only	false	When on, the dashboard checks npm for a newer version at start. See Dashboard.
skills	object	global, workspace	none	Model and effort for one skill. Keys are the skill names review-plan, review-impl, review-think and review-pr; each takes model, effort, or both.

Example workspace file that uses a lighter effort for review-impl only:

{
  "open_dashboard": true,
  "skills": {
    "review-impl": { "effort": "medium" }
  }
}

Unknown keys and wrong values are errors. See Troubleshooting for what that looks like.

Which value wins

Each key is resolved on its own. The first match wins:

1. The model or effort you name when you ask for a review, such as “use gpt-5-codex for this review”.
2. The workspace’s value for this skill (skills in the workspace file).
3. The workspace’s value.
4. The global value for this skill.
5. The global value.
6. The default.

The plan settings open_dashboard, open_plans and track_plans do not use the review order. A workspace value wins over the global one, and when neither sets it, the default is false.

Tip

Name a model or effort only when you want to override the settings for one review. Otherwise the skill uses the resolved value above.

Models and effort

• The model list on the dashboard comes from the reviewer CLI. With Codex it is codex debug models.
• The dashboard saves the last list in ~/.cross-review/models.json, so the list is available at once. refresh list asks the reviewer again. A failed refresh keeps the saved list.
• The effort choices depend on the model. Only the levels the model supports are offered.

Edit the files by hand

The files are plain JSON. Use the dashboard or edit them in a text editor, and keep to the keys above.

Dashboard

Open Settings, choose Global or a workspace, and change a field. The change is saved immediately. The page shows the value each skill gets and where it comes from.

Text editor

Edit ~/.cross-review/config.json or <workspace>/.cross-review/config.json. Save the file. The next review reads it. A file that is not valid JSON, or has a wrong key or value, stops begin with CONFIG_INVALID before any session is created.

When you change the file on the dashboard, a broken file for that level is replaced by the saved one.