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Aider Configuration

AiderDesk offers several ways to configure the underlying Aider engine, providing flexibility for advanced users. Configuration is loaded with the following priority (from highest to lowest):

  1. Settings configured in the AiderDesk UI.
  2. Command-line options specified in AiderDesk settings.
  3. Variables in a .env file in your project directory.
  4. Settings in a .aider.conf.yml file in your project directory.
  5. Variables in a .env file in your home directory.
  6. Settings in a .aider.conf.yml file in your home directory.
  7. System environment variables.

Aider Options​

You can pass command-line arguments directly to the Aider process.

  1. Go to Settings > Aider.
  2. In the Options section, enter any valid aider-chat command-line flags (e.g., --no-auto-commits, --map-tokens 8192).

Refer to the official Aider documentation for a complete list of available options.

Environment Variables​

You can set environment variables for the Aider process, which is useful for configuring API keys and other secrets without hardcoding them.

  1. Go to Settings > Aider.
  2. In the Environment Variables section, add your variables in the .env format (e.g., OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key-here).
  3. You can show or hide the content of this field by clicking the "Show Secrets" button.

.aider.conf.yml​

AiderDesk respects the standard .aider.conf.yml file. You can place this file in your project's root directory or your home directory to define project-specific or global settings for Aider.

Example .aider.conf.yml:

model: openai/gpt-4.1
weak-model: openai/gpt-4o-mini
edit-format: diff
auto-commits: false