TUI Configuration

vaste-tui keeps its settings, indexes, and logs in its own configuration folder, separate from the desktop app’s data folder. You change its settings by editing a text file.

The configuration folder

System	Folder
Windows	%APPDATA%\vaste
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/vaste
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/vaste, or ~/.config/vaste if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set

The folder holds:

Path	What it holds
tui-settings.toml	The settings
indexes/	The line indexes of the files you open, and decompressed/ for decompressed copies. See The index folder.
file-meta/	One file per opened file, with the encoding you chose
logs/	The log files

Settings

The settings file is tui-settings.toml in the configuration folder. vaste-tui creates it the first time you quit. A file with every default looks like this:

tui-settings.toml

version = 1
tab_size = 4
auto_reload = true
log_levels = true
decompressed_cache_max_gb = 10
hex_bytes_per_row = 16

Setting	Values	Default	What it changes
auto_reload	true, false	true	Reload the file automatically when another program changes it. When false, the footer asks you to press r.
log_levels	true, false	true	Tint lines by log level in Text view. L changes it.
hex_bytes_per_row	8, 16, 32	16	Bytes per row in Hex view. w changes it.
decompressed_cache_max_gb	1 to 1000	10	The most space, in GB, that decompressed copies may use. See Decompressed copies.
index_dir	A folder path	Not set	Where to keep indexes. See The index folder.
tab_size	1 to 8	4	Has no effect.
version	A number	1	Written by vaste-tui. Leave it as it is.

vaste-tui corrects a value out of range: hex_bytes_per_row returns to 16, and the number settings move to the nearest allowed value.

When the file is saved

vaste-tui reads the settings when it starts and writes them all back when you quit with q or Ctrl + C. Only L and w change a setting while it runs. To change the other settings, quit vaste-tui, edit the file, and start it again: changes you make while it runs are overwritten when it quits.

Caution

If vaste-tui cannot read the file, for example because of a typing mistake in it, it uses the default settings without a message, and overwrites the file with the defaults when you quit. Keep a copy before you edit the file, and check your changes the next time you start vaste-tui.

The index folder

vaste-tui saves the line index of each file it opens, so the next time it opens the file at once. It chooses the index folder in this order:

1. The --index-dir option on the command line.
2. The index_dir setting.
3. The indexes/ folder in the configuration folder.

Set index_dir to a full folder path. An empty value makes vaste-tui keep its indexes in the folder you start it from.

To share indexes with the desktop app, point index_dir at the desktop app’s indexes/ folder. See Data and cache locations. When vaste-tui builds an index again, for example after the file changes, the index loses the desktop app’s data quality results and timestamp information for that file. In the desktop app, analyze the table again; it reads the timestamps again by itself.

Decompressed copies

When you open a compressed file, vaste-tui keeps the decompressed copy in decompressed/ inside the index folder, and reuses it the next time. Each time vaste-tui starts, it deletes unfinished copies, then copies made more than 30 days ago, then the oldest copies until the total fits decompressed_cache_max_gb.

Per-file data

vaste-tui saves the encoding you choose for a file in file-meta/, and uses it the next time you open the file. These files are separate from the desktop app’s per-file data, so an encoding chosen in one app does not apply in the other. Marks are not saved. CSV options passed on the command line are not saved either.

Logs

vaste-tui writes a log to the logs/ folder, one file per day named vaste-tui.log. followed by the date, for example vaste-tui.log.2026-10-04. Old log files are not deleted.

The default log level is info, and vaste-tui writes few messages at that level, mostly warnings. To record more, set the RUST_LOG environment variable before you start vaste-tui:

RUST_LOG=debug vaste-tui app.log

If vaste-tui stops on an internal error, it restores the terminal and prints the error. The error is not written to the log.

Next steps

• Terminal UI: build, run, and the command-line options
• Data and cache locations: the desktop app’s folders