Default settings

Default settings are used when you start a debate without specifying all agents or all options. They can be partial: you can define only the number of turns, only the summary, or a complete agent pair.

Set default agents

palabre config --set-defaults codex claude

After this command:

palabre -s "Critique this plan"

uses codex as agent A and claude as agent B.

Set the default summary

palabre config --summary-agent claude

If no summary agent is defined, Palabre uses agent B. To remove this setting without deleting the other default settings:

palabre config --summary-agent none

Set default Ask agents

palabre config --ask-agents codex claude opencode

Ask mode accepts 1 to 4 agents. Without this setting, Palabre uses the default debate pair.

To choose a summary agent specific to Ask mode:

palabre config --ask-summary-agent opencode

This setting is separate from --summary-agent, so debate and Ask can use different summary agents.

Set the default mode

palabre config --mode ask

Accepted values are debate and ask. In the TUI, you can also switch mode with /ask or /debat.

Set the number of turns

palabre config -t 4

turns is the total number of debate turns. Palabre accepts a value between 1 and 20.

Set the language

palabre config --language en

The configured language controls the Palabre interface and the prompts sent to agents. You can override it for one command with --language <fr|en>, --lang <fr|en>, or the PALABRE_LANGUAGE environment variable.

In the TUI, open /config, then use:

/language fr
/language en

The /lang fr alias is also accepted.

Set the default interface

palabre config --interface tui

tui is the recommended behavior when using Palabre in an interactive terminal. To use raw terminal rendering by default:

palabre config --interface terminal

Clear default settings

palabre config --clear-defaults

After that, use a preset or explicit agents:

palabre codex-claude "Subject" -t 4
palabre run --subject "Subject" --agent-a codex --agent-b claude