# Settings and provider setup

Active contributors: Douwe de Vries, vriesd

## Purpose

Settings handle appearance, provider readiness, default provider/model/reasoning choices, global generation prompts, and output templates. Provider auth remains the responsibility of each local CLI.

## Key source files

| File | Purpose |
| --- | --- |
| `frontend/src/views/SettingsView.tsx` | Settings view, provider readiness, appearance, prompt settings. |
| `frontend/src/views/TemplatesView.tsx` | Testware, Finding, and note summary templates. |
| `frontend/src/hooks/useSettingsController.ts` | Settings load/save and provider status orchestration. |
| `frontend/src/settings/defaults.ts` | Frontend defaults. |
| `crates/qa-scribe-core/src/domain/settings.rs` | Settings domain types. |
| `crates/qa-scribe-core/src/services/session_service/settings.rs` | Settings persistence. |
| `src-tauri/src/commands/settings.rs` | Settings Tauri commands. |
| `src-tauri/src/commands/providers.rs` | Provider status commands. |

## How it works

`frontend/src/hooks/useSettingsController.ts` loads saved settings through the Tauri bridge, tracks a draft state, saves changes, and refreshes provider status. The Settings view reads provider descriptors and status values to show ready, auth-required, install-required, or error states.

## Integration points

Settings feed [AI-assisted Testware](features--ai-assisted-testware.md), [Provider detection](systems--provider-detection.md), and [Frontend shell](systems--frontend-shell.md).

## Entry points for modification

Change settings UI in `frontend/src/views/SettingsView.tsx`, persistence shape in `crates/qa-scribe-core/src/domain/settings.rs`, and provider status behavior under `src-tauri/src/commands/providers`.