System Tray & Settings

Stib can run as a background service with a system tray icon for quick access and control. This page covers the tray features (available with the binary and desktop app) and the user settings to customize your experience.

System Tray

When running the binary or desktop app, Stib displays a system tray icon that provides at-a-glance status and quick actions.

Tray Icon Status

The tray icon changes appearance based on the server state:

Status	Icon	Description
Idle	Monochrome	Server running, no active agents
Active	Blue badge	Shows active agent count and connected clients
Error	Red indicator	Server issue detected, auto-recovery in progress
Stopped	Dimmed	Server process has stopped
Restarting	Dimmed	Server restart in progress

Menu Options

Click the tray icon to access these options:

• Open stib — Opens the web UI in your default browser
• View logs — Opens the real-time logs page in the browser
• Stop all agents — Immediately stops all running agents
• Restart server — Restarts the Stib server process (only visible when the server is stopped)
• Autostart — Checkbox to toggle auto-start on boot (see below)
• Update available — Shown when a new version is detected, displays the available version
• Quit — Gracefully shuts down Stib (asks for confirmation if agents are still running)

Auto-Start on Boot

Stib can automatically start when your system boots. Toggle it via the Autostart checkbox in the tray menu.

Platform	Method	Location
macOS	LaunchAgent plist	~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.stib.server.plist
Linux	systemd user service	~/.config/systemd/user/stib.service
Windows	Registry entry	HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

TIP

On Linux, Stib respects DISPLAY and WAYLAND_DISPLAY environment variables for headless detection. The systemd service is configured with Restart=on-failure and a 5-second restart delay.

Crash Recovery

• Server health is checked every 2 seconds via a dedicated thread
• If a crash is detected, the tray icon switches to the error state
• Automatic recovery is attempted within 30 seconds
• The Restart server button becomes available in the tray menu

INFO

The tray process continues running even if the server crashes, so you can always restart from the menu.

Update Notifications

• Checks for updates 30 seconds after startup, then every 24 hours
• Requires the STIB_UPDATE_URL environment variable to be set
• When a new version is available, an OS notification is displayed (with changelog details if available)
• The tray menu shows an Update available entry with the version number
• Each version is only notified once to avoid repeated alerts

TIP

See Configuration for setting STIB_UPDATE_URL.

User Settings

Stib provides various preferences to customize your experience. Access them from your user menu (avatar icon) in the web interface.

Theme

Mode	Behavior
System	Follows your OS dark/light mode preference
Dark	Always uses the dark theme
Light	Always uses the light theme

High contrast mode is also available:

• Automatically detects your OS high contrast preference
• Can be toggled manually in settings
• When no explicit preference is set, follows the OS setting

INFO

On the desktop app, the native window frame also syncs with your theme choice.

Display Preferences

Setting	Description	Default
Sidebar collapsed	Start with the sidebar minimized	Off
Show agent reasoning	Display Claude's thinking process in conversations	On
Show status line	Show agent status indicators on cards	On
Tool visibility	Hide specific tool types from the conversation view	All visible

Keyboard Shortcuts

All keyboard shortcuts can be customized from Settings:

• Search for shortcuts by name to quickly find bindings
• Record a new key combination by clicking on a shortcut and pressing your desired keys
• Conflict detection warns if a binding is already in use by another shortcut
• Reset all shortcuts to their defaults with one click

TIP

Open the keyboard shortcuts section in Settings to view all available shortcuts and their current bindings.

Settings Sync

• When authenticated, settings are synced to the server per user
• Changes are auto-saved with a small delay (debounced 500ms)
• If the server is unreachable, settings fall back to local browser storage
• On first login, existing local settings are automatically migrated to your account

Next Steps

Next steps

• Learn about Credentials & Scripts for managing API keys, project scripts, and backups
• Review Configuration for server-level environment variables