Settings Dialog

The Settings dialog provides a centralized place to configure Bowire's behavior, review keyboard shortcuts, manage stored data, and adjust plugin-specific options.

Opening settings

Click the gear icon in the topbar to open the Settings dialog. Press Esc or click outside the modal to close it.

The dialog has a category sidebar on the left and a settings panel on the right. Select a category to see its options.

General

The General tab controls core UI behavior.

Theme

Choose between three options:

Option Behavior
Auto (follow OS) Matches your operating system's light/dark preference
Dark Always use the dark color scheme
Light Always use the light color scheme

The theme preference is saved in localStorage and applies immediately.

Auto-interpret JSON

When enabled (the default), Bowire parses JSON payloads in WebSocket, MQTT, and SSE responses for pretty-printed display with syntax highlighting. Disable this if you work with non-JSON text protocols and want raw output.

Schema Watch interval

Time to wait after one re-discovery finishes before starting the next. In seconds, minimum 5, maximum 300, default 15; a value outside those bounds is clamped rather than rejected.

It is a gap, not a fixed cadence, and the distinction matters: a discovery fans out over every loaded plugin and takes seconds against a real server (5-8 s is typical). The watch waits for a poll to settle before re-arming, so two discoveries are never in flight at once. Setting 5 s does not mean "every 5 s" -- it means "5 s of quiet between polls".

Schema Watch is useful during active development -- your server's service definitions are polled at this interval, and each poll is compared against the previous one. What moved is shown in the Discover sidebar:

Mark Where Meaning
+ on the method row The method appeared since the last poll.
~ on the method row The name stayed put but the shape moved -- a parameter, a required flag, an HTTP verb or path, a streaming direction. A saved request still opens and still sends, and fails at the far end.
+n −n ~n on the service header Per-service tally, so a change is findable without expanding every group.
summary banner above the tree One line for the whole delta, plus the removals -- a method that is gone has no row left to mark, so this is the only place it appears. Dismiss with the ×.

Prose-only edits (a changed summary or description) are deliberately not reported: descriptions move constantly while a schema is under development, and marking them would train you to ignore the marker.

Shortcuts

The Shortcuts tab shows a read-only keyboard reference for all available shortcuts.

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+Enter Execute request / Send message
? Show/hide shortcuts overlay
Esc Close dialog / Stop streaming / Disconnect
/ Focus command palette
t Toggle theme (Auto / Dark / Light)
f Toggle Form/JSON mode
r Repeat last call
j Next method (sidebar)
k Previous method (sidebar)

This is the same set shown by pressing ? from the main UI, collected here for reference.

Data

The Data tab provides destructive actions for managing Bowire's stored state. Every action prompts for confirmation before proceeding.

Clear call history

Removes all request history entries. This clears the history panel in the sidebar. Call history is stored in localStorage.

Clear favorites

Removes all starred methods. Favorites can be re-added by clicking the star icon next to any method.

Reset all settings

Clears all localStorage data -- history, favorites, environments, collections, flows, theme preference, and plugin settings -- then reloads the page. This is irreversible and returns Bowire to its initial state.

Plugin settings

Protocol plugins can define their own settings by including a settings array in their IBowireProtocol registration. When a plugin provides settings, a new category appears in the Settings sidebar using the plugin's name and icon.

Bowire supports four setting types:

Type Rendered as
bool Toggle switch
number Numeric input
select Dropdown with predefined options
string (default) Text input

Each setting has a key, label, optional description, and optional defaultValue. Values are stored in localStorage under the key bowire_plugin_<pluginId>_<settingKey>.

Example: plugin settings definition

A protocol plugin might expose settings like this:

public IReadOnlyList<PluginSetting> Settings => new[]
{
    new PluginSetting
    {
        Key = "timeout",
        Label = "Request timeout",
        Description = "Maximum seconds to wait for a response",
        Type = "number",
        DefaultValue = 30
    },
    new PluginSetting
    {
        Key = "verboseLogging",
        Label = "Verbose logging",
        Description = "Log raw protocol frames to the console",
        Type = "bool",
        DefaultValue = false
    }
};

These settings appear automatically in the Settings dialog under the plugin's name. Plugin code reads current values at runtime via getPluginSetting(pluginId, key, defaultValue).

About

The About tab displays:

Field Content
Version Current Bowire version
Mode UI mode (standalone, embedded, etc.)
Protocols Comma-separated list of loaded protocol plugins
Services Total number of discovered services
Methods Total number of discovered methods

Links to the GitHub repository and online documentation are provided at the bottom.

Tips

  • The Settings dialog is non-blocking -- you can open it, check a shortcut, and close it without interrupting your current request.
  • Plugin authors: define settings for anything that changes behavior at runtime (timeouts, log levels, display preferences). Avoid settings for things that should be environment variables.
  • Use Reset all when troubleshooting -- it guarantees a clean slate without reinstalling.

See also: Keyboard Shortcuts, Plugin System

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