KEWRC(5) File Formats Manual KEWRC(5)

kewrc - configuration file for kew

~/.config/kew/kewrc (Linux/FreeBSD/Android), ~/Library/Preferences/kew/kewrc (macOS)

kewrc is the configuration file for kew(1), a terminal music player. It is written in INI-style syntax, divided into named sections enclosed in square brackets, each containing key=value pairs. Lines beginning with # are comments.

kew does not write to this file except when the path command is run. Runtime changes made from within the application are instead tracked in kewstaterc(5), whose settings take precedence over the corresponding values in kewrc.

If kewrc is deleted, kew regenerates it on next launch with all available settings and their defaults.

Settings in the [miscellaneous] section.

Path to the music library directory. Default: ~/Music.
Enable the artist database, which provides clickable artist links in track view. Default: 1.
Enable desktop notifications. Default: 1.
Remove leading track numbers from file names as displayed in the library and playlist views. Default: 1.
Hide the kew logo. Default: 0.
Hide the help line. Default: 0.
Hide the footer. Default: 0.
Hide the track time line from track view. Default: 0.
Toggle display of kHz and bitrate alongside the time status. Default: 1.
Hide the cover art shown on the left-hand side when a song is playing, in most views. Default: 0.
Show only top-level folders in the library view. Default: 0.
Resume the last playing song automatically when kew starts. Default: 0.
Enable the animated (scrolling) song title. Set to 0 to disable. Default: 1.
Exit kew after the whole playlist has finished playing. Equivalent to the --quitonstop command-line flag. Default: 0.
Whether clearing the playlist also removes the currently playing song. Default: 1.
Hide the glimmering text effect on the bottom row. Default: 0.
Which ReplayGain value to check first.
0
track
1
album
2
disabled
3
auto
Default: 3.
Persist the repeat and shuffle state between sessions. Default: 0.
Repeat mode.
0
off
1
repeat track
2
repeat list
Default: 0.
Enable shuffle playback. Default: 0.
Set the terminal window title to the title of the currently playing track. Default: 1.

Settings in the [colors] section.

Name of the theme file to load, located in ~/.config/kew/themes (Linux/FreeBSD/Android) or ~/Library/Preferences/kew/themes (macOS). Empty selects the default theme.
Selects the source of the color palette.
0
16-bit color palette from the default theme
1
colors derived from the One Album Color theme
2
colors derived from the TrueColor theme
3
colors derived from the Album Colors theme
4
neutral, devoid of color
Default: 3.

Settings in the [crossfade] section.

Crossfade at the end of every song. Default: 0.
Fade in a song starting at this track time, in milliseconds. Default: 0.
Duration, in milliseconds, of a quick fade. Default: 3000.
Duration, in milliseconds, of a medium fade. Default: 5000.
Duration, in milliseconds, of a slow fade. Default: 10000.

Settings in the [track cover] section.

Enable rendering of cover art. Default: 1.
Render covers using ASCII/ANSI art mode. Default: 0.
Cover art render style. One of auto, kitty, sixels, block, braille, ascii, dot, vhalf, or quad. Default: auto.

Settings in the [mouse] section.

Enable mouse support. Default: 1.

Settings in the [discord] section.

Show now-playing status via Discord Rich Presence. Note that enabling this reveals your listening habits to Discord. Default: 0.

Settings in the [chroma] section.

Path to custom Chroma presets.
Name of the audio device that Chroma should use, for example Pipewire Server.

Settings in the [visualizer] section.

Visualizer color mode.
0
lighten
1
flat
2
reversed lighten
3
party
4
vibrant
5
lum vibrant
6
binning
7
two color gradient
8
off
Default: 3.
Height of the visualizer, in rows. Default: 6.
Render the visualizer using Braille dots instead of bars. Default: 0.
Bar width mode.
0
thin bars
1
bars twice the width
2
auto (depends on window size)
Default: 2.

Settings in the [progress bar] section, controlling the appearance of the track progress bar. Each character setting takes a single glyph (which may be an empty space); even/odd variants let the bar alternate between two glyphs across its length. When editing, always supply every value, including any that are blank spaces, or the bar's appearance will be corrupted.

Glyph for even-indexed positions already elapsed. Default: −(U+2501).
Glyph for odd-indexed positions already elapsed. Default: −(U+2501).
Glyph for even-indexed positions not yet reached. Default: −(U+2501).
Glyph for odd-indexed positions not yet reached. Default: −(U+2501).
Glyph for the current position when on an even index. Default: −(U+2501).
Glyph for the current position when on an odd index. Default: −(U+2501).

Commented-out presets are provided in the generated file as examples, including a "pill muncher" style (using • (ᗧ) glyphs) and a dotted style using □ characters; uncomment and adapt a full set of six values to switch styles.

The [key bindings] section holds custom key binding assignments.

Note: Ctrl+h , Ctrl+i , and Ctrl+m are indistinguishable from Backspace, Tab, and Enter respectively at the terminal level, and cannot be bound separately from them.

~/.config/kew/kewrc
Configuration file on Linux, FreeBSD, and Android.
~/Library/Preferences/kew/kewrc
Configuration file on macOS.
~/.config/kew/themes
~/Library/Preferences/kew/themes
Directories where theme files are looked up.

kew(1), kewstaterc(5)

2026-09-24 kew