Settings
This page lists every Remarc setting with its default, tab by tab. Open Settings from the gear button in the popover footer, or right-click the menu bar icon and choose “Preferences…”.
General
Section titled “General”These settings control startup, selection detection, and how dates appear on comment cards.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Launch at Login | On after onboarding | Remarc registers itself as a login item when onboarding completes. |
| Show in Dock | Off | When off, the Dock icon appears only while the Settings or Permissions windows are open. |
| Detection mode | Auto-detect + Hotkey | “Hotkey Only” disables automatic selection detection; the composer opens only via Ctrl+Option+C. |
| Tooltip position | Above selection | Or “Below selection”. |
| Date format | Short (e.g. “Aug 8”) | Five styles, shown as sample dates in the picker. |
| Time format | 12-hour | Or 24-hour. |
Clipboard
Section titled “Clipboard”Two settings shape what ends up on the clipboard.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Clean up whitespace | On | Normalizes whitespace in the quoted selection text. |
| Add screenshots to clipboard | Off | Also copies the captured image when you save a screenshot comment. |
Retention
Section titled “Retention”Retention settings decide how long Remarc keeps history, images, and resolved comments.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| History retention | 1 day | Options: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month. |
| Image retention | 1 week | Options: 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month. Images are kept longer than history so exported references stay valid. |
| Delete resolved | Never | Options: Never, Immediately, After 15 min, After 1 hour, After 1 day. |
| Auto-delete inactive sessions | Off | When on, a “Delete after” picker appears: After 30 min through After 24 hours, default After 4 hours. The Inbox, the current session, and sessions with unresolved comments are never deleted. |
Shortcuts
Section titled “Shortcuts”Rebind global shortcuts here; Remarc flags conflicts between its own shortcuts as you record them, and a Reset button restores the defaults. The Chrome extension shortcuts also appear here. The one exception is the hands-free dictation binding, which is rebound in Settings > Voice. Full list: keyboard shortcuts.
Transcription engine
Section titled “Transcription engine”The engine settings choose which on-device model transcribes your speech; details are on transcription engines.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | Apple Speech | Options: Apple Speech, WhisperKit, Parakeet. |
| Model (WhisperKit) | Balanced (217 MB) | Options: Fast (75 MB), Balanced (217 MB), Max (954 MB). |
| Model (Parakeet) | Multilingual (~1.2 GB) | Options: English, Multilingual. |
| Keep model in memory | Off | Faster responses, uses roughly 200-500 MB of RAM. Recommended with 16 GB+ RAM. |
| Load model on launch | Off | Appears only when “Keep model in memory” is on. |
Models download in-app with a progress bar and can be deleted later. Remarc falls back to Apple Speech until a download finishes.
Behavior
Section titled “Behavior”These settings control what happens while you record.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sound effects | On | Start and stop sounds for recording. |
| Mute audio while recording | Off | Mutes system audio when recording starts, restores it when you stop. |
| Prefer Mac built-in mic | On | Uses known studio USB mics when present; otherwise prefers the built-in microphone over AirPods and headset mics. |
| Auto-save voice notes | Off | Saves comments created with the voice shortcut automatically. Delay picker: 1s to 5s, default 2s. |
Dictation
Section titled “Dictation”Dictation settings cover the system-wide dictation shortcuts and transcription history.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Enable dictation | On | When off, dictation shortcuts are ignored entirely. |
| Push to talk | Ctrl+Option+D |
A “Use fn key” toggle (off by default) binds it to the fn/globe key instead. |
| Hands-free mode | Single tap | Options: Single tap, Double tap, Custom shortcut. |
| Paste last dictation | Ctrl+Option+L |
Re-pastes the most recent transcription. |
| History retention | 1 week | Options: 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months. |
Export
Section titled “Export”Export settings control how Copy All and file exports format your comments, with a live preview on the right; hover a control to highlight what it changes. See copy and export for how the output is used.
| Setting | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Reference prefix | Blockquote | Options: Blockquote, Re: Prefix, Quoted. |
| Comment prefix | Comment: | Options: Comment:, Note:, Dash, Arrow, None. |
| List style | Numbered | Options: Numbered, Bulleted, None. |
| Comment dividers | Blank Line | Options: Rule, Double, Dotted, Blank Line. |
| Metadata divider | Pipe | Options: Pipe, Dash, Dot, Comma. |
| Include: Type | On | |
| Include: Source app | On | |
| Include: Date | On | |
| Include: Include time | Off | Enabled only when Date is on. |
| Include: Status | Off | |
| Include: Comment ID | On | Agents use these short IDs to resolve comments. |
| Include: MCP hint | On | Adds a line telling agents how to work with the comments. |
| After copying | Always Ask | Options: Always Ask, Always Keep, Always Delete. |
| File export format | Markdown | Or JSON. |
Chrome Extension
Section titled “Chrome Extension”This tab manages the Chrome extension’s connection and capture behavior:
- Connection: live status with the port number (9274). If another app holds the port, a Retry button appears.
- Chrome Shortcuts: Grab Element (
Option+Shift+G) and Select Region (Option+Shift+R), with a Reset to Defaults button. - Captured Metadata: five toggles, all on by default, disabled until the extension has connected once: React components, Computed styles, Accessibility, Layout & structure, Element identity.
MCP Integrations
Section titled “MCP Integrations”MCP (Model Context Protocol) is how agents read and resolve your comments; this tab has one section per harness.
- Claude Code: install the required
remarcplugin and the optional, experimentalremarc-hooksplugin. Each row shows the exact CLI commands it runs, with a copy button. Onceremarc-hooksis installed, three settings appear: “Auto-create session for new conversations” (default on), “Allow comments to wake Claude Code sessions” (experimental, default off), and “When a conversation is cleared” (Delete session, Keep session, or Move unresolved to Inbox; default Keep session). - Codex: an Install button (or Repair, if the plugin is present but unhealthy) plus copyable manual commands.
- Cursor: an “Enable integration” toggle with Skill and MCP server status rows. Turning it off uninstalls.
- Claude Desktop: a ready-made JSON snippet to paste into Claude Desktop’s config.
- Other MCP clients: a generic MCP server JSON snippet and the full skill content, for any JSON-config MCP client.
Webhooks
Section titled “Webhooks”This tab holds the webhooks that send comment events as HTTP POST requests to any endpoint. Each webhook has a name, URL, event checkboxes, an optional signing secret, an optional custom payload template, a test button, and an enable toggle.
Excluded Apps
Section titled “Excluded Apps”Remarc never shows the Comment tooltip in the apps listed here. Add apps with the + button (an open panel starting in /Applications), remove them with -. The list is empty by default.
The About tab shows the app version and build number, the total count of remarks you have created, a “Check for Updates…” button, and links to the Website, Documentation, and GitHub.