Manage Claude Code Settings with the Config CLI

Editing settings.json by hand works, but claude config gives you a safer, faster way to manage Claude Code configuration from the terminal — no JSON syntax errors, no hunting for the right file path.

# List all current settings
claude config list

# Read a single value
claude config get model

# Set a value
claude config set model claude-opus-4-5

# Delete a value (reset to default)
claude config delete model

By default, claude config writes to your global user settings. Add --project to scope the change to the current project's .claude/settings.json instead:

# Set a model override just for this project
claude config set --project model claude-haiku-4-5

# Set allowed tools for this project
claude config set --project allowedTools '["Bash","Read","Write","Edit"]'

This is especially useful in scripts or onboarding flows where you want to configure Claude Code programmatically without requiring developers to locate and hand-edit JSON files.

You can also inspect what settings a project has configured separately from global defaults — claude config list --project shows only project-level overrides.

claude config is the safe, scriptable way to manage settings — skip the JSON editor.