The /config command in Claude Code opens your settings, the place where you control how the tool looks and behaves. You can open a full settings screen and click through your options, or you can set a value directly in one line, like changing the color theme or the default model. Think of it as the control panel you reach without ever leaving the conversation you're already in.
What the /config command does
There are two ways to use /config, and you pick based on whether you want to browse or you already know what you want to change.
Type /config on its own and Claude Code opens the Settings interface, a menu you move through to adjust things like the color theme, the default model, the output style, and the editor mode. Or, if you know the exact setting, pass it as a key equals value pair and it changes on the spot, no menu required. For example, /config theme=dark switches you to the dark theme immediately.
Set the dark theme in one line, no menu. Click to copy.
What you can change
The settings screen groups the options that shape your day-to-day experience. These are the ones most people touch:
A few of the settings /config lets you adjust.
Setting a value without the menu
Once you know the name of a setting, you can skip the interface entirely. Just write the command with a key and a value. You can even set more than one at a time.
Not sure what you're allowed to set? Run /config --help and Claude Code lists every settable key along with the options for each one. That's the fastest way to see the full menu of what you can change without guessing.
A real example: turning on Vim mode
Say you're used to Vim keybindings, a way of moving around and editing text that some people prefer, and you want them on in Claude Code. In older versions there was a separate /vim command for this. That command was removed. Now you toggle it through settings instead: run /config, open Editor mode, and switch it to Vim. From then on you edit the way you're used to, without a special command to remember.
/vim command is gone. If a guide tells you to type /vim and nothing happens, that's why. Reach Vim editing through /config and the Editor mode setting.Where your settings live
When you change something with /config, it's saved to a settings file so it sticks between sessions. Claude Code keeps these files at three levels, and they layer on top of each other:
The practical upshot: a personal preference like your theme can live at the user level and follow you everywhere, while a project can carry its own settings that everyone on it picks up. You rarely need to open these files by hand. /config writes to them for you.