Nicotine+ stores all configuration in a central config file. Settings can be modified through the GUI preferences window or by editing the config file directly.
Configuration File Location The configuration file location varies by platform:
Linux/Unix
~/.config/nicotine/config (XDG standard)Or legacy location: ~/.nicotine/config
Windows
%APPDATA%\nicotine\config\configTypically: C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\nicotine\config\config
Portable Mode
If a portable folder exists in the application directory: portable/data/config/config
You can specify a custom config file using the --config CLI argument.
Command Line Arguments Override configuration settings from the command line:
# Use custom config file nicotine --config /path/to/config # Use alternative data folder nicotine --user-data /path/to/data # Start hidden in system tray nicotine --hidden # Bind to specific IP (useful for VPN) nicotine --bindip 10.8.0.1 # Listen on specific port nicotine --port 2234 # Rescan shared files nicotine --rescan # Run without GUI (headless mode) nicotine --headless
Use nicotine --help to see all available command line options.
User Interface Settings Display & Theme
Enable dark mode for the application interface: Default: False
Set the interface language (empty string uses system default): [ui] language = "es" # Spanish
Supported: en, de, es, fr, it, pl, ru, sv, and more
Window Behavior
[ui] width = 800 height = 600 xposition = - 1 # -1 = centered yposition = - 1 maximized = True
Show tray icon and start hidden: [ui] trayicon = True startup_hidden = False
[ui] exitdialog = 1 # 0=never, 1=on close, 2=always
Appearance
Configure tab placement for each section: [ui] tabmain = "Top" # Main tabs tabrooms = "Top" # Chat room tabs tabprivate = "Top" # Private chat tabs tabsearch = "Top" # Search tabs
Options: "Top", "Bottom", "Left", "Right"
Customize fonts for different UI elements: [ui] globalfont = "" # Empty = system default chatfont = "Monospace 10" textviewfont = "" searchfont = "" listfont = ""
Customize chat and UI colors: [ui] chatme = "#908E8B" # Your messages chatremote = "" # Remote messages chathilite = "#5288CE" # Highlights urlcolor = "#5288CE" # URL links useronline = "#16BB5C" # Online status useraway = "#C9AE13" # Away status useroffline = "#E04F5E" # Offline status
Server Settings Connection [server] server = [ "server.slsknet.org" , 2242 ] login = "your_username" passw = "your_password" auto_connect_startup = True
The password is stored in plain text in the config file. Ensure appropriate file permissions are set.
Auto-Away [server] autoaway = 15 # Minutes of inactivity before auto-away (0 = disabled) away = False # Current away status
Chat Settings
[server] autoreply = "" # Automatic reply when away
[server] autojoin = [ "nicotine+" , "music" ] # Auto-join rooms private_chatrooms = False # Enable private rooms
User Lists [server] userlist = [] # Buddy list banlist = [] # Banned users ignorelist = [] # Ignored users ipignorelist = {} # Ignored IP addresses ipblocklist = {} # Blocked IP addresses
Logging Settings Chat Logging
Enable Logging
[logging] privatechat = True # Log private messages chatrooms = True # Log chat rooms transfers = False # Log transfers
Log Directories
[logging] privatelogsdir = "$ {NICOTINE_DATA_HOME} /logs/private" roomlogsdir = "$ {NICOTINE_DATA_HOME} /logs/rooms" transferslogsdir = "$ {NICOTINE_DATA_HOME} /logs/transfers"
Configure Timestamps
[logging] rooms_timestamp = " %X " # Time only private_timestamp = " %x %X " # Date and time log_timestamp = " %x %X "
Timestamp formats follow Python’s strftime conventions: %x = date, %X = time
Debug Logging [logging] debug = False # Enable debug output debugmodes = [] # Specific debug categories debug_file_output = False # Write debug to file debuglogsdir = "$ {NICOTINE_DATA_HOME} /logs/debug"
Debug mode significantly increases log verbosity. Only enable when troubleshooting.
Log History [logging] readroomlines = 200 # Lines to read from room logs on startup readprivatelines = 200 # Lines to read from private logs logcollapsed = True # Collapse old logs
Search Settings Search Behavior [searches] maxresults = 300 # Max results per search max_displayed_results = 2500 # Max results to display min_search_chars = 3 # Minimum query length enable_history = True # Save search history private_search_results = False # Allow private results
Search Filters
[searches] enablefilters = False filters_visible = False
[searches] filtercc = [] # Country code filter filterin = [] # Include terms filterout = [] # Exclude terms filtersize = [] # Size range filterbr = [] # Bitrate range filtertype = [] # File type filterlength = [] # Duration range
Display Options [searches] expand_results = "all" # "all", "none", or "user" group_searches = "folder_grouping" # "ungrouped", "folder_grouping", "user_grouping"
Notifications Window Notifications [notifications] notification_window_title = True # Flash window title notification_tab_colors = False # Use tab colors
[notifications] notification_popup_sound = False # Play sound notification_popup_file = True # File completed notification_popup_folder = True # Folder completed notification_popup_private_message = True # Private message notification_popup_chatroom = False # Chat room message notification_popup_chatroom_mention = True # Room mention notification_popup_wish = True # Wishlist match notification_popup_queued_upload = True # Queued upload
Word Processing Auto-Replace
[words] replacewords = False autoreplaced = { "teh " : "the " , "youre" : "you're" , "jsut" : "just" }
Censorship
[words] censorwords = False censored = [ "badword1" , "badword2" ]
Completion [words] tab = True # Tab completion dropdown = False # Show completion dropdown characters = 3 # Min characters for completion roomnames = False # Complete room names buddies = True # Complete buddy names roomusers = True # Complete room user names commands = True # Complete commands
Plugins [plugins] enable = True # Enable plugin system enabled = [] # List of enabled plugins
Plugins extend Nicotine+ functionality. Enable only trusted plugins from the official repository.
Statistics [statistics] since_timestamp = 0 # Stats start time started_downloads = 0 completed_downloads = 0 downloaded_size = 0 # Bytes started_uploads = 0 completed_uploads = 0 uploaded_size = 0 # Bytes
Statistics are automatically tracked and persist across sessions.
Config Backup Create a backup of your configuration:
from pynicotine.config import config config.write_config_backup( "/path/to/backup.tar.bz2" )
Backups are stored as compressed tar archives (.tar.bz2) and include the config file.