Settings holds the app's behavior knobs, grouped by what they drive. Two rules keep it navigable: every knob explains itself in place, and facts about you live in your Household profile. Settings only mirrors them, read-only, with a pointer.
The persistent section list shows one group at a time, with the current
group highlighted. The selection also doubles as its address (for example
#/settings?section=price-data), so it can be bookmarked, reached with the
back button, or linked to from anywhere that needs to send you here. Moving
between sections does not discard edits you have not saved yet.
The groups
- License (commercial edition): your trial status or who the copy is licensed to, the key field, and a link to where licenses are sold for anyone who doesn't have a key yet. The 30-day clock begins on the first commercial launch. A licensed copy keeps a Replace license key disclosure for an upgrade key, and Remove from this computer confirms before it deactivates. Your data stays put either way. A lapsed trial makes the app read-only, not locked: your portfolio still opens, and every CSV export still works. “Read-only” has the exact boundaries listed below; editing the portfolio or plan and updating its market data are what a license restores. A license also includes 12 months of updates, and this panel names the date yours runs through. Nothing happens to the app when that date passes: your licence stays valid, every version you already have keeps working, and prices and imports carry on exactly as before. What lapses is only your entitlement to newer releases. RangefinderInvest displays the date but does not use it to gate installation, startup, or features. Renewing is optional, never automatic, and picks up where the last window ended rather than from the day you pay. Licences bought before this model existed carry no date at all and cover every version. They show who the copy is licensed to and nothing about updates.
- Updates (commercial edition): whether the app asks rangefinderinvest.com about once a day whether a newer version exists, and a Check now button that works whichever way that toggle is set.
- Price data: the global price source, your Tiingo API key (stored locally, never in the database or its backups), and the one-click TSP fund import. A notice appears here while neither source can download, since that's what makes Update Prices fail.
- Appearance: light or dark, everywhere in the app, the same switch as the ⌘K palette's theme action. It is a preference kept on this computer, not a portfolio fact, so it stays live even after a trial ends.
- Retirement plan defaults: assumed inflation (the today's-dollars deflator) and the horizon age; birth date, filing status, and tax facts mirror the Household profile.
- AI & privacy: off until you turn it on, and the only panel here that can grant anything outside the app. It covers both doors: the master switch and setup config for an AI client you already run, and the backend for the app's own Assistant page: Anthropic's API under a key you provide, or a server you run yourself. Below them sit the three permission rows that govern both, and a log of everything either has done. See AI assistant access and Assistant.
The classic and peer-group Screener score weights are
not here: they moved to the Screener's own Scoring rules drawer, opened
beside the ranked results, so a change can be watched against the ranking it
changes. A bookmarked ?section=classic-score or peer-score address still
lands on it. What you tune there is still stored with the portfolio, not with
this computer.
The default withdrawal strategy, equity drawdown band and reserve floor are
not here either: they moved to the Rebalance Planner page's own Withdraw →
Options drawer, next to the plan they configure. A
bookmarked ?section=withdrawals address still lands there.
The curated comparison tickers and default benchmark are not here either:
they moved into one shared editor, Edit list…, opened from the "vs" menu
on the Overview's Portfolio Value chart and from
Allocation models' Backtest tab's own overlay, curated while
looking at the chart it feeds, and both charts show the same list. A
bookmarked ?section=charts address still lands there.
What read-only means after the trial
The enforcement lives in the desktop app's main process, behind every
renderer call. Disabled controls explain the state, but they are not the
security boundary. Retirement plan defaults closes entirely, because
every knob in it is protected, and the Rebalance Planner page's Withdraw → Options
drawer does the same for Make this my default, the equity drawdown band
and the reserve floor, while the strategy picker beside them stays live
because it writes nothing. Appearance stays live too, since theme is a
preference kept on this computer, not a portfolio write. Price data stays
usable; clearing the Tiingo key and turning Yahoo off are
still allowed, and so is editing the comparison list in its own shared
editor; only registering a symbol Securities & prices has never seen is
protected there. A refused save therefore says so in place, in red, under the
button, rather than leaving the typed value on screen with nothing saved. If license status is still loading or cannot be read,
protected writes stay closed while the portfolio remains visible. A failed
check says License status unavailable, never “trial ended,” and offers
Retry license status in both the persistent strip and this License panel.
If config.json was already malformed or unreadable when the desktop app
opened, the strip names that broader launch problem instead: the conventional
local database stays visible for reading, protected changes stay paused, and
the app shows the exact config path to repair before reopening. It does not
replace the uncertain file, reset the trial, or treat hidden license,
database-location, Assistant-spend, or MCP-token state as empty defaults.
You keep:
- Every view and report over stored data, calculations that do not save a portfolio change, CSV export, and file parse/preview steps.
- Backups and recovery: create, list, delete and restore backups; change backup settings; open or move a database; load/reset a sample; return to your portfolio; or use the confirmed Start fresh privacy erase.
- License activation, replacement and removal; the local terms-acceptance record; automatic-update settings and manual update checks.
- Appearance, accessibility and report-display preferences, including
localStorage-backed theme/accessibility and acknowledgement state, the benchmark/comparison display, concentration threshold, the Screener's scoring weights and peer-score settings, and the onboarding checklist. - An already-configured Assistant's read/compute work. It may draft a model for review, but Save as model remains an edit and is refused.
- Security shutdown: clear an Assistant credential, clear the Tiingo key without changing the selected source, rotate the MCP access token, or turn Yahoo, AI connections, web-address/LAN access and web search off.
You cannot change until activation: Household profile and owner facts, accounts, transactions, opening balances, snapshots, Allocation models and their funds, ticker metadata, ladder plans, imports/undo/reconciliation, saved Retirement plan scenarios, splits or prices. Price/profile/TSP/provider downloads remain off. You also cannot add or replace credentials, change price/Python/Assistant backend setup, or switch an AI/network capability on. Update checking is the one connection toggle that remains available in either direction.
The small local writes behind recovery, privacy erase, derived report caches, Assistant activity/bookkeeping and the named preferences above are deliberate exceptions. There is no general Settings exception and no general deletion exception.
If a number here surprises you, check whether it's a knob or a mirror. Mirrors change in your Household profile, and every mirror says so in its hint.