Settings & Preferences
The Settings menu holds the workspace preferences: how the map behaves, which panels are visible, runtime environment variables, project settings, and the entry point to Manage Plugins.
Map Preferences
Settings → Map Preferences controls how the map can be navigated:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Restrict map bounds | Limit panning to a bounding box. |
| Bounds | The west, south, east, and north limits of that box. |
| Min zoom / Max zoom | The allowed zoom range (0 to 24). |
| Max pitch | The maximum tilt angle (0 to 85 degrees). |
| Render world copies | Show repeated copies of the world when zoomed out. |
Use Use Current View to set the bounds from where the map is now, or Reset to restore the defaults. These preferences are saved in the project file.
Layout
Settings → Layout toggles the chrome around the map:
- Show toolbar labels: text labels next to toolbar buttons, or icon-only.
- Show project info: the project name and path in the toolbar.
- Show Layers panel, Show Style panel, Show Attribute panel: per-panel visibility.
Panels also auto-hide on small screens for a responsive layout.
Environment Variables
Settings → Environment Variables (the Environment tab in the Settings dialog) holds the share token and the runtime key-value pairs that MappView and its plugins read, such as API keys:
- MappView API token: the personal API token used by Project → Share to upload to the configured MappView Share service. See Projects.
- Environment variables: named key-value pairs (for example, API keys for Earth Engine, Street View, and other integrations). You can enable or disable individual variables, and secret values are masked. Variable names must start with a letter or underscore and contain only letters, numbers, and underscores.
!!! tip “Where credentials go” Provider credentials for integrations like Earth Engine, Street View, Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, or other keyed services belong here. See Data Integrations and Getting Started.
!!! tip “Reading AI keys from your system environment (desktop)”
On the desktop app, the AI Assistant also reads its own allowlisted keys (OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, GEMINI_API_KEY, and the other provider variables) straight from your operating system’s environment variables — so you can keep API keys out of the saved project file entirely. A value entered here always takes precedence over the OS environment. See AI Assistant → Reading keys from your system environment for the full list.
!!! tip “Protomaps basemaps”
To use the Protomaps basemaps in the New map dialog, add an environment variable named VITE_PROTOMAPS_API_KEY with your own Protomaps API key. The Protomaps options appear in the dialog as soon as the key is enabled — no restart needed. When no key is set, the Protomaps section is hidden. See Getting Started for setting the key at build time for a self-hosted deployment.
Project Settings
Settings → Project Settings (the Project tab) holds project-level options saved with the .mappview.json file:
- Project name: the name shown in the toolbar and saved in the project file.
- Project file: the read-only path the project was opened from or last saved to.
- Project format: the read-only project format version.
Manage Plugins
Settings → Manage Plugins opens the plugin marketplace. See Plugins & Marketplace.