slopus/happy · warning

⚠️ Warning: --settings is used internally by Happy for sess

Error message

⚠️  Warning: --settings is used internally by Happy for session tracking.

What it means

happy intercepts the `--settings` flag because it uses it internally for session hooks/tracking. When a user passes --settings (normally a Claude Code flag), happy warns that the flag is consumed and not forwarded to Claude. This first line is the headline of that multi-line warning.

Source

Thrown at packages/happy-cli/src/index.ts:683

          const eqIndex = envArg.indexOf('=')
          const key = envArg.substring(0, eqIndex)
          const value = envArg.substring(eqIndex + 1)
          options.claudeEnvVars = options.claudeEnvVars || {}
          options.claudeEnvVars[key] = value
        } else {
          console.error(chalk.red(`Invalid --claude-env format: ${envArg}. Expected KEY=VALUE`))
          process.exit(1)
        }
      } else if (arg === '--chrome') {
        chromeOverride = true
        // We'll add --chrome to claudeArgs after resolving settings default
      } else if (arg === '--no-chrome') {
        chromeOverride = false
        // Happy-specific flag to disable chrome even if default is on
      } else if (arg === '--settings') {
        // Intercept --settings flag - Happy uses this internally for session hooks
        const settingsValue = args[++i] // consume the value
        console.warn(chalk.yellow(`⚠️  Warning: --settings is used internally by Happy for session tracking.`))
        console.warn(chalk.yellow(`   Your settings file "${settingsValue}" will be ignored.`))
        console.warn(chalk.yellow(`   To configure Claude, edit ~/.claude/settings.json instead.`))
        // Don't pass through to claudeArgs
      } else {
        // Pass unknown arguments through to claude
        unknownArgs.push(arg)
        // Check if this arg expects a value (simplified check for common patterns)
        if (i + 1 < args.length && !args[i + 1].startsWith('-')) {
          unknownArgs.push(args[++i])
        }
      }
    }

    // Add unknown args to claudeArgs
    if (unknownArgs.length > 0) {
      options.claudeArgs = [...(options.claudeArgs || []), ...unknownArgs]
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to b824cd0a46)

Solutions

1. Remove --settings from the invocation; edit ~/.claude/settings.json directly instead.
2. If you need per-invocation Claude settings, use environment variables or a wrapper that invokes the real claude CLI outside happy.
3. Ignore the warning if you weren't intentionally passing --settings — behavior is otherwise unaffected.

Example fix

// before
happy claude --settings ./my-claude-settings.json -p "do it"
// after
# move contents of my-claude-settings.json into ~/.claude/settings.json
happy claude -p "do it"

// before launching via happy, check args for intercepted flags
const intercepted = ['--settings'];
const bad = process.argv.filter(a => intercepted.includes(a));
if (bad.length) console.warn(`happy intercepts ${bad.join(' ')} — it will not reach Claude.`);

When it happens

Trigger: Running `happy claude ... --settings <file>` (or any happy launch command that parses claude args) — the flag is matched in the arg loop and never added to claudeArgs.

Common situations: Users copying a Claude Code invocation containing --settings into happy, or scripts that pass Claude settings overrides expecting them to reach the Claude CLI.

Related errors

• Your settings file "${settingsValue}" will be ignored.
• To configure Claude, edit ~/.claude/settings.json instead
• No machine ID found in settings
• No machine ID found in settings
• No machine ID found in settings

AI-assisted analysis of slopus/happy@b824cd0a46 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/872e8c8f6b4fa857. Report an issue: GitHub.