Configuration

unsent has no config file. It reads a few environment variables, and unsent setup writes one marked block to your shell's rc file. unsent status prints what the current shell has: whether saving is on, and for each agent whether a sent message is logged and which variable decided it.

Environment variables

Variable	Unset means	What it does
UNSENT_OFF	unsent saves as usual	Any value but 0 runs every agent directly, as if unsent were not there. The way out when an agent update confuses it, with no file to edit. command claude does the same for one run.
UNSENT_NOTICE	notices on	0 turns off the draft notices and the line under the box, for sessions nobody watches. Drafts still go back into their conversation's box, the line saying drafts are not being saved still shows, and the Claude Code hook stays on.
UNSENT_AGENT	the agent is read from the command's name	Names the agent for a command whose name doesn't say it, such as npx or a renamed binary: UNSENT_AGENT=claude unsent npx @anthropic-ai/claude-code. The same as --as. Put it in front of one command; exported, every wrapped command unsent doesn't recognize is read as that agent.
UNSENT_ON_SEND	agents: log; zsh: delete	log keeps what you send in the sent log; delete keeps nothing. Set to log, it logs the zsh lines you run too.
UNSENT_ON_SEND_CLAUDE, UNSENT_ON_SEND_CODEX, UNSENT_ON_SEND_PI, UNSENT_ON_SEND_AGY, UNSENT_ON_SEND_ZSH	UNSENT_ON_SEND decides	The same for one agent or for zsh, and it wins over UNSENT_ON_SEND. UNSENT_ON_SEND_ZSH=log keeps the zsh lines you run.
UNSENT_HOME	$XDG_STATE_HOME/unsent	The folder that holds drafts, history and sent logs.
XDG_STATE_HOME	~/.local/state	Read when UNSENT_HOME is unset. Where your drafts live says what is inside.
UNSENT_DEBUG_DIR	nothing logged	Logs every key, all output and each save's view into that folder, for any session. The files are 0600 and hold everything you type: check them before you share them. See Development.

The UNSENT_ON_SEND variables take log or delete, in any case; any other value counts as unset.

Read from the agents

unsent finds which conversation a draft belongs to in the agents' own folders, and follows the variables that move them:

Variable	Unset means	What unsent reads there
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR	~/.claude	Claude Code's sessions/<pid>.json, which names the open conversation. unsent hook claude prints the hooks for settings.json in the same folder. unsent context, unsent import claude and the Stop hook also read the transcripts in projects/<slug>/<session>.jsonl and the prompt history in history.jsonl, for context; nothing else does.
CODEX_HOME	~/.codex	The lock files in thread-writer-locks/ that a running Codex holds open.

Your shell's rc file

unsent setup adds one marked block to ~/.zshrc ($ZDOTDIR/.zshrc when ZDOTDIR is set) or ~/.bashrc, picked from $SHELL, or the one you name (unsent setup bash). The block turns claude, codex, pi and agy into shell functions that run through unsent, and in zsh it saves the command line too. unsent setup --undo removes the block and nothing else. If you keep your .zshrc by hand, add eval "$(unsent init zsh)" to it instead. Using unsent covers what setup leaves alone and what bypasses it.