---
title: Lite mode (optimize Omniscio for a less powerful computer)
---

# Lite mode (optimize Omniscio for a less powerful computer)

## What it is

**Settings → Performance → Lite mode.** A single switch that makes Omniscio lighter on
low-spec ("less powerful") machines by flipping a curated bundle of **existing,
individually-tested Performance settings** at once. It adds no new performance
engine — it is a one-click shortcut over knobs that were already there but
scattered across ~20 separate toggles a non-technical user would never find and
set by hand. **Off by default.** Fully reversible: turning it off restores the
exact settings you had before.

Engineering invariants + the tests that lock them:
`lite-mode-preset-contract.md`.

## Where to find it

**Settings → Performance → Lite mode**. It also offers itself to you: on a machine it judges low-spec, an offer card explains what it would change before you accept. Turning it back off restores exactly the settings you had before, so it is never a one-way door.

## How it behaves

### What it turns on

When Lite mode is ON it writes these settings (plain-language effect):

| Setting (`key`)                                                    | Lite value | Effect                                                                                           |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Low Power Mode (`lowPowerMode`)                                    | on         | Drops GPU-expensive visuals (background blur, heavy animations, decorative shadows).             |
| Keep recent sessions instant (`frozenPanelRetentionEnabled`)       | off        | Stops holding extra recently-viewed chats fully built in memory (saves RAM).                     |
| Pre-render inbox sessions (`prerenderInboxSessionsEnabled`)        | off        | Stops pre-building inbox chats in the background (saves CPU/RAM; they load on click).            |
| Stagger session loading at startup (`panelMountStaggerEnabled`)    | on         | Spreads panel building over a few seconds after launch instead of freezing on startup.           |
| Hold new sessions when memory is low (`sessionMemoryGuardEnabled`) | on         | Pauses a _burst_ of new sessions when RAM is tight so the machine can't be driven into a freeze. |
| Reclaim RAM from idle sessions (`wsTrimIdleMinutes`)               | 5          | (Windows only) Evicts idle Claude CLI processes' RAM after 5 min; pages reload on next use.      |

These are the same settings documented individually in Settings → Performance —
Lite mode just sets them together. **Startup-related changes (stagger) take effect
on the next launch.**

### The one-click offer on the weak-hardware cards

Omniscio detects weak hardware at startup (low RAM, integrated GPU, few CPU cores —
`detectWeakHardware`). A computer below the recommended specs gets the **below-spec
warning card**; one whose weakness is only its graphics gets the **"Your computer may
benefit from Lite mode"** card. Both carry the same **one-click "Turn on Lite mode"**
button: it turns on the whole bundle, confirms with a "Lite mode is on" message, and
archives the card — a failed save leaves the card in place so you can try again. Each
card is shown **at most once per install** (the graphics card via `liteModeOfferSeen`)
and is an **offer, never an auto-apply** — weak hardware never silently changes your
settings.

The offer is gated on `liteModeOfferSeen`, so installs that already dismissed the
older single-toggle low-power prompt still get this improved offer exactly once.

**"Weak hardware" means only physical properties of the machine — RAM, cores, GPU
model.** Omniscio's own rendering switch is never part of it: hardware acceleration
being off (a Safe Mode boot, `AMC_DISABLE_GPU=1`, the crash auto-disable, or the
user's `disableGpu` setting) says nothing about how powerful the computer is. It used
to count, which told a 24-core / 137 GB workstation it "looks less powerful" the one
time it booted Safe Mode — and burned the once-per-install offer on that false alarm.
Acceleration being off also blanks the GPU probe (`gpuRenderer` reads `unknown`), so
`detectWeakHardware` skips the integrated-GPU check entirely in that state rather than
guessing from a value it cannot see.

### Reversible by design

- Turning Lite **on** snapshots the current value of each bundled setting into
  `liteModeSnapshot` (only on the off→on edge), then writes the lite values.
- Turning it **off** restores each setting to the snapshotted value and clears the
  snapshot. You get back exactly what you had — Lite mode is not a one-way door.
- It is **not** a computed master switch: it writes the real underlying settings,
  so each one keeps working through its own normal machinery.

### What it deliberately leaves out

The bundle is conflict-free and high-confidence. It excludes:

- the **hard CPU cap** (`sessionCpuCapEnabled`) — it conflicts with "Speed up batch
  merges" and can throttle a single session you're waiting on; the always-on
  "let sessions yield to your foreground apps" is the gentler substitute;
- **adaptive memory paging / e-core affinity** — niche, Windows-hybrid-CPU only;
- **message virtualization** — superseded by the default-on real-conversation
  layout, which already cuts long-chat render cost, so forcing it would do nothing.

## For agents

### Where it lives

- Bundle + apply logic: `src/shared/lite-mode.ts`
  (`LITE_MODE_BUNDLE`, `computeLiteModePatch`).
- Settings keys: `liteMode`, `liteModeOfferSeen`, `liteModeSnapshot` in
  `src/shared/types/settings/system-settings.ts`.
- The toggle + the weak-hardware offer:
  `src/renderer/src/features/settings/sections/performance/PerformanceSettings.tsx` /
  `src/main/services/system-health/hardware-detector.ts`.
- The one-click card button: `APPLY_LITE_MODE_ACTION` in
  `src/shared/alert-actions/performance.ts`, run by the
  `apply-lite-mode` handler in
  `src/renderer/src/features/alerts/use-alert-actions.ts`.

## Related

The individually-settable Performance options Lite mode bundles are described under the app's Performance settings, and the visual-only trimming it sits beside is [Low Power Mode](low-power-mode.md).