---
title: Multi-level Settings navigation (category drill-down)
---

# Multi-level Settings navigation

## What it is

**Multi-level Settings navigation** changes how you move through the Settings screen. Instead
of one long scrolling list of every section, Settings opens to a **category picker**: you pick
a category (a room), then the specific page within it — a two-level drill-down with a
breadcrumb back to the top.

Turning on the multi-level navigation also enables the **room grouping** (the reorganization
of Settings into clearly-named rooms such as _Look & Feel_, _Sessions & Agents_, and
_Connections_). The two features travel together: the drill-down navigation is the entry point
for the room-grouped layout.

It shipped as the default for everyone on **2026-08-03**, after the category-picker polish
landed (untruncated titles, two-line subtitles, a smaller chevron, and a wider sidebar).

## Where to find it

You reach this by opening Settings — from the gear icon, the Settings entry in the sidebar, or however you normally open it. There is nothing to switch on: the category picker is how Settings looks now.

From the picker you choose a category, then a page within it, with a breadcrumb at the top to step back. Search and any direct link into a setting still jump straight to the control and skip the drill-down entirely.

The one control tied to this is the New Settings layout switch in Settings; turning it off restores the older single scrolling list. It changes only the navigation — no setting's value is touched either way.

## How it behaves

### How it works

1. **Open Settings** — the top-level view shows the category rooms as a picker list.
2. **Pick a category** — Settings slides to the page list inside that room.
3. **Pick a page** — Settings slides to the individual settings on that page.
4. **Go back** — a breadcrumb at the top lets you return to the category picker or the
   page list at any time.

Settings search and direct deep links still jump straight to any setting, skipping the
drill-down entirely — the path you take to reach a setting changes, not the setting itself.

Nothing about any individual setting changed: section **ids**, **Settings search**, and the
**UI-anchor** targets the AI-highlight feature points at all resolve to the same panels as
before.

### Turning it off

The layout is governed by a setting so you can return to the legacy single-list view while
it remains available. Look for the **New Settings layout** control in Settings; toggling it
off restores the previous six-group scrolling nav without touching any of your settings values.

## Related

- [new-settings-layout.md](new-settings-layout.md) — the room grouping that ships
  alongside the drill-down navigation
- [settings-home.md](settings-home.md) — the Settings Home landing page
- [open-settings.md](open-settings.md) — the ways to open Settings and the landing rules