Nothing in OpenCues requires a restart. Save a new cue file, tweak a prompt, flip a setting in OPENCUES.md: it's live within a couple of seconds, while you keep typing.
How it works per host
Native hosts (Claude Code, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, the terminal) re-check the config search path as you type, plus a background poll so edits land even when you're idle. Chrome can't read your filesystem, so a small native-messaging host watches ~/.cues/ and pushes updated bundles into open tabs in roughly 300ms.
Why it's a design rule, not a convenience
The project treats hot-reload as sacred: a config edit that requires a restart is considered a bug, and contributions that break it are rejected. The payoff is a tight tuning loop: you can iterate on a cue's prompt in one window and watch its suggestions change in another, live.
What hot-reloads
Everything declarative: cues, blanks, master files, settings, and your identity file. Flipping a feature scalar re-evaluates visible words immediately, so a change is observable on the very next keystroke.
Related: Write your own cue · Project config for teams · GitHub repo