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What is tips mode in OpenCues?

Tips mode is the gate for static tip cues: the dictionary-backed layer that dims a word like ultrathink in Claude Code's prompt box and shows you what it does when you navigate to it. tips-mode: on is the shipped default; off hides all tips.

What counts as a tip

A tip is the static half of the cue system: a word-to-explanation dictionary entry, looked up locally with no LLM call, which is why tips cost nothing and appear instantly. The shipped defaults include a tip pack per host (tips-claude-code, tips-gemini-cli, tips-opencode, tips-shell), each teaching that host's own vocabulary in context. Navigate to a dimmed word and the tip renders in the secondary display; with voice mode active it's read aloud too. This is the mechanism behind what the continuous onboarding essay describes: type ultrathink in Claude Code's prompt box, see it dim, navigate to it, and learn what it does at the exact moment the knowledge is useful, instead of in documentation you read once and forgot.

What the toggle gates, precisely

The registry entry gates the display of static tip groups. It's separate from word-cues-mode, which gates the LLM-backed word-alternative sources: the two halves of the cue surface have independent switches. So tips-mode: off with word cues on gives you alternatives without teaching, and the reverse gives you teaching without any LLM calls at all. The second combination is worth knowing: with tips on and word cues off, OpenCues' cue layer runs entirely offline and free.

The open standard also puts a tips-mode flag on the CUES.md master file, so a project can declare the surface off at its own layer; the runtime setting in OPENCUES.md is the user-level equivalent you'll normally touch.

Changing it

tips-mode: off in ~/.cues/OPENCUES.md, hot-reloaded in about two seconds; no restart of any host.
In-text via opencues settings _ and the arrow keys, or (with fluid config on) a natural phrase like stop showing tips _.
Per project, via the tips-mode flag on that project's CUES.md master.

When to turn it off, honestly

Tips earn their keep while a host's vocabulary is new to you; once you know every entry, the dim is just information you've stopped needing. Turning tips off then is the intended lifecycle, not a workaround, and turning them back on after a host ships new features is one line. If only one specific tip annoys you, the narrower tool is adding that word to the ignore: list in CUES.md, or disabling that one tip pack via disable:, rather than switching the whole layer off.