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Configuring QMK

QMK is nearly infinitely configurable. Wherever possible we err on the side of allowing users to customize their keyboard, even at the expense of code size. That level of flexibility makes for a daunting configuration experience, however.

There are two main types of configuration files in QMK- config.h and rules.mk. These files exist at various levels in QMK and all files of the same type are combined to build the final configuration. The levels, from lowest priority to highest priority, are:

QMK Default
Keyboard
Folders (Up to 5 levels deep)
Keymap

QMK Default

Every available setting in QMK has a default. If that setting is not set at the Keyboard, Folder, or Keymap level this is the setting that will be used.

Keyboard

This level contains config options that should apply to the whole keyboard. Some settings won't change in revisions, or most keymaps. Other settings are merely defaults for this keyboard and can be overridden by folders and/or keymaps.

Folders

Some keyboards have folders and sub-folders to allow for different hardware configurations. Most keyboards only go 1 folder deep, but QMK supports structures up to 5 folders deep. Each folder can have its own config.h and rules.mk files that are incorporated into the final configuration.

Keymap

This level contains all of the options for that particular keymap. If you wish to override a previous declaration, you can use #undef <variable> to undefine it, where you can then redefine it without an error.

The `config.h` File

This is a C header file that is one of the first things included, and will persist over the whole project (if included). Lots of variables can be set here and accessed elsewhere. The config.h file shouldn't be including other config.h files, or anything besides this:

#include "config_common.h"

Hardware Options

#define VENDOR_ID 0x1234
- defines your VID, and for most DIY projects, can be whatever you want
#define PRODUCT_ID 0x5678
- defines your PID, and for most DIY projects, can be whatever you want
#define DEVICE_VER 0
- defines the device version (often used for revisions)
#define MANUFACTURER Me
- generally who/whatever brand produced the board
#define PRODUCT Board
- the name of the keyboard
#define DESCRIPTION a keyboard
- a short description of what the keyboard is
#define MATRIX_ROWS 5
- the number of rows in your keyboard's matrix
#define MATRIX_COLS 15
- the number of columns in your keyboard's matrix
#define MATRIX_ROW_PINS { D0, D5, B5, B6 }
- pins of the rows, from top to bottom
#define MATRIX_COL_PINS { F1, F0, B0, C7, F4, F5, F6, F7, D4, D6, B4, D7 }
- pins of the columns, from left to right
#define UNUSED_PINS { D1, D2, D3, B1, B2, B3 }
- pins unused by the keyboard for reference
#define MATRIX_HAS_GHOST
- define is matrix has ghost (unlikely)
#define DIODE_DIRECTION COL2ROW
- COL2ROW or ROW2COL - how your matrix is configured. COL2ROW means the black mark on your diode is facing to the rows, and between the switch and the rows.
#define AUDIO_VOICES
- turns on the alternate audio voices (to cycle through)
#define C4_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin C4
#define C5_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin C5
#define C6_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin C6
#define B5_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin B5 (duophony is enables if one of B[5-7]_AUDIO is enabled along with one of C[4-6]_AUDIO)
#define B6_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin B6 (duophony is enables if one of B[5-7]_AUDIO is enabled along with one of C[4-6]_AUDIO)
#define B7_AUDIO
- enables audio on pin B7 (duophony is enables if one of B[5-7]_AUDIO is enabled along with one of C[4-6]_AUDIO)
#define BACKLIGHT_PIN B7
- pin of the backlight - B5, B6, B7 use PWM, others use softPWM
#define BACKLIGHT_LEVELS 3
- number of levels your backlight will have (maximum 15 excluding off)
#define BACKLIGHT_BREATHING
- enables backlight breathing (only works with backlight pins B5, B6 and B7)
#define BREATHING_PERIOD 6
- the length of one backlight "breath" in seconds
#define DEBOUNCING_DELAY 5
- the delay when reading the value of the pin (5 is default)
#define LOCKING_SUPPORT_ENABLE
- mechanical locking support. Use KC_LCAP, KC_LNUM or KC_LSCR instead in keymap
#define LOCKING_RESYNC_ENABLE
- tries to keep switch state consistent with keyboard LED state
#define IS_COMMAND() ( keyboard_report->mods == (MOD_BIT(KC_LSHIFT) | MOD_BIT(KC_RSHIFT)) )
- key combination that allows the use of magic commands (useful for debugging)
#define USB_MAX_POWER_CONSUMPTION
- sets the maximum power (in mA) over USB for the device (default: 500)
#define SCL_CLOCK 100000L
- sets the SCL_CLOCK speed for split keyboards. The default is 100000L but some boards can be set to 400000L.

Features That Can Be Disabled

If you define these options you will disable the associated feature, which can save on code size.

#define NO_DEBUG
- disable debugging
#define NO_PRINT
- disable printing/debugging using hid_listen
#define NO_ACTION_LAYER
- disable layers
#define NO_ACTION_TAPPING
- disable tap dance and other tapping features
#define NO_ACTION_ONESHOT
- disable one-shot modifiers
#define NO_ACTION_MACRO
- disable all macro handling
#define NO_ACTION_FUNCTION
- disable the action function (deprecated)

Features That Can Be Enabled

If you define these options you will enable the associated feature, which may increase your code size.

#define FORCE_NKRO
- NKRO by default requires to be turned on, this forces it on during keyboard startup regardless of EEPROM setting. NKRO can still be turned off but will be turned on again if the keyboard reboots.
#define STRICT_LAYER_RELEASE
- force a key release to be evaluated using the current layer stack instead of remembering which layer it came from (used for advanced cases)

Behaviors That Can Be Configured

#define TAPPING_TERM 200
- how long before a tap becomes a hold, if set above 500, a key tapped during the tapping term will turn it into a hold too
#define RETRO_TAPPING
- tap anyway, even after TAPPING_TERM, if there was no other key interruption between press and release
- See Retro Tapping for details
#define TAPPING_TOGGLE 2
- how many taps before triggering the toggle
#define PERMISSIVE_HOLD
- makes tap and hold keys trigger the hold if another key is pressed before releasing, even if it hasn't hit the TAPPING_TERM
- See Permissive Hold for details
#define IGNORE_MOD_TAP_INTERRUPT
- makes it possible to do rolling combos (zx) with keys that convert to other keys on hold, by enforcing the TAPPING_TERM for both keys.
- See Mod tap interrupt for details
#define TAPPING_FORCE_HOLD
- makes it possible to use a dual role key as modifier shortly after having been tapped
- See Hold after tap
- Breaks any Tap Toggle functionality (TT or the One Shot Tap Toggle)
#define LEADER_TIMEOUT 300
- how long before the leader key times out
#define ONESHOT_TIMEOUT 300
- how long before oneshot times out
#define ONESHOT_TAP_TOGGLE 2
- how many taps before oneshot toggle is triggered
#define QMK_KEYS_PER_SCAN 4
- Allows sending more than one key per scan. By default, only one key event gets sent via process_record() per scan. This has little impact on most typing, but if you're doing a lot of chords, or your scan rate is slow to begin with, you can have some delay in processing key events. Each press and release is a separate event. For a keyboard with 1ms or so scan times, even a very fast typist isn't going to produce the 500 keystrokes a second needed to actually get more than a few ms of delay from this. But if you're doing chording on something with 3-4ms scan times? You probably want this.
#define COMBO_COUNT 2
- Set this to the number of combos that you're using in the Combo feature.
#define COMBO_TERM 200
- how long for the Combo keys to be detected. Defaults to TAPPING_TERM if not defined.

RGB Light Configuration

#define RGB_DI_PIN D7
- pin the DI on the ws2812 is hooked-up to
#define RGBLIGHT_ANIMATIONS
- run RGB animations
#define RGBLED_NUM 15
- number of LEDs
#define RGBLIGHT_HUE_STEP 12
- units to step when in/decreasing hue
#define RGBLIGHT_SAT_STEP 25
- units to step when in/decreasing saturation
#define RGBLIGHT_VAL_STEP 12
- units to step when in/decreasing value (brightness)
#define RGBW_BB_TWI
- bit-bangs TWI to EZ RGBW LEDs (only required for Ergodox EZ)

Mouse Key Options

#define MOUSEKEY_INTERVAL 20
#define MOUSEKEY_DELAY 0
#define MOUSEKEY_TIME_TO_MAX 60
#define MOUSEKEY_MAX_SPEED 7
#define MOUSEKEY_WHEEL_DELAY 0

Split Keyboard Options

Split Keyboard specific options, make sure you have 'SPLIT_KEYBOARD = yes' in your rules.mk

#define SPLIT_HAND_PIN B7
- For using high/low pin to determine handedness, low = right hand, high = left hand. Replace 'B7' with the pin you are using. This is optional and you can still use the EEHANDS method or MASTER_LEFT / MASTER_RIGHT defines like the stock Let's Split uses.
#define USE_I2C
- For using I2C instead of Serial (defaults to serial)

The `rules.mk` File

This is a make file that is included by the top-level Makefile. It is used to set some information about the MCU that we will be compiling for as well as enabling and disabling certain features.

Build Options

DEFAULT_FOLDER
- Used to specify a default folder when a keyboard has more than one sub-folder.
FIRMWARE_FORMAT
- Defines which format (bin, hex) is copied to the root qmk_firmware folder after building.
SRC
- Used to add files to the compilation/linking list.
LAYOUTS
- A list of layouts this keyboard supports.

AVR MCU Options

MCU = atmega32u4
F_CPU = 16000000
ARCH = AVR8
F_USB = $(F_CPU)
OPT_DEFS += -DINTERRUPT_CONTROL_ENDPOINT
BOOTLOADER = atmel-dfu with the following options:
- atmel-dfu
- lufa-dfu
- qmk-dfu
- halfkay
- caterina
- bootloadHID

Feature Options

Use these to enable or disable building certain features. The more you have enabled the bigger your firmware will be, and you run the risk of building a firmware too large for your MCU.

BOOTMAGIC_ENABLE
- Virtual DIP switch configuration(+1000)
MOUSEKEY_ENABLE
- Mouse keys(+4700)
EXTRAKEY_ENABLE
- Audio control and System control(+450)
CONSOLE_ENABLE
- Console for debug(+400)
COMMAND_ENABLE
- Commands for debug and configuration
COMBO_ENABLE
- Key combo feature
NKRO_ENABLE
- USB N-Key Rollover - if this doesn't work, see here: https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wiki/FAQ#nkro-doesnt-work
AUDIO_ENABLE
- Enable the audio subsystem.
RGBLIGHT_ENABLE
- Enable keyboard underlight functionality
MIDI_ENABLE
- MIDI controls
UNICODE_ENABLE
- Unicode
BLUETOOTH_ENABLE
- Legacy option to Enable Bluetooth with the Adafruit EZ-Key HID. See BLUETOOTH
BLUETOOTH
- Current options are AdafruitEzKey, AdafruitBLE, RN42
SPLIT_KEYBOARD
- Enables split keyboard support (dual MCU like the let's split and bakingpy's boards) and includes all necessary files located at quantum/split_common
WAIT_FOR_USB
- Forces the keyboard to wait for a USB connection to be established before it starts up
NO_USB_STARTUP_CHECK
- Disables usb suspend check after keyboard startup. Usually the keyboard waits for the host to wake it up before any tasks are performed. This is useful for split keyboards as one half will not get a wakeup call but must send commands to the master.

USB Endpoint Limitations

In order to provide services over USB, QMK has to use USB endpoints. These are a finite resource: each microcontroller has only a certain number. This limits what features can be enabled together. If the available endpoints are exceeded, a build error is thrown.

The following features can require separate endpoints:

MOUSEKEY_ENABLE
EXTRAKEY_ENABLE
CONSOLE_ENABLE
NKRO_ENABLE
MIDI_ENABLE
RAW_ENABLE
VIRTSER_ENABLE

In order to improve utilisation of the endpoints, the HID features can be combined to use a single endpoint. By default, MOUSEKEY, EXTRAKEY, and NKRO are combined into a single endpoint.

The base keyboard functionality can also be combined into the endpoint, by setting KEYBOARD_SHARED_EP = yes. This frees up one more endpoint, but it can prevent the keyboard working in some BIOSes, as they do not implement Boot Keyboard protocol switching.

Combining the mouse also breaks Boot Mouse compatibility. The mouse can be uncombined by setting MOUSE_SHARED_EP = no if this functionality is required.

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