# Troubleshooting

Fixes for what people actually hit with Eva — a setting that does nothing, a missing key, a chord the terminal cannot send, a plugin that misbehaves.

## A setting I wrote does nothing

Ask Eva what it resolved and where each value came from:

```bash
eva config show
```

Three common causes. The key is under the wrong plugin id. The key is spelled
differently from the one the plugin declares. Or the file is not in a layer Eva
reads — a `.eva` directory needs [`eva trust`](/configure/trust) first.

Eva also reports an unread key as a finding on stderr, naming the plugin whose
options it was written under. That message is usually the whole answer.

## Eva says it has no credential

Eva reads `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` from the environment at the moment it opens a
request.

```bash
echo $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY | head -c 8
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...
```

A key set in a shell profile is not visible to a shell that started before the
profile changed. Open a new terminal, or re-source the profile.

## Shift+Enter does not insert a newline

Most terminals cannot send `shift+enter` without the kitty keyboard protocol.
Rebind it to a chord your terminal does send:

```yaml
keymap:
  input.newline: ctrl+j
```

Pasting a multi-line block works regardless — a paste arrives whole, and a
newline inside it is text rather than a key.

## The terminal looks wrong, or colours are unreadable

Try a different theme:

```
/theme contrast
```

`contrast` suits bright rooms and low-contrast displays. `mono` suits terminals
with a restricted palette. See [themes](/use/themes).

## A plugin is misbehaving

Turn it off for one run:

```bash
eva --without-plugin eva.themes
```

Eva keeps running with a plugin disabled. If disabling one fixes your problem,
that is worth an issue — a single disabled plugin should degrade the run, never
break it.

## My pipeline does not stop on failure

`--print` exits non-zero when the answer fails, but a shell pipeline reports
the last command's status by default:

```bash
eva -p "review the diff" > review.txt || exit 1
```

See [exit codes](/reference/exit-codes).

## Still stuck

Open an issue at
[github.com/missingstudio/eva](https://github.com/missingstudio/eva/issues).
Include the output of `eva --version` and `eva config show`.


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