---
url: /config/watch.md
---

# watch  {#watch}

* **Type:** `boolean`
* **Default:** `!process.env.CI && process.stdin.isTTY`, and `false` when Vitest detects an AI coding agent
* **CLI:** `-w`, `--watch`, `--watch=false`

Enable watch mode

In interactive environments, this is the default, unless `--run` is specified explicitly.

In CI, or when run from a non-interactive shell, "watch" mode is not the default, but can be enabled explicitly with this flag.