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Pancake Stack
ChaptersPancake Stack Manual
Getting started
  1. 1Welcome to Pancake
  2. 2A tour of the window
  3. 3Your first site
Building sites
  1. 4Working with sites
  2. 5Files, the editor and design
  3. 6Bringing sites in
  4. 7Databases
Sharing and publishing
  1. 8Putting sites online
  2. 9On my network and local HTTPS
  3. 10Mail from your sites
  4. 11Deploying
Running your stack
  1. 12Backups and save points
  2. 13Services, tasks and workers
  3. 14The Assistant and MCP
Reference
  1. 15Settings, templates and plug-ins
  2. 16Plans and subscription
  3. 17Troubleshooting
  4. 18Privacy and your data

Pancake Stack › Pancake Stack Manual

The kitchen · Reference

Settings, templates and plug-ins

Every section of the Settings pane, including server templates, PHP extensions and Apache modules, sync between Macs, KeyRotate, and removing Pancake's data.

15.1General

Open Pancake at login
Starts Pancake when you log in. If macOS asks, allow it in System Settings ▸ General ▸ Login Items.
Start servers when Pancake opens
Runs Start All by itself. Off unless you turn it on.
Show Pancake in the menu bar
The pancake icon in the menu bar. While it's showing, closing the window keeps your sites running.
Show advanced settings everywhere
Turns Advanced on in every pane.

15.2Subscription, Editors, Cloudflare, Mail and more

SectionWhat it doesSee
SubscriptionYour plan, Change plan, Manage in App Store, Restore Purchases.Plans
EditorsThe app the Edit button opens sites in.Edit in your own app
CloudflareYour connected domains, and Disconnect.Your own domain
Sync with my other MacsFullStack Keep sites and settings the same on your Macs.below
KeyRotateShare keys with KeyRotate.below
MailTallStack The SMTP relay for real mail.Sending real mail
Push alertsFullStack Uptime alerts on your phone.Push alerts
ImagesDefaults for Optimize Images.Optimize images
Local HTTPSTrusted certificates for .localhost.Local HTTPS
Git(Advanced) Your name and email for commits, a token for your Git host, and Pancake's SSH key (Create / Show Key, Copy Public Key).Git

15.3Advanced

Web ports
Standard; 80 and 443, or Alternate; 8080 and 8443 if you want Pancake to stay off the standard ports. Changing it restarts running servers.
Templates…
See Templates.
Plug-ins…
See Plug-ins.
Keep each log under
10 MB, 50 MB (the default), 200 MB or No limit. A log that grows past it is cut to its newest half.
Starter files for new PHP sites / static sites
A folder copied into every new site of that kind. Clear stops using it.
Show data folder, Show logs
Open Pancake's folders in the Finder.
Remove All Pancake Data…
See Removing everything.

15.4Templates

Pancake writes every server configuration file from templates. You can change any of them: the main Apache configuration (httpd.conf), the part written for every site (httpd-vhost.conf), php.ini for each PHP version, and MySQL's my.cnf.

  1. Open Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ Templates… (or File ▸ Edit Template).
  2. Click Edit next to a template. It opens in your text editor. Placeholders lists the {{PANCAKE_…}} values Pancake fills in, such as ports and folders; keep those in place.
  3. Save it, then click Apply.

Pancake checks each template with the real server before using it. If yours doesn't load, Pancake keeps using its own, shows the error and the line, and the Templates button says how many weren't applied. Changes shows what you changed; Reset goes back to Pancake's.

Import from MAMP PRO… turns MAMP PRO's custom templates into Pancake's, with a review of what was mapped, added and left out.

15.5Plug-ins

Plug-ins… switches Apache modules (such as expires, deflate, include and negotiation) and each PHP version's extensions (such as gd, intl and zip) on or off. Modules Pancake itself needs are always on. Defaults puts everything back; Apply restarts the servers with your choice.

15.6Sync with my other Macs

FullStack Turn on Sync sites and settings through iCloud to keep the same set-up on every Mac signed in to your iCloud.

SyncedNot synced
The sites list, service switches, scheduled tasks, outside database connections, mail relay, push alerts and network names.Site files and databases (move them with Backups, Pancake Cloud or Deploy); passwords and keys (enter them once on each Mac); and what belongs to one Mac: its Cloudflare tunnel, certificates, DDNS names and whether a site is online.

A site removed on one Mac leaves the list on the others, but its files there are never deleted. Your data goes to your own iCloud only. Sync Now syncs straight away; otherwise Pancake syncs every few minutes and when you switch to it.

15.7Keys and KeyRotate

KeyRotate is Enfour's key manager. With Sync keys with KeyRotate on (the default), Pancake shares these keys with it: AI keys (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter), the Cloudflare API token, Vercel and here.now tokens, and DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Vultr and Akamai Linode tokens. KeyRotate keeps the master copy, rotates the keys and hands Pancake the current one.

The keys go through a Keychain group only the two apps share; they never leave your Mac. AWS keys aren't shared. Switch sync off to use Pancake's own Keychain only. If KeyRotate isn't installed, Pancake simply uses its own Keychain.

15.8Removing everything

Remove All Pancake Data… stops every server, then deletes Pancake's databases, settings, certificates (including the trust for its local certificate authority) and saved passwords, moves the site folders to the Trash, and quits.

Careful

Export any databases you need first (Databases ▸ Export). Site folders can still be recovered from the Trash; databases can't. Your subscription isn't affected: cancel it in the App Store if you want to.