some comments

packages/components/src/components/SquigglePlayground.tsx

@@ -328,6 +328,8 @@ export const SquigglePlayground: FC<PlaygroundProps> = ({
       <StyledTab.Panel>
         <ViewSettings
           register={
+            // This is dangerous, but doesn't cause any problems.
+            // I tried to make `ViewSettings` generic (to allow it to accept any extension of a settings schema), but it didn't work.
             register as unknown as UseFormRegister<
               yup.InferType<typeof viewSettingsSchema>
             >

packages/components/src/components/SquiggleViewer/ItemSettingsMenu.tsx

@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ const ItemSettingsModal: React.FC<Props & { close: () => void }> = ({
   const { register, watch } = useForm({
     resolver: yupResolver(viewSettingsSchema),
     defaultValues: {
+      // this is a mess and should be fixed
       showEditor: true, // doesn't matter
       chartHeight: mergedSettings.height,
       showSummary: mergedSettings.distributionPlotSettings.showSummary,

packages/components/src/components/SquiggleViewer/VariableBox.tsx

@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@ export const VariableBox: React.FC<VariableBoxProps> = ({
 }) => {
   const { setSettings, getSettings, getMergedSettings } =
     useContext(ViewerContext);
+
+  // Since ViewerContext doesn't keep the actual settings, VariableBox won't rerender when setSettings is called.
+  // So we use `forceUpdate` to force rerendering.
   const [_, forceUpdate] = useReducer((x) => x + 1, 0);
 
   const settings = getSettings(path);