diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c5696c0d0..18bbc9752 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 * `jj absorb` can now squash a deleted file if it was added by one of the
   destination revisions.
 
+* Added `ui.streampager.show-ruler` setting to configure whether the ruler should be
+  shown when the builtin pager starts up.
+
 ### Fixed bugs
 
 * Fixed crash on change-delete conflict resolution.
diff --git a/cli/src/config-schema.json b/cli/src/config-schema.json
index ce01450bd..c7e7939d9 100644
--- a/cli/src/config-schema.json
+++ b/cli/src/config-schema.json
@@ -141,6 +141,11 @@
                                 "none"
                             ],
                             "default": "anywhere"
+                        },
+                        "show-ruler": {
+                            "type": "boolean",
+                            "description": "Whether the ruler should start visible",
+                            "default": true
                         }
                     }
                 },
diff --git a/cli/src/config/misc.toml b/cli/src/config/misc.toml
index 3178dc10f..b5407d175 100644
--- a/cli/src/config/misc.toml
+++ b/cli/src/config/misc.toml
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ edit = false
 [ui.streampager]
 interface = "quit-if-one-page"
 wrapping = "anywhere"
+show-ruler = true
 
 [snapshot]
 max-new-file-size = "1MiB"
diff --git a/cli/src/ui.rs b/cli/src/ui.rs
index ae57e20fb..5cc47a231 100644
--- a/cli/src/ui.rs
+++ b/cli/src/ui.rs
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ impl UiOutput {
         let streampager_config = streampager::config::Config {
             wrapping_mode: config.wrapping.into(),
             interface_mode: config.streampager_interface_mode(),
+            show_ruler: config.show_ruler,
             // We could make scroll-past-eof configurable, but I'm guessing people
             // will not miss it. If we do make it configurable, we should mention
             // that it's a bad idea to turn this on if `interface=quit-if-one-page`,
@@ -297,6 +298,7 @@ impl From<StreampagerWrappingMode> for streampager::config::WrappingMode {
 struct StreampagerConfig {
     interface: StreampagerAlternateScreenMode,
     wrapping: StreampagerWrappingMode,
+    show_ruler: bool,
     // TODO: Add an `quit-quickly-delay-seconds` floating point option or a
     // `quit-quickly-delay` option that takes a 's' or 'ms' suffix. Note that as
     // of this writing, floating point numbers do not work with `--config`
diff --git a/docs/config.md b/docs/config.md
index 0b9903dc9..1837da446 100644
--- a/docs/config.md
+++ b/docs/config.md
@@ -763,6 +763,16 @@ interface = "full-screen-clear-output"
 interface = "quit-quickly-or-clear-output"
 ```
 
+#### Showing the ruler on startup
+
+```toml
+[ui.streampager]
+# Start with the ruler showing
+show-ruler = true # (default)
+# Start with the ruler hidden
+show-ruler = false
+```
+
 
 ### Processing contents to be paged