A ```typst (or ```typ) block is compiled by the typst crate into SVG and
shown as an image where it stands, so math, tables and figures can be
written in typst beside the markdown around them. It shows its source while
it is set, and the error typst gives, with the block's line, when it cannot
be.
Each block is a document of its own: its source is the only file in its
world and the fonts are typst-assets', inside the binary, so nothing is read
from disk or fetched — packages and images are refused. The page fits what
is on it, is transparent, and carries the theme's text colour. Answers are
cached by source, two blocks are laid out at a time off the async threads,
and comemo's memo is evicted after each compile.
A share page asks POST /api/share/{token}/typst, which takes the reader's
cookie and typesets only a block the shared document holds.
typst brings a palette crate whose AsRef impls on arrays made four
`kek.as_ref().into()` in the vault ambiguous; they deref instead.
5.2 KiB
Writing
The editor
i or a on an open document edits it. The editor is CodeMirror 6 with the
vim keymap: motions, operators, text objects, visual mode, registers, macros
and . all work, and :w, :wq and :q! do what they do in vim.
:nameon its own moves up into the title;Enter,Escor↓goes back down into the text.:name <text>renames without leaving the text.]],[[andgOwalk the headings, the same as in the reader.gffollows the link under the cursor, saving first, andgxopens it in a new browser tab.Ctrl-Ssaves from anywhere, and?shows the help.- Yanks and deletes go to the system clipboard too.
:set noclipboardkeeps them in vim's registers only. :set novimturns the vim keys off for a plain editor;:set vimturns them back on. On a touch screen they start off.
Drag, drop or paste an image, a video or a sound file into the text and it is
uploaded and embedded where the cursor is. :upload picks files to embed, and
:media lists every upload: Enter embeds the one under the cursor, y
copies its address.
Saving
There is nothing to remember. Each change goes to the browser's storage as it is typed, and to the server a couple of seconds after typing stops.
- When the server cannot be reached, the draft stays in the browser and the save is tried again, less often the longer it fails, and at once when the browser says it is back online.
- When a session runs out in the middle of a sentence, the login appears, and logging in again carries on where it stopped, draft and all.
- When a tab dies in the middle of a document, opening the document again
restores the draft and says so.
:e!throws the draft away. - When the document was saved somewhere else since you opened it (another tab,
the phone, the SFTP mount),
:wsays so instead of overwriting it.:e!takes the other version, and:w!writes yours anyway.
Each save keeps the text it replaces, so nothing written is lost. See Not losing things.
Markdown
Documents are GitHub-flavoured markdown: headings, lists, task lists, tables,
quotes, code blocks and links. A single line break is kept as a line break,
the way it was typed, with one exception: a paragraph that an editor wrapped
at a fixed width, as imported notes and files saved over the SFTP mount often
are, is read as the running text it is. A break asked for outright, with two
spaces or a \ at the end of the line, is always kept.
Math is set by KaTeX:
$x^2$inline;$$ … $$on lines of its own, or a```mathblock, for a display formula.
Typst
A ```typst block (or ```typ) is set by Typst on
the server and shows as an image where it stands: math, tables, figures,
anything typst lays out. It shows its source while it is being set, and the
error typst gives, with the line of the block, when it cannot be.
- The page fits what is on it and is transparent, and the text is the
theme's.
#set page(width: 15cm)makes a block of prose wrap, and any other#setchanges what it says. - A block is typeset with nothing but itself and the fonts built into the
binary:
#import "@preview/…"and#image("…")are refused. - On a share page the blocks are set too, for the reader holding the key, and only blocks the shared document holds.
Links
A document links to another in two ways:
- by its address:
[the plan](/n/work/notes/plan); - by its title:
[[Plan]], or[[Plan|the plan]]with a label of its own.
A title is looked for in the space the link is written in first, then in every
other. It matches a name in any case, or the slug of that name. Typing [[ in
the editor offers the titles of documents as the search finds them. A title
that no document has yet is drawn dimmed, and following it offers to write that
document.
Links keep working when what they point at moves. Renaming a document, or a
folder above it, or moving either, rewrites the links to it in every document
that has one, in the same save: the path to the new one, a [[title]] to the
new name, the label left as it was. A link to something in the trash follows it
when it is restored; once it is deleted for good the link text stays and leads
nowhere.
gb or :backlinks lists the documents that link to the open one, each with
the line it does so on.
A link written inside a card, or a bare address in prose rather than a markdown link, is not counted or rewritten.
Templates
Any space can have a folder called templates at its root. Every document in
it is a template.
:new meetingstarts a document fromtemplates/meeting.Tabcompletes the template names.:new meeting 2026-10-20 Budgetdates it and names it as well.
In a template these placeholders are filled in, on the clock of
WORKSPACE_TIMEZONE at the date the document is for:
| placeholder | becomes |
|---|---|
{{date}} |
2026-10-20 |
{{weekday}} |
Tuesday |
{{time}} |
14:05 |
{{title}} |
the new document's name |
A new diary entry starts from the diary's templates/day when there is one.
See The diary.


