Files
narl-workspace/docs/wiki/Getting-Started.md
T
nvrl 5684614d0a tiles: the board, the agenda, the calendar and a card's back are tiles
The special workspace was a second layout beside the tiles, with its own
focus, its own Tab, Esc and q, and a returnTo flag to find the way back.
The views are now tile kinds instead: opened beside what is on screen,
walked with Alt-h/j/k/l and gt/gT, closed with q.

- Tile gets a kind: node, board, agenda, calendar or card. view,
  specialFocus, returnTo and the special context are gone.
- A trail of focused tiles: closing one goes back to the one before, so
  q on a card's notes or a calendar day returns to the view.
- A view is never replaced by what is opened from it; that opens beside.
- S tiles the board, agenda and calendar ahead of the documents, or puts
  every view away. :plan, with :special kept as an alias.
- The card sheet is a card tile beside the board, following its cursor;
  leaving it while writing the description saves what is written.
- Spaces remember their views; with a view focused, a space switch takes
  the views along instead of leaving copies behind.
- Card commands check what has the focus rather than the special view.
2026-10-22 10:18:50 +02:00

3.3 KiB

Getting started

Run it

You need Rust (1.96 or newer) and bun to build it. The result is one binary with the whole frontend inside, so the machine it runs on needs neither.

git clone https://github.com/narrrl/narl-workspace
cd narl-workspace
cp .env.example .env

Open .env and set three things:

  • WORKSPACE_USER: the name you log in with.
  • WORKSPACE_PASSWORD: the password. The server will not start while it is still change-me.
  • WORKSPACE_SECRET: 32 random characters that sign the login cookie. Make one with openssl rand -base64 32.

Then build and start it:

make build
./target/release/narl-workspace

and open http://127.0.0.1:4242.

With Docker instead, docker compose up -d --build does the same; see Deploying. Every other setting has a default that works on your own machine. Configuration lists them all.

Log in

The login

The workspace has one account, the one in .env. Wrong passwords are answered more slowly each time. A browser that has logged in before is slowed only by its own mistakes, so someone guessing from elsewhere cannot lock you out.

Find your way around

A new workspace has three spaces: diary, work and uni. The bar along the top shows them as numbered pills. 1, 2 and 3 switch between them, and Tab steps to the next one.

The screen has four parts:

  • the bar, at the top: the spaces, where you are in the tree, how many cards are late or due today, and the clock;
  • the list, on the left: what is in the folder you are in;
  • the tiles, on the right: the documents and files you have open;
  • the status line, at the bottom: the mode you are in, and what the last key or command did.

The rail of buttons on the right does the same as the keys, for a mouse.

The first ten minutes

  1. Press 2 to go to work.
  2. Press o. A new document opens in the editor, in insert mode. Write something.
  3. Press Esc to leave insert mode, then type :name Plans for the week and Enter to give it a name. There is no need to save: the document is saved a couple of seconds after you stop typing. :w saves at once anyway.
  4. Type :q to close it. It is in the list now, under today's date.
  5. Press O (capital). The command line opens with :mkdir already typed; add a name and press Enter. l or Enter on the folder goes into it, and h comes back up.
  6. Press c, type try the board, and press Enter. That is a card in the inbox of this space's board. Press b to see the board in a tile, and Esc to close it. S puts it up with the agenda and the calendar, and puts them away again; Alt-h/j/k/l walk between the tiles.
  7. Press T. That is today's diary entry, started for you.
  8. Press ? for the list of every key and command. h / l walk its columns, / narrows it down, and Esc closes it.

On a phone the same things are buttons: the dock at the bottom has a new document, a new folder, the board, today's entry, an upload and a search, and the ⋯ on a row (or a long press on it) has what can be done to that row.

The workspace on a phone

Next

The guide goes through a whole day with the workspace and explains each part as it comes up.