Install & first run

Chan Desktop is the place to start: a small binary that bundles the terminal emulator and the workspace UI. Grab it for your platform from the install page.

Chan Desktop opens on the Computers screen. It lists this machine and any devservers you add later. The "This machine" card has two buttons:

• New terminal opens a standalone terminal window.
• New workspace registers a folder as a workspace.

A workspace is a directory that chan treats as a project:

• The content is indexed for search.
• Markdown files get autocompletion for linking to each other.
• chan builds a project graph from the links, tags, and mentions in your documents, plus language and size stats for the code.
• Each workspace keeps its own set of windows, panes, and tabs.

Any directory can become a workspace. For a first try, start from an existing git repo. In a chan terminal:

chan open is an alias for chan serve. Inside a repository, chan expects its root. To open a subdirectory inside one, add --here.

chan serve {path} works anywhere chan runs: in a local terminal it registers the workspace on this machine (the same thing the New workspace button does), and in a devserver terminal it registers the workspace on that devserver, which then shows up under the devserver's card on the Computers screen.

Back on the Computers screen, the new workspace appears with its power toggle On: the workspace is alive, indexed, and keeping the state of your windows, panes, and tabs. Click New window of your-project and the real power of chan begins:

• The pane's hamburger menu lists the built-in apps: dashboard, diagram, draft, file browser, graph, slide deck, team, and terminal.
• The command launcher works here too, with the workspace's commands first.

You can quit and reopen Chan Desktop and your windows and layouts are restored. Local terminals keep their layout, but their shells are restarted.

Everything you can do in Chan Desktop, standalone terminals and workspaces alike, also works on a remote machine through Chan Devserver.