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First launch

The first time you launch condash, it needs to know which Markdown tree to render. There's no hard-coded default — if it can't find one, a native folder picker opens and asks you to select it.

The conception tree

A conception tree is a directory on your disk with at least one of:

  • A configuration.yml file at the root (optional for a fresh tree, required for the repo strip and "open with" buttons to do anything useful).
  • A projects/ subdirectory containing your item READMEs.

Optional siblings — knowledge/, a documents/ drop-point, and so on — add features but aren't required to boot condash. See the conception convention for the full shape.

If you don't already have a tree, a minimal bootstrap is a scratch directory with an empty projects/ inside:

mkdir -p /tmp/condash-scratch/projects
CONDASH_CONCEPTION_PATH=/tmp/condash-scratch condash

That's enough for the dashboard to render — use the + Item button to create your first README.

The three ways condash finds your tree

On startup condash checks, in order:

  1. CONDASH_CONCEPTION_PATH environment variable. Wins over everything. Useful for scripts, demos, and running condash against a scratch tree without touching your saved settings: 
    CONDASH_CONCEPTION_PATH=/tmp/scratch-tree condash
  2. Saved user setting. If the env var is unset, condash reads ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/condash/settings.yaml (Linux/macOS) or %APPDATA%\condash\settings.yaml (Windows). The file has one key: 
    conception_path: /home/you/src/conception
    It's written automatically after the folder picker on first launch.
  3. Folder picker. If neither the env var nor the settings file supply a path, condash opens a native OS folder picker. Pick the directory that holds your projects/ + (optional) configuration.yml. On Cancel, condash exits cleanly.

Changing your mind later

To point condash at a different tree:

  • Temporarily: set CONDASH_CONCEPTION_PATH for one run, then relaunch without it to go back to the saved tree.
  • Permanently: edit ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/condash/settings.yaml directly, or delete the file to get the folder picker again on the next launch.

What else you can configure

The conception path is the only thing condash needs to boot. Everything else — the workspace of code repos shown in the Code tab, the "open with" launcher chains, terminal preferences — lives inside the conception tree itself as configuration.yml. Edit it by hand or through the gear icon in the dashboard header (which opens a plain YAML editor).

See Config file reference for the full schema.