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Quick start

Four steps: install, open a folder, create an item, watch the file change.

A conception is the folder condash renders: a plain directory of Markdown projects and knowledge notes, usually a git repo. Everything on this page builds one — or point condash at a Markdown folder you already have and it renders that.

1. Install

Download the latest release for your OS from https://github.com/vcoeur/condash/releases/latest:

OS Asset
Linux condash-<version>.AppImage or condash_<version>_amd64.deb
macOS condash-<version>-arm64.dmg
Windows condash.Setup.<version>.exe

Debian/Ubuntu users can install from the signed apt repository instead:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://condash.vcoeur.com/apt/pubkey.asc \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/condash.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/condash.gpg] https://condash.vcoeur.com/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/condash.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install condash

Note that the apt index covers the most-recent 5 releases including prereleases, so apt install condash can hand you an -rc build. Download a plain vX.Y.Z .deb if you want stable only.

The builds are unsigned. Each OS asks you to confirm the download once on first launch (control-click → Open on macOS; "More info → Run anyway" on Windows; nothing extra on Linux).

git must be on PATH — condash shells out to it for repo status.

2. Open a folder

Nothing opens automatically. Launch condash and you get one line of text and one button:

Pick a conception directory to list its projects.

[ Choose folder… ]

Click it — or use File → Open… (Ctrl+O) — and pick any directory, for example ~/conception. condash writes the choice into settings.json (key lastConceptionPath) and reuses it next time.

If the folder is missing projects/ or a config file, condash offers to seed it:

Initialise from template? This folder is missing projects/ and a condash config file.

Initialise it from the bundled conception template? Skill files, seed indexes, and example config will be laid down. Existing files are left alone.

Click Initialise and you get a working tree in one step: AGENTS.md, .condash/settings.json, projects/index.md, a seeded knowledge/, and the five shipped skills under .agents/skills/. Existing files are never overwritten.

To switch trees later: File → Open… (Ctrl+O), or File → Open Recent for the last five.

3. Create an item

Three equivalent ways to open the create-item modal: the + New project ▾ button on the NOW section header, the + New button in the Projects pane header, or File → New project… (Ctrl+N).

A tree with no projects and no knowledge/ content shows a Welcome screen first, with four cards — Create your first project, Open my tree, Read the welcome doc, Open the documentation site — plus a Don't show this again link that persists the dismissal (welcome.dismissed). The template init seeds knowledge/, so it marks the Welcome screen to appear once after the init (even though the seeded tree has knowledge entries); it does not reappear on later launches.

The modal asks for four things, in this order:

  • Title — free text.
  • Slug — auto-derived from the Title, with an edit button to override.
  • Kind — project, incident, or document. Choosing incident reveals Environment / Severity / Severity impact.
  • Status — now, review, later, or backlog.

Click Create. condash writes projects/<YYYY-MM>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>/README.md and an empty notes/ beside it:

---
date: 2026-07-26
kind: project
status: now
apps: []
---

# My title

## Goal

<What this project aims to achieve — the user-facing outcome.>

## Scope

<What is in scope and what is explicitly out of scope.>

## Steps

- [ ] <first task>

## Timeline

- 2026-07-26 — Project created.

## Notes

You can also hand-create items — mkdir the folder and drop a README with that header. Legacy bold-prose headers (**Date**: 2026-07-26, etc.) are still accepted; see https://condash.vcoeur.com/reference/readme-format/. condash picks it up live.

4. Watch the file change

Open the item and click the marker button next to a step. The marker cycles [ ] → [~] → [x] → [-], and condash rewrites exactly that one line of the README. cat the file, or git diff it: nothing else moved. That is the whole model.

Editing settings

File → Settings (Ctrl+,) opens a single full-viewport modal — one scrolling surface whose left rail groups sections under two scope headers, one per file. Every setting has exactly one home, so there are no tabs, no inheritance, and nothing to override.

  • Personal · this machine (writes settings.json) carries Recent conceptions, Appearance, Terminal, Launchers, Open with, Dashboard, and Auto-commit — in that order.
  • This conception (writes .condash/settings.json) carries Workspace & paths and Repositories — only what describes this tree.

Each section shows a scope chip naming the file it writes; there are no inheritance badges or Reset to global buttons. There is no in-modal JSON editor — each preference has its own form control. The rail's Open settings.json / Open .condash/settings.json buttons open either file with your OS default handler.

Full breakdown: the Configuration page in this same Help menu.

Per-tree config (<conception>/.condash/settings.json, with the legacy condash.json / configuration.json read indefinitely as fallbacks) is per-host by default — the .condash/ directory is gitignored. Un-ignore .condash/settings.json in your .gitignore to share workspace path, repos, and launcher commands with teammates via git. Per-machine config (settings.json) is local to this laptop — your editor binary, your terminal, your theme.

More

Full docs (tutorials, per-feature guides, reference) live online at https://condash.vcoeur.com. The Help menu has an Open documentation site entry.