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KB4IT Help

Use the terminal interface

How-to guide Terminal interface basic
On this page

Run kb4it without any command in a terminal and it opens a full-screen interface. Use the mouse or the keyboard: Tab moves between buttons and Enter activates them. On the project list, q quits; inside a project, Esc goes back to the list.

The project list

Add a project

The main screen lists your projects. Knowledge bases made with kb4it create, here or on the command line, are added automatically.

  • New Project creates a knowledge base: choose a theme and a sample app, type a display name and the folder to create. The parent folder must exist.
  • Import Project adds one you already have: type the path of its config/repo.json and press Enter to preview it, then Import.
  • Delete Project removes the selected project from the list. The files on disk stay.

Work on a project

Select a project and press Enter.

The project screen

Button Does
Compile Builds the site; only what changed
Force Compile Rebuilds everything, like --force
Project Info Shows the settings in repo.json
List Source Files Lists the documents with their size
Explore Keys & Values Browses the properties, see below
View Build Log Shows the last log, filtered by level
Browse Local Opens the site from disk in your browser
Browse via Web Server Serves the site on http://127.0.0.1 and opens it

The build screen shows a progress bar and the log as it happens. It says Done or FAILED at the end; Copy Log puts the log on the clipboard.

Explore your properties

Explore Keys & Values shows every property, its values and the documents that have each value. Pick a document and press View Document to read its properties and text.

The explorer

It works after the first build, because it reads the index the build writes.

Other screens

Themes lists the installed themes, and Apps the sample apps each theme can create.

Tip

The web server picks a free port from 8642 up and keeps running until you quit, so you can rebuild and reload the browser.