Getting started

UI tour

Know the sidebar, editor area, agent panel, and command palette.

Main regions

The window is laid out in four zones: left sidebar, center editor, right agent panel, and a top bar with tabs plus the command-palette trigger. Both side panels collapse (Cmd/Ctrl + B / Cmd/Ctrl + J) when you want a writing-only canvas.

Left sidebar: vault tree, tables, favorites, recents
Center: editor (Markdown / table / browser view)
Right: agent chat panel, you can attach docs as context
Top: tabs + command-palette trigger + vault switcher
Bottom status bar: sidecar state, word count, git branch, provider name

Editor essentials

The editor is WYSIWYG markdown — type # Title and it renders as a heading instantly, but the underlying file stays plain text, similar to Typora. Shortcuts follow platform conventions (Cmd on macOS, Ctrl on Windows / Linux).

Wikilinks [[Doc Name]] autocomplete, and backlinks show live in the right Inspector. / opens the slash menu for tables, callouts, Mermaid diagrams, and AI blocks.

Markdown source mode: Cmd/Ctrl + /
Inline images: drag or paste; they save to Resources/
Mermaid / KaTeX render live
Code blocks autodetect language with line numbers and a copy button

The agent panel

The right-side agent is not just a chatbot — it has plan / goal / chat modes, can read and write vault files, and can invoke sidecar tools (search, table query, web fetch, more). The currently focused document is auto-attached as context.

The panel header swaps model, provider, and system prompt. Each setting is scoped per vault so changes do not leak across vaults.

@doc attaches a document as context
@table attaches a table (schema + samples)
Plan mode: agent drafts a plan, you confirm before execution
Goal mode: long multi-step tasks, auto-dispatches subagents
Conversation history lives in .kition/history/ and can replay

The command palette

Cmd/Ctrl + K opens the palette — the entry point to almost everything. Fuzzy-find docs, jump to headings, switch vault, run an agent task, fire a hook, change themes — all from one input.

Once you internalize the palette, you can ditch half your mouse usage. Most actions have aliases — >new table creates a table, ?query runs a full-text search.

Plain text = search doc names
> prefix = run a command (e.g. >Toggle theme)
? prefix = full-text search
# prefix = jump to a heading
@ prefix = jump to a tag / wikilink

Key shortcuts

Below are the high-traffic shortcuts. Customize them in Settings → Keybindings, or import a VS Code / Sublime keymap.

Cmd/Ctrl + K — command palette
Cmd/Ctrl + O — quick open
Cmd/Ctrl + P — recent files
Cmd/Ctrl + J — toggle agent panel
Cmd/Ctrl + B — toggle sidebar
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + N — new vault
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + V — switch vault
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F — global search

← Back to help center More in Getting started →

Create your first vault

A vault is a local folder holding all your docs, tables, and settings.

Configure an AI provider

Wire up an OpenAI / Anthropic / compatible key so the agent can run.