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Getting started

Install Scaffold, create your first vault, write a note, link it to another and find your way around the workspace.

On this page

Scaffold keeps your notes as ordinary Markdown files in a folder on your device. There is no account to create and nothing to sign in to. This page takes you from a fresh install to your first linked notes.

Install

Get the installer for Windows or the APK for Android from the download page. It lists the version, file size, requirements and a SHA-256 checksum for each file. Checking the checksum takes a minute and is worth doing for any app you install from a file. If nothing is published yet, the page says so.

On first launch Scaffold asks whether to check for updates automatically. Either answer is fine: from 0.2.0 on, updates install from inside the app (see Updates). Coming from 0.1.x? Install 0.2.0 over your existing app; do not uninstall first.

Create or open a vault

A vault is just a folder. When you start Scaffold you can:

  1. Choose Create new vault, pick a name and a place for the folder.
  2. Or choose Open folder as vault and pick a folder that already contains Markdown files.
  3. Or choose Try the demo vault to explore a ready-made set of linked notes first.

On Android the start screen already lists a vault called My notes, created on first start. Vaults there live in the app’s own storage for now; opening a folder from the device is not supported yet. See Android.

Scaffold remembers recent vaults so you can switch between them with the Open another vault command. Read Vaults for what the app stores in a vault and what it never touches.

Write your first note

  1. Press Ctrl + N to create a note. The file name is the note’s title.
  2. Start typing. Markdown is rendered as you go in live preview. Press Ctrl + E to switch to reading mode, and use the editor mode setting for plain source.
  3. Your changes are saved automatically a moment after you stop typing. Every save is atomic, and a snapshot of the previous version is kept, so a crash cannot leave a half-written file.

Type [[ and start typing the title of another note. Scaffold suggests matches from your vault as you type, including notes in subfolders. Pick one with the arrow keys and Enter.

I wrote more about this in [[Atomic ideas]].

If the note does not exist yet, you can create it from the same menu. Open the Backlinks panel on the right to see every note that links to the one you are reading. More in Linking notes and Backlinks.

Find your way around

The workspace has three areas:

  • Left sidebar: file explorer, search, tags and bookmarks.
  • Centre: your notes in tabs. Split a pane to put two notes, or a note and the graph, side by side.
  • Right sidebar: backlinks, outgoing links and the outline of the current note.

Two commands get you anywhere. Ctrl + O opens the quick switcher to jump to a note by name, and Ctrl + P opens the command palette. See Keyboard shortcuts for the full list.

Next steps