Getting started
Keel takes you from an empty folder to a typeset book. This page is the whole path: one command, one login, one sample novel, one rendered PDF — about three minutes, most of it the first-time build.
What you need
- Windows Terminal — the supported host. Legacy console windows mangle function keys and glyphs.
- Docker Desktop, running — only if you want to sign in to the Yard (the web admin). The login screen's F2 local dev mode works without it.
- Nothing else. The starter script builds Keel itself on first run.
Step 1 — run the one file
The starter builds the binary if it is missing, starts the Yard when your session needs it, creates the sample novel once, launches the TUI, and puts your shell back where it started when you quit. Three flags:
| -Rebuild | rebuild the binary (after an update) |
| -Fresh | rebuild the sample novel from scratch |
| -SetupOnly | prepare everything but do not launch |
Step 2 — the editor login
The first thing Keel shows is a centered login. Admins are editors too — the MVP ships one seeded account.
admin /
mvp. The cursor starts on the password — type it and
press Enter. A session that still validates skips this screen on later
launches; keel logout brings it back. No Yard running? Press
F2 for local dev mode.Step 3 — the sample novel
The starter builds The Salt Ledger: a complete 24-page series with three characters (Kael, Vess, Immy), a specified-and-canon spine of three beats, three prose leaves, chapters, a paid promise, and a recorded fact — every layer of Keel populated so you can explore before you commit words of your own. Build more anytime:
Step 4 — the screen
Keel's shell is called the C: a strip above, a strip below, a rail on the left, and the content pane they wrap around.
Step 5 — press ? whenever you are lost
? (or F1) opens the built-in manual: the shape, every view,
every lens, every key. The essentials:
| 1–7 | views: map · write · codex · review · ledger · yard · worldline |
| Tab | cycle the rail lens |
| j / k, Enter | walk the map; Enter opens the beat's first leaf to write |
| F5 | render and open the book PDF |
| ^p | command palette |
| ? or F1 | help · Esc closes overlays |
| q | quit (guarded against unsaved work) |
Step 6 — your first PDF
Press F5. Keel typesets the whole volume through Typst — B-format trade paperback, EB Garamond, justified, 34 lines to the page — and opens it in your viewer. The viewer reloads on every re-render, so leave it open beside the terminal.
Where everything lives
The Yard runs at localhost:8000 — admin, docs, changelog, and published book previews.
Next
Learn the shape in Hierarchy & glossary, then take the Salt Ledger walkthrough — it touches every feature once.