Course outline

AcademyModule 0 · Orientation

First launch and workspace setup

Lesson 2 of 310 min

What you'll learn

You can say what the app does the moment it opens, and why there is no launcher step
You can switch, pin, and manage workspaces from the titlebar workspace selector
You can open a folder as a workspace and know exactly what to click first
You can sign in with Google or an email code, and explain what stays local versus what goes to the cloud

The app reopens your last workspace. You can connect a folder and edit documents without an account. AI features may require sign-in or connection settings, depending on the model route you choose.

This lesson covers your first ten minutes: what happens on launch, how you switch workspaces, opening your first folder, signing in, and the line between local and cloud.

The Consilience workspace with navigation, editor, and agent surfaces in context.

What happens when you open the app

The main window reopens the workspace at the top of your recents — the one you used most recently, unless you've pinned one, because pinned workspaces sort above the rest. You land inside it directly. There's no screen in between and nothing to click.

The reopen is deliberately inert. You get the empty-workspace command menu, headed "{your folder} · No open tabs", and nothing else happens: no document opens by itself, no extraction starts, no model is called. Your files have been sitting in the file tree on the left sidebar the whole time.

When there's nothing to reopen

On a genuine first run — or if the folder you last used has been moved or deleted — the content area shows the no-workspace panel instead, headed "Open a workspace to get started".

That's the only screen in the app whose whole job is getting you a workspace, and the next section but one walks through it.

Switch workspaces from the titlebar

Switching lives in one control: the workspace selector, the dropdown at the left end of the titlebar showing the name of the workspace you're in. Open it and you get everywhere you could be, in one list.

Who you are. The top line is your account, or "Not signed in — local only" when you aren't. Settings and Share sit right under it.
Your recent workspaces. Up to 8 local folders, pinned ones first, with a check mark on the one you're in. Anything older is still reachable from the search palette (⌘⇧F), which has a "Workspaces" filter.
Cloud workspaces. Listed below the local ones once you're signed in, with a cloud icon. Picking one opens it in its own window.
The ways in. At the bottom: "Open local workspace…", "Import shared workspace", and "Cloud workspaces…".

Right-click a recent row

Right-clicking any recent workspace opens a menu: "Pin to top" (or "Unpin"), "Open in new window", "Copy to cloud…", "Open in Finder", and "Remove from list".

Pinning is worth knowing on day one, because a pinned workspace sorts to the top of the recents — which makes it the one the app reopens next launch.

Open your own workspace

Now you point Consilience at a folder of your own. Each window holds one workspace at a time, which is what keeps a window about one thing: the selector switches this window, and "Open in new window" gives a second workspace its own.

Workspace selector: The titlebar dropdown naming the workspace you're in. Your recents, your cloud workspaces, and the ways to add one.
No-workspace panel: "Open a workspace to get started" — what the content area shows on a genuine first run, or when the last workspace is gone.
Empty-workspace command menu: What you land on when a workspace is open but no tab is. A task list with live shortcut chips.
Recents: The list behind the selector, ordered pinned first and then most-recently-opened. Its top row is what reopens on launch.

Mount your first real folder

Open the picker
On the no-workspace panel, click "Open local workspace…", the primary action. The titlebar selector carries the same entry once you already have a workspace open. Beside it the panel offers "Create a cloud workspace…", "Import shared workspace" (a .zip bundle) and "Clone repository", which asks for an owner/name or URL, asks where to put it, and opens the clone as your workspace.
Pick a folder
Choose any folder of notes or documents. An empty one is fine too — the app mounts it and offers you the things that would fill it, rather than refusing.
Land on the command menu
The workspace mounts and you see "{your folder} · No open tabs" with a task list. No document opens on its own. Your files wait in the file tree on the left sidebar.
Click "Extract sources"
While the knowledge graph is still empty, "Extract sources" (⌘⇧I) gets promoted to the one primary button. It starts turning your files into the graph; the extraction lessons later in the course show exactly how.

Opening a file straight from Finder works too

Double-click a markdown file (or use "Open With" on it) with no workspace mounted, and Consilience opens that file as a tab on its own. The sidebar shows a "No folder opened yet" state with an "Open workspace" button. Click it to mount the surrounding folder as a workspace, and your tab stays open the whole time.

Sign in to use Consilience service models; those requests count toward your account usage. Local models and direct connections use their selected model and connection settings. Open Settings from the workspace selector or press ⌘,, then open the "Account" tab.

Two options: "Continue with Google", or type your email and click "Email me a code". The 6-digit code verifies itself the instant you finish typing it.

Plan	How the plan picker describes it
Free	"Try out AI features at a light pace."
Plus	"Plenty for everyday note-taking and agent use."
Pro	"Built for heavy, all-day agent work, with early access to advanced features."
Ultra	"Top limits for power users, with early access and priority support."

Plans differ only in usage limits. Nothing is locked behind a feature gate. Usage is counted in credits, tokens weighted by what the AI costs, and totted up over two spans: the last 5 hours and the last week.

One thing to know on day one: if you've never paid before, the Plus plan shows "First month free". You do need a card, billing starts when the trial ends, and the offer is once per account.

What runs locally, what runs in the cloud

Consilience is local-first. Your files live in a plain folder you picked, your settings stay on your disk, and the knowledge graph lives on your machine. A workspace can carry its own portable export, .consilience/graph.nq, which rebuilds the graph without re-running the AI.

So what leaves your machine? Two things. The AI calls behind chat and extraction run in the cloud, against your account's allowance. And billing happens in your system browser, never inside the app.

The line to remember

Files, settings, and the graph: local. Model calls and payment: cloud.

Document facts can be extracted again. Preserve the graph, vocabulary, and decisions when moving the existing result. A graph.nq export lets you load the saved graph without a model call.

The checklist, and one thing to know

A "Get started" card sits at the bottom of the Agent sidebar's session list, with a progress bar and four steps. It maps your first day, and the course ahead. Finish all four and it celebrates for a few seconds, then hides for good. The X hides it early, and Help ▸ Get Started Checklist brings it back.

"Open a workspace" opens the folder picker, and ticks itself off once a workspace is mounted.
"Extract sources" opens ingest. The extraction lessons pick up here.
"View your knowledge graph" opens the graph tab.
"Ask the AI a question" starts a new chat. That's the working-with-the-agent lessons' territory.

Removing a recent entry keeps the files

"Remove from list" on a recent workspace never touches the folder on disk. It forgets the row, nothing more. And a workspace that carries its own .consilience/graph.nq export rebuilds its whole knowledge graph the instant you reopen it, with no re-processing.

One workspace fills each window, which keeps every window clear and on one thing. Switch in a click from the titlebar selector, or right-click a recent row and choose "Open in new window" to keep two workspaces side by side.

While the extraction you just started fills the graph in the background, the next lesson looks at what is being built: the workspace, the graph, and the agent, and how the three fit together.

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