Getting Started
ReticulOS Documentation
Everything you need to know about ReticulOS — from your first capture to a fully organized workspace.
This documentation was written for beta 0.10 on Linux. The current Linux release is 0.12.17, and a few screens have changed since; where they differ, the guides on the blog are newer. See the release notes for what changed.
What is ReticulOS?
ReticulOS is a private desktop workspace for everything you capture during the day — text, links, and images — organized into named Collections made of individual Cells. It stays out of your way until the exact moment you need it, and your data lives on your device, encrypted at rest.
ReticulOS has three surfaces that share one database:
- The Widget — a slim, translucent, always-on-top panel for capturing and recalling clips without leaving what you're doing. Summon it from anywhere with Ctrl+Shift+\.
- Reticulum — the full desktop application for browsing, organizing, and editing your collections, with grid, list, and freeform canvas views, the day-book Schedules, and a rich text cell editor.
- Ret — the AI built into the widget. Press Ctrl+Shift+Space to switch the widget to Ret and ask your collections questions; answers cite the notes they came from. See AI Mode.
Anything captured in one surface appears instantly in the other — same collections, same cells, same theme.
Explore the docs
Installation
Requirements, installing the .deb, launching, and updating.
Quick Start
From first launch to an organized collection in five minutes.
The Widget
The always-on-top capture panel — collections, items, and settings.
Reticulum
The full workspace — view modes, cards, colors, pinning, and search.
Schedules
The day book — a daily ledger with tags, carry-over todos, and AI summaries.
Capturing Content
Every way to get content into ReticulOS, and how types are detected.
The Cell Editor
Slash commands, tables, callouts, checklists, and autosave.
AI Mode
Ask Ret about your notes — setup, indexing, cited answers and changes you approve.
Formatting (RetMD)
The portable Markdown subset your rich cells are stored in.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Every shortcut — global, widget, Reticulum, and editor.
Data & Storage
Where your data lives, how encryption works, and what gets persisted.
Troubleshooting
Fixes for common hiccups, and how to reach us.
Core concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Cell | A single captured item — a piece of text, a link, an image, or a rich note. The atomic unit of ReticulOS. |
| Collection | A named bucket of cells, one per context: a project, a research topic, a reading list. The Home collection always exists. |
| Widget | The compact always-on-top capture surface. |
| Reticulum | The full application window for organizing and editing. |
| Pin | Keeps a cell at the top of its collection, on its own shelf in Reticulum. |
| RetMD | The portable Markdown subset your cells are stored in. See Formatting. |
| Day Book | The Schedules view — one ledger page per day, with tags and carry-over todos. See Schedules. |
| Index | The local, encrypted vector index AI Mode builds over a collection so it can answer from your notes. See AI Mode. |