First run¶
Create your identity¶
Your identity is the first thing you make, and it belongs to you. It is a cryptographic keypair stored on your machine, protected by a password only you know. No platform issued it; no platform can take it away.
On the Urchin welcome screen, choose Create Identity and set a username, password, and theme. When you finish, you land on a success screen offering to create a room, join with an invite code, or go to your HOME.
There is no "forgot password"¶
Keep your password safe
A password reset would require someone else to have control over your identity, and no one does. Once your identity exists, export an encrypted backup and store it somewhere safe:
The backup file plus its passphrase can restore your identity on a new machine
(import-identity, then restart and log in). Anyone holding both holds your identity,
so treat them like keys.
One node, one identity¶
A node carries one signed-in identity at a time. The first account on a fresh node is created freely, and while someone is signed in the node will not accept a sign-in from anyone else. It says so plainly and names who is holding it. The usual shape is one node per person. Your friends run their own nodes and you reach each other over the network, rather than sharing a login on yours.
A node can hold more than one account on disk. Creating another after the first is sponsored. An existing member must authorize the registration (in the client this is the "Sponsor required" panel), so membership stays deliberate. Only one of those accounts can be signed in at any moment.
The guided tour¶
The first time you log in, the node introduces itself and walks you through the essentials, in its own voice:
I've been here for 3 minutes. Long enough to know what I am: a Kunuleco node. You've arrived. This is yours now. Let me show you around.
The tour has you run whoami (meet your identity) and transport (see how you are
connected), shows your starting commands, and explains rooms and invites. Type skip at any
point to jump to the closing. It runs once per identity.
Command mode and chat mode¶
The Urchin client has two input modes:
- Command mode: everything you type is a verb (
look,say hello,create ~room garden). - Chat mode: bare text goes to the channel you are in; prefix a command with
/to run it (/look).
Switch with /cmd and /chat, and set your default with /defaultmode.
Your first commands¶
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
whoami |
Show your identity, location, and inventory |
look (or l) |
Examine your surroundings; look <thing> inspects one thing |
go <exit> |
Move through an exit. Shortcuts: n s e w up down, plus northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest |
who |
See who is here in the room with you |
say <message> |
Talk to everyone in the room. Shortcut: "<message> |
create ~room <name> |
Make a new room |
invite <name> |
Create an invite (you get a short code like tiger-castle-7) |
home |
Return to your HOME |
help / help all |
Getting-started help, then the full verb listing |
quit |
Disconnect |
Prefer a terminal?¶
An SSH client can connect to a node directly (default port 8122, for example
ssh alice@host -p 8122). You type the same world verbs with no / prefix. Use one door
at a time: the node accepts a single signed-in session, so quit the client before you SSH
in, and vice versa. Client-only features (the network view, update commands, wizards)
exist only in the graphical app.