Karta is an experimental creative application built on top of a node-based file browser. It is very bare and unstable, with only some of the foundations set in place. It is a work in progress and not ready for even remotely serious use, but feel free to look around and try it.
Early development has been quite chaotic and flow state driven, and this is reflected in the code and commits. Steps are being taken to steer the development process to be more systematic and understandable, but that will take time and some learning on my part.
Also note that this project has not yet been tested Windows. Tested and working on Mac.
Welcome to Karta, a project aimed at rethinking file management and visualization for creative workflows. This early-stage application introduces a novel concept: a node-based file browser, designed to visually represent the intricate network of files and folders within digital projects.
At this stage, Karta is a prototype, exploring the potential to view and manage files as part of an interconnected graph. Each file and folder is represented as a node, and the relationships between them are visualized as links. This approach is not just about organizing files; it's about understanding the structure and interdependencies of your project at a glance.
For a more detailed explanation of the project's purpose and goals, refer to VISION.md. For technical details refer to ARCHITECTURE.md.
- Make sure you have Rust installed. Karta uses the Bevy game engine so familiarity with it is recommended.
- Clone the repo
- Build and run
At first startup, you will be asked to choose a folder to create your vault in. Once set up, the contents of that folder will be spawned in as a force-directed graph. Middle-mouse click to pan the view and scroll to zoom. Dragging from the edge of a node to another will create a new connection between those nodes. Right-clicking on a node will bring up a menu where you can pin and unpin nodes (to be ignored by the force simulation) and move to another nodes' context.
It's much too early for me to ask or hope for contributions. The most valuable thing you might contribute at this stage is sharing your thoughts about the project and discussing it with me, to help clarify the path forward. I am active in the Bevy discord, so you may find me there under the same username.
Use the develop branch for the most up-to-date version.
For those who don't want to install the development environment directly to their computers, it is possible to develop Karta within an isolated Docker container. You can build the image and run the container from the project root directory by typing:
docker compose up
This command will build the karta-rust-devenv docker image, if it does not already exist, and
start the container. After that it is possible to run e.g. VSCode and connect to this running container by
executing the "Dev Containers: Attach to running container" command, and chose the correct container.
This will open a new VSCode instance which is now running within our rust development container.
If you install rust- or any other plugin to VSCode, it will be valid only when running this container.
The project directory is to be found in /project directory. Use the terminal from VSCode to run
any command within the context of docker container.