Your First Hall¶

Your HOME is yours alone. A Hall is a place for a group. You found it inside your HOME, you become its Steward, and you decide who gets in.

Found a Hall¶

Type this in Urchin's terminal:

found hall riverside

The node answers:

Hall 'riverside' founded. You are the Steward.
From your Common zone, 'go riverside' to enter the hub.
Zones: public (visitors+), common (familiar+), private (stewards).
Default rooms: welcome, general, governance.
Published to Harbor — peers on this node will see it listed under your name.
It will NOT show in your own Harbor: that lists other people's halls, not yours.

In Urchin, /found-wiz walks you through founding a Hall step by step.

Founding makes these pieces:

The hub, the Hall itself. It hangs off the Common zone of your HOME.
Three zones inside the hub. The public zone admits anyone, the common zone admits members at Familiar or above, and the private zone admits Stewards.
Three starter rooms, welcome, general and governance, one in each zone.
A Harbor listing, so other accounts on your node can find the Hall. Your own Hall does not show in your own Harbor, which lists other people's Halls. To keep the Hall unlisted, found it with found hall riverside --no-harbor, or run set hall harbor private later.

The name of the Hall becomes an exit name, so a one-word name is the easiest to walk to.

Your Channel Moves to the Hall¶

Founding the Hall moves your channel to it. The chip above Urchin's input changes to the Hall, so a line you type goes to the Hall's members, and invite now makes an invitation to the Hall rather than to your lobby.

Founding does not move you. You are still where you typed the command. To walk in:

home
go common
go riverside

Walking into your own Hall's hub also moves your channel to the Hall, if it is not there already. look in the hub shows its zones as exits, and home brings you back from anywhere.

Shape It¶

These work only from inside the Hall, and only for a Steward:

describe hall What brings us together is shared music.
set hall atmosphere playful
set hall threshold knock

describe hall sets the Hall's intention, a one-line answer to what brings people together. The atmosphere is one of supportive, focused, playful or intellectual. set hall on its own lists every field it takes.

A new Hall has live voice and avatar pose turned on. set hall voice off and set hall pose off close them. Voice and pose travel over Veilid only, and they are not end-to-end encrypted.

Who Gets In¶

Each Hall has a threshold:

Threshold	Who gets in
`open`	Anyone who joins, arriving as a Newcomer
`knock`	A Steward approves each arrival. This is the default.
`invite_only`	Arrivals queue for a Steward, the same as `knock`
`members_only`	Arrivals queue. Two vouches from members at Trusted or above admit them, or a Steward accepts them directly.

Someone who already holds Newcomer standing or better in the Hall walks straight in, whatever the threshold.

When someone knocks, the node tells you. These commands answer a knock:

Command	What it does
`knocks`	Lists the people waiting, with any vouches, across every Hall you Steward. It works from anywhere.
`accept <name>`	Admits them as a Newcomer. They join again and are let in.
`reject <name>`	Turns them down. This is lasting. They cannot knock again, and there is no command yet to clear a rejection.
`vouch <name>`	In a `members_only` Hall only, sponsors someone waiting. You need Trusted standing or better.
`standing <name> <tier>`	Meant to set someone's standing: `newcomer`, `familiar`, `trusted`, `steward`, or `visitor` to clear it. Steward only. In this build it grants nothing (see Known issues).

accept, reject, vouch and standing act on the Hall you are standing in, so walk in first. standing on its own shows your own standing in the Hall.

Standing tiers and what each one opens are covered in Concepts: Trust.

Next Step¶

You have a Hall. Now let's bring someone into it.

Send Your First Invitation →