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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:

export-identity ~/kunuleco-backup.id <base64_passphrase>

The backup file plus its passphrase can restore your identity on a new machine (import-identity). Anyone holding both holds your identity, so treat them like keys.

Joining a node that already has members

The very first account on a brand-new node is created freely. After that, account creation is sponsored: an existing member must authorize each new registration. In the client this is the "Sponsor required" panel; the newcomer supplies their desired credentials plus a sponsor's authorization. It keeps a node's membership intentional rather than open to the world.

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 ne nw se sw up down
who See who is here and who is online on this node
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?

Any SSH client can connect to a node directly (default port 8122, for example ssh alice@host -p 8122). You type the same verbs with no / prefix. Client-only features (the network view, update commands, wizards) exist only in the graphical app.

Next step

Make your first Hall