Create your first workspace

This page creates a local home for one community's definitions and decision rules.

1. Install the command

From a checkout of Idiolect:

cargo install --path crates/idiolect-cli
idiolect version

The second command should print idiolect 0.13.0.

2. Name the community

Use a DID controlled by a person or service accountable to the community. The example DID is deliberately fake; replace it before publishing anything.

mkdir neighborhood-archive
idiolect init \
  --workspace neighborhood-archive \
  --name "Neighborhood Archive" \
  --did did:plc:replace-me

The command creates neighborhood-archive/idiolect.toml and the managed directories used for definitions, changes, migrations, releases, and keys.

3. Read the manifest as a promise

Open idiolect.toml. The important sections are:

  • [community] names the accountable community identity.
  • [[authorities]] names who may sign releases and which role they hold.
  • [governance] selects a decision model, quorum, approval threshold, and review period.
  • [resources] bounds schema bytes, consequence items, and retained failure samples.
  • [release] sets the release directory and minimum distinct signatures.
  • [exit] selects the material copied into a portable export.

The defaults use consent with one maintainer authority. They are a starting point, not a claim that every community should govern this way. Edit the policy before the first consequential decision.

For this local walkthrough only, set reviewPeriodDays = 0 under [governance] so you can release the change immediately. Keep a nonzero review period when participants need time to inspect and contest a real proposal.

4. Ask the workspace to diagnose itself

idiolect doctor --workspace neighborhood-archive
idiolect check --workspace neighborhood-archive

doctor explains absent directories, unreadable definitions, unsafe links, and incomplete policy. doctor --repair may recreate missing managed directories; it does not invent authorities, rewrite definitions, or overwrite history.

The workspace is ready when check exits successfully. Next, explain a definition change.