Reference

Web UI

The local browser workspace started by gno serve: search, browse, graph, edit, capture, API, and live indexing.

gno serve starts GNO’s local browser workspace and REST API. It is the easiest surface for people who do not want to live in a terminal: add folders, watch indexing progress, search, ask, browse notes, inspect the knowledge graph, and safely edit Markdown. Everything still runs on your machine.

What this is

Workspace — a dashboard, document browser, search UI, ask UI, graph, editor, collections screen, and connector setup.
Local API server — the same process exposes /api/* for scripts and internal tools.
Live indexer — while the workspace is running, file changes are watched and synced so recent notes become searchable.

Launch and manage

gno serve # foreground, http://localhost:3000
gno serve --port 8080 # custom port
gno serve --index research # named index
gno serve --detach # background; prints pid + url
gno serve --status --json # machine-readable status
gno serve --stop # graceful stop

--port changes the browser/API port.
--detach, --status, --stop, --pid-file, and --log-file use the same lifecycle contract as gno daemon.
Use gno daemon instead when you want background indexing without the browser or API server.

Workspace pages

Dashboard — first-run checklist, health center, model download state, document counts, indexing state, quick capture.
Search — BM25, vector, and hybrid retrieval with filters for collection, date, category, author, tags, intent, and query modes.
Ask — cited Q&A over your local documents. Good for “what did I decide?” and “summarize these meeting notes” workflows.
Browse — cross-collection tree with folder detail panes and document quick switching.
Doc View / Editor — rendered document view, split-view Markdown editor, live preview, frontmatter metadata, wiki-link autocomplete, presets, and safe editing rules.
Graph — interactive network of wiki links, markdown links, backlinks, unresolved links, and similarity edges.
Collections and Connectors — add folders, reindex, tune collection settings, and install agent integrations.

Quick capture

Press N to capture a note into an editable collection. The basic path is still title plus content; open Source only when you want provenance fields such as kind, URL, author, observed time, or external id. Choose a preset when you want a scaffold; idea-original, person, company-project, and meeting are tuned for second-brain pages.

Quick Capture writes structured source: frontmatter and shows the same receipt states as CLI, MCP, REST, and SDK capture: write result, FTS sync, and embedding. FTS sync may be pending, skipped, or failed independently from the file write. Embedding stays separate until you run embed or index.

The typed presets use the same synthesis/timeline pattern as CLI capture: current assessment above ## Timeline, raw notes and dated evidence below it. If contentTypes rules are configured, matching preset frontmatter or folder prefixes become contentType metadata in JSON search/query results.

Search and ask controls

The Web UI exposes the same retrieval controls as the CLI. Use exact search for names and phrases, vector search for conceptual matches, hybrid for normal research, and the Ask page when you want a grounded answer with citations.

term: "spaced repetition"
intent: personal knowledge base learning loop
hyde: A note explaining how repeated review turns saved notes into long-term memory.

Safe editing model

Markdown and plain text stay editable. Converted binaries (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX) stay read-only. If you want to work on the content of a converted document, use Create editable copy in the doc view — it spawns a new markdown note with source provenance intact.

Keyboard shortcuts

Cmd/Ctrl+K — command palette and quick switcher
N — quick capture a new note
/ — focus search
T — cycle search depth
? — shortcut reference