Guide·01 of 10·Part of Switch
An application
Letters, the launcher, chains, and the map.
01·The first minute
01link
Get to an app
lodeMHold lode and press the letter. The app arrives maximized, launched if it has to be, with everything else parked out of the way.
NotesBrowserTerminalCalendarMailWindows, wherever the day left them
02·When you are ready
02link
Find an app you have not given a letter
lodespaceThe launcher lists your applications, ranked by how well they match and how often you go there. An empty query shows what you actually use. Rows wear the letters you already gave, so every search is a flashcard for the faster gesture.
NotesBrowserTerminalCalendarMailtype an app- Calendar⌘K add a letter
- MailM
- BrowserB
- NotesN
An app you have not given a letter
03link
Give an app a letter
⌘KaIn the launcher, ⌘K on a row opens its card. Type the letter, press return, and one line is written to your config. A browser row offers a profile as well, so B P and B W can be two different Braves.
Command K, then a
04link
Arrive beside, not in front
lode⇧MShift on any summon puts the app beside what you have instead of over it, an equal split.
Hold lode, then shift, then M
05link
Reach a window you lost
lode⇥The window chooser lists the focused app's windows, most recent first and the one you are in last. Type part of a title or walk the list. In the launcher, ⇥ on a running app expands it into its windows the same way.
Mail · Re: budgetMail · windows- Re: budgetmost recent
- Invoice 0412
- Drafts
Three Mail windows, one of them wanted
06link
Two letters when one runs out
lodeEOA chain is a short path of letters, E then O for Outlook under E for email. Once a chain starts it waits as long as you like. A wrong letter keeps you in place with a note. Only a completion or esc ends it.
Hold lode, then E, then O
07Few know thislink
See your letters
lodeHold lode by itself for half a second and the map appears: every letter you have, and every continuation from where you are. The system teaches its own map.
Hold lode
03·The fine print
What nobody finds by pressing keys
- While a chain is open, stray keystrokes are swallowed. Nothing leaks into the app you were in.
- A target already visible on another monitor is focused where it lives. Its arrangement is untouched. Anything hidden, parked, or freshly launched arrives on the screen you are using.
- A plain summon sweeps its own strays: any window Lodestar placed this session that is still standing on the display parks with the others, so one app, maximized, is true of the screen and not just the layout.
- Windows you did not summon are left alone. A dialog, a file reveal, a ⌘N window floats exactly as macOS would have it and never hides what you were reading.
- Every letter belongs to the graph. No letter is reserved.
- Three chains can mean the same browser as long as each opens a different profile. The card refuses a duplicate by naming the address that already means it.
04·Why
Why it works this way
Applications are stable, launchable, and singular, so a letter can always resolve to one and can always relaunch it. That makes them the safe bedrock of the whole system, and it is why the first minute of Lodestar is three letters and nothing else. Measured on one hand over a year, a bare letter under lode misfired at zero, and every chain misfired more, which is why single letters come first and chains come only when the letters run out.
05·Settings
The settings behind this page
Read from the schema Lodestar itself emits. The settings window shows the same rows, and each wears the path it writes.
graphobjectlode + letter chains → apps. Values: app name or <browser>:<profile name>.
$ lodestar config set graph …gestures.graphbooleanlode letter chains to your apps
$ lodestar config set gestures.graph truegestures.launcherbooleanlode space, the app launcher
$ lodestar config set gestures.launcher truelode.triggerright-command · left-commandThe physical trigger for every gesture.
$ lodestar config set lode.trigger …