Quick Start

First moves inside AuraOS — launcher, window selection, workspaces, Process Manager.

Once docker compose up is running and http://localhost:3000 shows the desktop, you're in. Five things to know before you go further.

1. The launcher

Three ways to open it:

Click the ⣿ icon in the dock.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Space — focus jumps to the dock's ◐ chip; press Enter on it, then → to the launcher icon, then Enter.
Press Ctrl+Alt+C (alt combo, same toggle).

The launcher overlays the desktop with the full app grid. Click an icon to launch. Right-click for "Open in workspace ▸" to send the new window to a specific workspace.

2. Window selection mode

The keyboard-driven way to focus a window without a mouse:

Ctrl+Alt+Space   →  focus the ◐ chip in the dock
Enter            →  enter Nav mode (first window gets a highlight)
←↑→↓             →  move the highlight between windows
Enter            →  hand focus to the iframe; OS flips back to App mode
Backspace        →  enter chrome-select on the highlighted slot
                    (close button focused by default)
←→               →   walk the slot's title-bar buttons
Enter            →   activate (close removes the window and
                     re-highlights the next; min/max do their thing)
Backspace        →   exit chrome-select; window stays highlighted
Esc              →  exit Nav mode; focus returns to the ◐ chip
Ctrl+Alt+Space   →  same exit (round-trip back to the chip)

The chip pulses while Nav mode is active. Mousedown outside an .app-slot also exits.

Focus mode + Nav. If a window is currently maximised (focus mode, [ ] button), entering Nav mode highlights that window — the focus overlay gets a --aura-color-text border + a centred ◉ watermark instead of moving you to the desktop. Backspace lands on the ✕ EXIT FOCUS button.

Auto-enter on launch. Clicking a launcher tile or pressing Enter on a window in Nav mode posts aura.window.focus to the iframe so apps that participate (Settings tile grid, Terminal's xterm) route keyboard focus to their first interactive element automatically.

3. Workspaces

The status bar shows numbered pills for each workspace. Click a pill to switch; the + adds a new one. Ctrl+Tab cycles forward, Ctrl+Shift+Tab backward. Ctrl+1 ... Ctrl+9 jumps direct.

Each workspace remembers its own layout, focused view, and (in Free Window mode) per-window rectangles. Switching workspaces is instant — iframes from other workspaces stay in the DOM (display:none) so state survives.

4. Layouts

The chip next to the workspace pills cycles layouts:

TILING — square-ish grid (cols = ceil(√n)).
COLUMNS — one row, one column per window.
ROWS — one column, one row per window.
FULLSCREEN — only the focused view; siblings sit underneath.
FREE WINDOW — absolute positioning + drag + resize.

Apps can declare a preferredLayout in their manifest; the workspace honours it when no user override is set.

5. Process Manager

Ctrl+Alt+M opens the panel. Per-instance you see:

The lifecycle state (creating → started → resumed → ...).
Focus (◉) — bring the iframe to front.
+ Activity (+) — only for activityMode: 'multi' apps; opens a new view sharing the same backend.
Stop (■) — graceful: fires onPause → onStop → onDestroy, then kills the sandbox.
Kill (⨂) — SIGKILL the sandbox immediately.

Esc closes the panel.