Getting Started

Getting up and running takes about a minute, and the steps are the same in the browser and in the desktop app.

Want to try it before signing up? Open a live demo workspace: no account, nothing to install, right in your browser.

Sign in

General Text always runs behind a sign-in: your files are encrypted to your identity, so there is no signed-out mode to work in. Register with an email and a password, or continue with Google, then click the link we email you to verify the address.

Choose your encryption passphrase

The first time you sign in, you pick an encryption passphrase. Everything you sync is end-to-end encrypted, and this passphrase is what unlocks it on each of your devices. It is separate from your password on purpose: the password proves who you are to us, the passphrase unlocks what we cannot read.

You are then shown a recovery key, once. Save it (a password manager, or on paper). If you forget the passphrase, that key is the only way back in, and we have no copy of either. See Encryption.

You land on Workspaces Home

Signing up makes a workspace for you, named after you, and signing in lands you on Workspaces Home: a calm overview of every workspace you're in, plus what you last had open. Click one to go in.

A workspace holds files, apps and people, and carries its own key and its own bill; there is no layer above it. Make more from the switcher at the top of the sidebar (New workspace), one per project or team. See Workspaces.

A new workspace is empty on purpose. Its home screen offers the three ways to fill it: fork an app, make a file, or drop one in. Once there is something in it, the same screen becomes a launcher: your apps on one side, the files you last opened on the other.

Add files

Shared Files in the sidebar is the workspace's own files. New file takes a path like notes/meeting.md and creates any missing folders on the way; New folder makes an empty one; Upload (or a drag onto the page) brings in what you already have, images and PDFs included.

Everyone in the workspace can see everything under Shared Files, and every app in the workspace can read it. That is the deal it names.

Fork an app

Apps in the sidebar, then Gallery, is where people share the apps they have made. Forking copies one into this workspace at the version you pick, and the copy is yours: it runs from your workspace's own files, and it keeps working whether or not the original ever changes again. Before anything lands, the fork dialog shows which network hosts the app talks to, or that it talks to nothing. See Apps.

You can also write one yourself, or have an agent push one in. Three free apps come with a free workspace.

Get the desktop app

The desktop app is free, and it is the version that puts your files on your own disk: every workspace you belong to is mirrored to a real folder as plain text, so your editor, your terminal, a script or your own assistant can read it. It keeps working offline and syncs when you reconnect.

Sign-in happens in your browser (so your password manager works), and hands the session back to the app. Download it, or see Desktop App.

On a phone there is nothing to download: add General Text to your home screen from the browser. See Mobile App.

Invite people

People in the sidebar, then invite by email and pick a role: Admin can change the workspace, its people and its keys; Member can open and edit everything in it. Everyone can edit in real time, and everyone in the workspace counts toward its bill: $12 a month covers up to five people, so inviting the first four costs nothing extra.

A free workspace is one person. Subscribe it (Settings → Workspace → Billing) to invite anyone.