Introduction
NUU Onyx is the knowledge workspace of NUU. You open a mesh and you work with the documents inside it. A mesh is a named collection of Markdown documents and media.
Onyx is for people who keep thinking in writing. You use it when notes, plans, and reference pages need to live together and stay linked. You also use it when more than one person must work in the same collection.
The problem is scatter. Documents live in many tools. Links break when a title changes. Sharing is all or nothing. A public copy is hard to freeze. Onyx keeps one mesh as the unit of work. Documents have titles. You link them with wikilinks. You share the mesh with collaborators. You can publish a frozen version that anyone can read.
Where Onyx sits
Onyx is the workspace. The mesh is the collection. A separate guide covers Mesh as a concept. This guide covers the workspace experience.
You sign in with your NUU account. Your home lists the meshes you own and the meshes you joined. You can also browse published meshes. People without an account can still open a published version and read it.
Other NUU products use the same account. They serve other jobs. Onyx is the place you collect, write, link, and share knowledge.
What the workspace looks like
When you open a mesh, the workspace has three columns.
- The document tree is on the left. It lists every document in the mesh by title.
- One or more editor panes sit in the middle. Each pane holds tabs.
- The context rail is on the right. It shows backlinks and media for the open document.
You can hide a rail. You can enter focus mode to hide chrome and keep the document. On a phone the workspace shows one pane.
What you can do
A signed-in user with edit access can create documents, rename them, and delete them. Editing saves as you type. You can open more than one pane and compare documents. You can follow a wikilink. You can create a document from a missing link.
You can invite collaborators by email and give each person a role. You can publish a version of the mesh. That version is frozen. Readers do not need an account.
If the connection drops, you can keep editing documents you already have. Structural acts such as create, share, and publish wait for the connection. If two edits collide, you choose which copy to keep.
The command palette lists the actions the workspace can run now. Quick open finds a document by title.
How to read this guide
Start with the mental model. Then follow a short path of work.
- Read Core Ideas.
- Create a mesh and a few documents. See Create a Mesh and Your First Documents.
- Link those documents. See Link Documents and Follow Backlinks.
- Arrange panes when you need two documents at once. See Work with Panes and Tabs.
When other people need the mesh, read About Sharing and Publication. Then follow Share a Mesh with Collaborators or Publish a Mesh for Readers.