Web UI

kiwifs serve includes a full web UI. Open http://localhost:3333; there is nothing else to install. Everything you do in it goes through the same write pipeline as the API, so every save is a git commit and shows up in search right away.

Layout

Area	What’s there
Header	Sidebar toggle, Search pages…, New page, view buttons, light/dark toggle
Sidebar	Space switcher, Pinned, Starred, Recent, and the Pages tree with Filter pages…
Page	Rendered markdown with author, last modified, comment count, reading time, and view count under the title
On this page	Table of contents, on screens 1280 px and wider
Footer	My Notes, comments, and Backlinks

On screens narrower than 768 px, the sidebar becomes an overlay that closes when you open a page.

Keyboard shortcuts

Press Mod+/ to see every shortcut. Mod is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl elsewhere.

Shortcut	Action
`Mod+K`	Search
`Mod+N`	New page
`Mod+E`	Toggle editor
`Mod+S`	Save and close the editor (the editor also autosaves after 2 seconds)
`Mod+Shift+E`	Switch between Visual and Source while editing
`Mod+B`	Toggle sidebar
`Mod+Alt+F`	Focus the tree filter
`Mod+G`	Knowledge graph
`Mod+Shift+B`	Bases
`Mod+Shift+T`	Timeline
`Mod+Shift+W`	Kanban
`Mod+Z`	Undo the last file operation in the tree (when not editing)
`Escape`	Close overlay or cancel
`Mod+/`	Keyboard shortcuts

Customize shortcuts

Rebind actions in .kiwi/keybindings.json or inline in config.toml. Inline config wins over the file, and unknown actions or invalid chords are ignored.

{
  "toggle_kanban": "Mod+Shift+J",
  "graph": "Mod+Shift+G"
}

[ui.keybindings]
toggle_kanban = "Mod+Shift+J"

Action names are search, new_page, toggle_editor, save, toggle_sidebar, graph, toggle_bases, toggle_timeline, toggle_kanban, toggle_mode, shortcuts_help, undo, focus_tree_filter, and close_overlay. GET /api/kiwi/keybindings returns the active bindings and any conflicts; the shortcuts dialog shows a warning when two actions share a chord.

Search

Mod+K opens the search palette. Each query runs full-text search and, when vector search is configured, semantic search at the same time, and merges the results.

Narrow results with folder chips and the 7 days, 30 days, and 90 days chips.
Type field:value to filter by frontmatter, for example status:draft or tag:billing.
With no matches, the palette suggests a spelling (Did you mean: …?).

Pages and the file tree

New page opens a dialog with a Path and a Template: Blank page or any template in .kiwi/templates/.
Right-click a page for Open, Duplicate, Rename, Move, Delete, and publish actions. Right-click a folder for New page in …, Upload files to …, Rename, Move, and Delete folder.
Drag files from your desktop onto the tree to upload them.
Click a missing wiki link (tooltip Missing: … — click to create) to create the page.
Previous and Next at the bottom of a page follow the nearest _book.yaml (a parts: list). Without one, they follow the folder’s files, with _index.md first.

To move pages and keep every link working, use Restructure or the tree’s Move, both of which rewrite links. The Move / Rename item in the page’s More actions menu copies the file to the new path and deletes the old one without rewriting links.

Editor

Click Edit (or press Mod+E) to edit the current page. The editor has two modes, chosen with the Visual | Source toggle:

Visual
Source

A block editor. Type / for commands, including Wiki link, Info callout, Warning callout, Error callout, and one entry per widget. Type [ to link to a page.Visual mode may reformat some markdown on save. If a page can’t be opened visually, KiwiFS offers Back to Source.

A markdown source editor that keeps your formatting byte-for-byte. Type / for Table, Todo, Code block, D2 diagram, Quote, Quiz, Frontmatter, and widget fences. Type [[ to autocomplete page names. While the cursor is inside a widget fence, a Widget preview pane renders it live.

The editor autosaves 2 seconds after you stop typing and shows Unsaved, Saving…, Saved, or Error.
Save & Close saves and returns to the rendered page.
Switching modes with unsaved changes asks whether to Save & switch or Switch without saving.
The Frontmatter section above the body edits YAML frontmatter.
KiwiFS remembers the mode you used last.

Add your own slash commands that insert a template page:

.kiwi/config.toml

[[ui.editor.slash_commands]]
id = "incident"
label = "Incident report"
icon = "siren"            # a Lucide icon name
description = "Insert the incident template"
template = ".kiwi/templates/incident.md"

Saves use the file’s ETag. If someone else changed the page since you opened it, the save fails with a 409 error. Copy your changes, reload the page, and edit again.

History

Click History on a page to see its git versions. Choose Diff for a word-level diff against the previous version, or Blame for line-by-line authorship. Restore writes an older version back as a new commit.

Views

The header buttons open full-screen views. Only one is open at a time.

Button	View	Feature key
Knowledge graph	Wiki-link and typed-link network	`graph`
Bases	Saved DQL queries as tables, cards, lists, or maps	`bases`
Canvas	Spatial diagrams in `.canvas` files	`canvas`
Whiteboard	Excalidraw sketches	`whiteboard`
Timeline	Recent commits, filterable by actor, path prefix, and time	`timeline`
Kanban	Workflow boards grouped by state	`kanban`
Data sources	Import connections and sync controls	`data_sources`

See Bases, Canvas, Whiteboard, and Workflows.

Knowledge graph

The graph shows every page and link in the knowledge base.

Highlight… searches for nodes. All folders and All tags filter the graph.
Mode switches between 2D and 3D.
Size by PageRank, Color by community, and Show links change how nodes and edges are drawn.
Link types filters edges: wiki-link or any typed frontmatter relation, such as supersedes.
Find path shows the shortest path between two pages you click.
Click a node to open its page.

Restructure pages

Restructure moves, renames, and merges pages as one commit without breaking links. Open it from the Restructure: move and merge pages icon in the sidebar’s Pages header.

Write a manifest

Enter moves, merges, and edits in Manifest (YAML or JSON):

moves:
  - from: drafts
    to: archive/drafts/
merges:
  - from: faq/duplicate.md
    into: faq/canonical.md
delete_empty_dirs: true

Plan and review

Click Plan. Nothing changes yet. The plan shows Before and After trees, how many links will be rewritten, any errors under Cannot apply, warnings under Check before applying, and a diff for every file under Changes, file by file. Uncheck an item to leave it out.

Apply

Click Apply. The result names the commit, and Undo reverts it.

When an agent proposes a restructuring over MCP that needs a person’s sign-off, it appears under Waiting for your approval as … wants to restructure. Review it the same way and click Approve for …. If files were moved outside KiwiFS (on disk, over NFS, or over WebDAV), Moved outside KiwiFS offers Review the fix to repair the links. The same plans are available from the CLI with kiwifs refactor and to agents through kiwi_refactor_plan and kiwi_refactor_apply. See Refactor for the full manifest format.

Import data

Open Data sources, then Connect a source. On a fresh knowledge base, the welcome page also offers Import from a source.

Group	Sources
Files	CSV, JSON, JSON Lines, YAML, BibTeX, Excel, SQLite
Documents	Markdown, Obsidian
Databases	PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB
Cloud services	Firestore, Firebase RTDB, Notion, Airtable

The wizard walks through the source, the connection (upload a file, or give a server path such as an Obsidian Vault path), a Target folder, Field mapping with types inferred from up to 100 sample rows, and a Preview of five records before you click Import. Syncable sources then show Sync now and Pause sync in Data sources. See Import connections.

Reading features

Rich blocks and widgets

Fenced code blocks render as interactive components: Mermaid and D2 diagrams, charts, DQL tables, calculators, and step-through widgets such as ```array, ```tree, and ```graph. Other markdown viewers show them as plain code.

Mermaid diagrams have zoom, Reset, fullscreen, and SVG / PNG download. Add focus="A,B" or dim="C" to the fence to highlight nodes.
D2 diagrams are rendered on the server, with Download SVG.
Step-through widgets and kiwi-steps have playback controls: Space plays and pauses, the arrow keys step, and r resets. Widgets on one page can share a clock, and Copy link to this step links to a specific step.

See Widgets for every fence and its syntax.

Quizzes

A [!quiz] callout becomes an interactive question:

> [!quiz single] Which port does KiwiFS serve on by default?
> - [ ] 8080
> - [x] 3333
>   The REST API and web UI share it.
> - [ ] 2049

Kinds are single, multi, boolean, order, match, and short. Submit grades the answer and shows Correct or Not quite with the explanation; short-answer quizzes use Show answers instead. A running score appears above the page, and your answers are saved for next time. Search indexes only the question, so answers never show up in snippets.

Progress tracker

A ```widget:tracker block turns numbered folders such as 01-intro/ and 02-setup/ into a checklist. Mark pages complete with the circle next to each one, filter by All, Todo, or Done, and bookmark pages for review. Each folder starts collapsed; click its header to expand it. Progress is saved per user.

Comments

Select text on a page and click + Comment. Comments can be resolved or deleted, and appear in the page footer.

Export and publish

More actions (the ⋯ button on a page) has Export as Markdown and Export as PDF. PDF export runs in your browser with Typst; wiki links become plain text and embeds are dropped. The first export downloads the Typst compiler from a CDN, so it needs internet access. For server-side PDF, HTML, or slides, use Document export.
Publish sets published: true and makes the page readable at /p/{path}. A published page’s button shows its view count, Copy public link, View published page, and Unpublish. Right-click a folder for Publish folder. See Publishing.

Spaces

With multiple spaces, a dropdown at the top of the sidebar lists each space with its file count. New Space creates one. Switching spaces closes open views and reloads the tree.

Customize the UI

.kiwi/config.toml

[ui]
theme_locked = false
start_page = "welcome"   # welcome | recent | dashboard | a page path

[ui.features]            # all default to true
edit = true
history = true
publish = true
graph = true
kanban = true
canvas = true
whiteboard = true
timeline = true
bases = true
data_sources = true

[ui.toolbar]
views = ["graph", "bases", "kanban"]   # order and subset of view buttons

[ui.branding]
name = "Acme Wiki"
logo_url = "/raw/assets/logo.svg"
welcome_title = "Welcome to the Acme wiki"

[ui.sidebar]
pinned = ["index.md", "handbook/onboarding.md"]

[ui.tags]
banner = ["status", "difficulty", "tags"]
hide = ["internal_id"]

Features

Set a key under [ui.features] to false to hide that part of the UI. edit = false hides New page, Edit, Restructure, and the More actions menu, which also removes the export items. These flags only hide UI; use auth scopes to block writes.

Start page

welcome shows the welcome screen, recent lists recently opened pages, and dashboard opens the first of dashboard.md, pages/dashboard.md, or index.md. Any other value is treated as a page path.

Themes

KiwiFS includes five themes: Kiwi (the default), Neutral, Ocean, Sunset, and Forest, each with light and dark variants. The header toggles light and dark mode. Set a theme for everyone with PUT /api/kiwi/theme. theme_locked = true hides the toggle and blocks theme changes through the API. Add your own styles in .kiwi/custom.css.

Tags and properties

banner lists frontmatter keys shown as chips under the title (default ["tags"]). Clicking a chip searches for that value. Other frontmatter appears under Properties, except keys in hide. Color chips with [ui.tags.colors], for example easy = "emerald".

Sidebar

pinned adds a Pinned section, hidden hides paths from the tree, and [[ui.sidebar.sections]] with label and paths adds labeled sections.

Quickstart

Install and run KiwiFS.

Widgets

Diagrams, charts, and step-through widgets.

Wiki links

Link syntax and backlinks.

Refactor

Move and merge pages without breaking links.

Configuration

Every [ui] key.

Getting Started

Core Concepts

Widgets

Guides

Data Import

Data Export

Deployment

Layout

Keyboard shortcuts

Customize shortcuts

Search

Pages and the file tree

Editor

History

Views

Knowledge graph

Restructure pages

Import data

Reading features

Rich blocks and widgets

Quizzes

Progress tracker

Comments

Export and publish

Spaces

Customize the UI

Quickstart

Widgets

Wiki links

Refactor

Configuration

​Layout

​Keyboard shortcuts

​Customize shortcuts

​Search

​Pages and the file tree

​Editor

​History

​Views

​Knowledge graph

​Restructure pages

​Import data

​Reading features

​Rich blocks and widgets

​Quizzes

​Progress tracker

​Comments

​Export and publish

​Spaces

​Customize the UI

​Related

Quickstart

Widgets

Wiki links

Refactor

Configuration

Layout

Keyboard shortcuts

Customize shortcuts

Search

Pages and the file tree

Editor

History

Views

Knowledge graph

Restructure pages

Import data

Reading features

Rich blocks and widgets

Quizzes

Progress tracker

Comments

Export and publish

Spaces

Customize the UI

Related