Quick start

From nothing to a board of apps in about two minutes.

1. Start it

monoki run --state-dir ./monoki-state --addr 127.0.0.1:8080

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080.

2. Create the admin account

The first visit shows a setup form. Fill it in and you are signed in.

That form is the only unauthenticated write path monoki has, and it stops working the moment an account exists — so nobody who finds your instance later can claim it. There is no open sign-up: from here on, an admin creates accounts. See Users & roles.

If you would rather do this headlessly:

monoki create-admin --username andre

3. Add your first app

Your account starts with a group called My Apps. Add something to it:

• Click Add app, or press n, or just paste a URL anywhere on the board — pasting is the fastest path and the one the product is built around.
• Type or paste the link. A moment later the name and icon fill themselves in.
• Press Add to board.

If the page can't be read — the app is off, it is behind a login, it has no favicon — you get a sensible name from the hostname and a coloured letter tile. Saving is never blocked by a failed lookup. See Icons & titles.

4. Arrange it

Drag a tile to move it. Or focus one and hold Shift while pressing an arrow key, which does exactly the same thing without a mouse. Everything on the board is reachable from the keyboard — see Keyboard shortcuts.

5. Make a second group

Click + New group in the sidebar: Home, Media, Infra. Press 1–9 to jump between them.

Groups are tags, not folders. One app can be in several at once — Grafana can sit in both Infra and Daily and still be one tile on your board. Tick the groups you want in the tile's menu, or in the add dialog.

Nobody else can see your groups. They are how you arrange things.

6. Bring somebody else in

1. Create a user for them: Users → New user (admin only).
2. That's it.

Everything you added to the catalog is already there for them. They open Browse the catalog, pick what they actually use, and arrange it their own way — their board and groups have nothing to do with yours.

If an app is yours to look after, add yourself (or a colleague) as responsible on it, so people know who to ask when it breaks.

For links only you should see — one spreadsheet, one Notion page — press r and add a private link instead. Those never enter the catalog. The full model is in Apps, resources & groups.

7. Put it somewhere real

Local-only is fine forever. If you want it on your network or on a domain, add a reverse proxy — Running behind a proxy — and read Security first.