Docs · Getting started
Run Orbit for the first time: understand the default projects directory, run a scan, and read the overview dashboard.
This guide takes you from launch to a working dashboard in a few minutes.
Confirm your projects directory
Orbit scans `<your home directory>/Projects` by default. The sidebar shows the active directory, and a green dot means it was found and read successfully. To scan somewhere else, open Settings → General → Projects directory and choose Change folder.
Let the first scan finish
On launch, Orbit walks the directory, parses every package.json, and detects technologies. Loading skeletons are shown while it works.
Read the overview
The Overview shows project count, workspace count, distinct technologies, the active directory, and when the last scan ran — plus featured projects, top technologies, and workspace cards.
Explore your projects
Open All Projects to search, sort, filter, and paginate everything Orbit found.
Open something
Use the quick actions on any card to open it in your editor, terminal, or file manager. Fine-tune which editor and terminal Orbit uses under Settings → Applications.
| View | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Overview | A snapshot of your whole workspace: counts, featured projects, top technologies, and workspaces. |
| All Projects | Standalone projects only, with search, sorting, technology and category filters, and pagination. |
| Workspaces | Expandable monorepo groups with expand/collapse-all and the same filters and layouts. |
| Technologies | Your stack, grouped by category, with a jump to every project that uses a given technology. |
| Favorites | Projects you starred for quick access, including projects inside workspaces. |
| Settings | Choose the projects directory to scan and rescan, pick the editor and terminal Orbit opens, and see version and links. |
Orbit does not force you to keep everything in ~/Projects. Open Settings → General, then use Change folder to pick any directory — an external drive, a different home folder, or a workspace root elsewhere on disk.
~/Projects, or Custom when you have chosen your own.Added or changed projects? Hit Rescan in the Settings view. Orbit keeps the last good results on screen if a scan fails, so you never lose your place.
Settings → Applications decides what Orbit opens when you use a quick action. By default Orbit auto-detects the first supported editor and terminal it finds; you can instead pin a known application or enter a custom command. See Opening projects.
Part of the Orbit documentation · v1.0.0