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Projects and visual workspaces

A Hara project is source you can keep, move, run, and revisit—not just a temporary REPL session. Every current project has a required project.edn and workspace.edn: the first declares code and capabilities, while the second declares the editable Studio layout and runtime graph.

Start small

my-project/
  project.edn
  workspace.edn
  src/
    main.hal

{:hara/type :project
 :hara/version "1.0.0"
 :project/id my-project
 :project/version "0.1.0"
 :project/source-paths ["src"]
 :project/test-paths ["test"]
 :project/extension-paths ["extensions"]
 :project/main my-project.main
 :project/capabilities #{:studio/eval}}

workspace.edn then names src/main.hal as a document and places it in an editor/output layout. Open Starter in Playground to inspect a complete directly loadable pair.

Use Hara Chrome when the project belongs near a browser workspace, or Hara VS Code when you want a focused source-and-session workflow.

Work visually

Hara projects can be viewed through more than one surface. A source form, its evaluated value, a visual object, and an inspector selection are different handles on the same piece of work—not competing project formats.

Area Use it for
Files Navigate project and space files.
Code Read and edit source forms.
Visual or patch See or compose a visual projection of program structure.
Inspector Examine the selected form, object, link, or runtime value.
REPL and output Evaluate a form and retain the feedback trail.

The browser Playground and Hara Chrome already provide files, editor, REPL, kernel, and space controls. Visual patches and source↔visual linking are the shared workspace direction; where a host does not yet expose a visual editor, source and the REPL remain the stable project representation.

A useful working rhythm

  1. Open a project or space.
  2. Select the smallest form that expresses the behavior you are changing.
  3. Evaluate it in the active kernel.
  4. Observe its visual result or inspect its value.
  5. Save the accepted change to source, then continue.

This keeps visual programming grounded: a visual representation should reveal the program and its runtime state, while source remains readable, reviewable, and portable.

When a visual result and source are out of sync, treat the result as stale until it is evaluated again. Runtime state, code selection, visual selection, and errors should always have textual labels as well as color so the workspace works with keyboards, assistive technology, and reduced motion.

Keep the project portable

  • Keep source and project configuration under version control.
  • Keep host access explicit, so the boundary between project code and browser, file, or runtime services remains visible.
  • Treat spaces and sessions as working environments, not as the sole record of the project.

Share later

Greenways Spaces is the intended destination for publishing a Hara project. That workflow is not available yet; the publishing roadmap records the future journey without pretending it can be completed today.