Saving & sharing programs

kitengi programs are stored as plain text .kti files. The editor lets you copy, paste, and load them at any time.

Auto-save

The editor automatically saves your programs in your browser's local storage as you work. Your programs are available the next time you open the app in the same browser.

Browser storage. Programs are stored locally in your browser. Clearing browser data or using a different browser or device will not show your programs — always export important programs to a file or clipboard.

Copy source to clipboard

Click Copy source in the toolbar to copy the current program's .kti text to the clipboard. You can then paste it into any text editor, a GitHub Gist, a Slack message, or anywhere else.

Load from text

Click Load from text in the toolbar. Paste a .kti program into the text area and click Load. The program is parsed and displayed on the canvas. If there are any syntax errors they are shown inline.

Load from file

You can also drag a .kti file directly onto the canvas or use the Load from file option to open a file picker.

Running programs with the desktop app

The kitengi desktop app (kitengi-electron) provides the same visual editor as the web app, packaged as a native Electron application. The desktop app includes a built-in bridge, giving programs direct access to filesystem and networking nodes (file-read, file-write, dir-read, dir-create, tcp-listen, etc.) without any additional setup.

This makes the desktop app the recommended way to run Server-loom programs that need to interact with the local filesystem or open network ports.

Looms

A program's loom determines which node kinds are available. The loom is shown in the right panel when nothing is selected and can be changed there for General programs. It is stored in the .kti file as a loom: line after the program | declaration.

Loom	Available nodes
General	All core nodes. No environment-specific nodes.
Server	Core nodes plus `tcp-listen`, `tcp-write`, `tcp-close`, `stream-split`. Requires kitengi-bridge.
Browser	Reserved — no additional nodes yet.
Desktop	Reserved — no additional nodes yet.
Mobile	Reserved — no additional nodes yet.

Sharing a program

To share a program with someone else:

Click Copy source to copy the .kti text.
Send the text to the other person (message, email, Gist, etc.).
They open app.kitengi.dev, click Load from text, paste the text, and click Load.

The .kti format

The .kti format is plain text and human-readable. Here is a minimal example:

program | Counter
    Counts from 1 to 5

-> start -> loop:initial

literal:one
number = 1
<- trigger[null]
-> value[number] -> loop:initial

loop:loop
<- initial[number]
   next[number]
-> step[number] -> print:value
                -> compare:a

literal:limit
number = 5
<- trigger[null]
-> value[number] -> compare:b

compare:compare
<- a[number]
   b[number]
-> result[boolean] -> branch:condition

branch:branch
<- condition[boolean]
   value[any]
-> false[any] -> loop:next

print:print
<- value[any]

See the FAQ for a complete reference of keywords, node types, and port syntax.