---
title: Getting started
description: What happens the first time you open Calendite, how to find your way around, and how to create your first event.
order: 1
---

# Getting started

Calendite is a calendar with a **rule engine** at its core. Instead of the rigid
"repeats every week" options most calendars give you, you describe *when* something
happens and Calendite turns it into a precise rule, worked out on your device.

This page covers what happens the first time you open the app, and how to find your way
around.

---

## First run: the setup wizard

Five steps, in this order. You can change every one of them later.

1. **Import from your calendar**: reads the device's own calendar so you don't start from
   an empty grid. Needs the calendar permission. On iOS only *recurring* events are
   imported; one-off events are skipped.
2. **Permissions**: notifications, and exact alarms. Both matter: without exact alarms
   Android is free to fire your alarms late, and Calendite has to ask for that one
   separately because Android treats it as a special access.
3. **Country**: sets which days count as the weekend, how dates are ordered, and which
   bank-holiday calendar applies. UK default is Monday-first weeks and the England & Wales
   holiday list.
4. **Tags**: pick a starter set. Tags carry colour and can pre-fill new events.
5. **Work**: describes your working pattern, so `WD` and rules built on `Tag(Work)` are
   meaningful from day one.

---

## Getting around

On a phone there are four things along the bottom:

| | |
|---|---|
| **CALENDAR** | the grid: Month, Week or Day |
| **EVENTS** | a scrolling list of what's coming up |
| **NEW** (`+`) | create an event, reminder, deadline or time period |
| **MORE** | everything else |

On a tablet or desktop window the bottom bar is replaced by a sidebar down the left, and a
**day agenda rail** appears on the right showing the selected day. The layout switches on
window width, not device type, so a split-screen phone behaves like a phone and a resized
desktop window adapts as you drag it.

### What's under MORE

| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Settings** | general preferences, including the sync server choice |
| **Scan a QR code** | pairing invites, browser links |
| **Country** | weekend days, date order, holiday calendar |
| **Tags** | create, edit and colour tags; set their defaults |
| **Calendar sync** | import from the device's calendar |
| **Notes & files** | where notes are stored; you can point this at an Obsidian vault |
| **Data sources** | feed-backed categories (bank holidays, term dates, fixtures) |
| **Share calendar** | pair with someone (**Android only for now.**) |

*Notifications*, *About* and *Send feedback* are listed but not available yet.

---

## Creating your first event

Tap **NEW**. The form asks for a title and when it happens; everything else is optional and
lives behind the **OPTIONS** grid below the fold: location, alerts, notes, colour,
visibility, an app to launch, and so on.

The **When** section is where Calendite differs from other calendars. Three modes:

- **No Repeat**: a single date.
- **Repeating Rules**: the picker-driven builder. Choose patterns and exceptions; the
  compiled rule shows in the RULE bar so you can see what you built.
- **Manual Input**: type the schedule in plain English, or write the rule directly.

Whatever you pick, tap the calendar preview to see the actual dates it produces before you
commit. That preview is the fastest way to learn the rule language: build something with
the pickers, then read what it compiled to.

### Which kind of thing?

Tapping **NEW** asks **Choose a Calendar Item** before it shows you a form, because not
everything on a calendar is an event. There are four:

- an **Event**, something you attend, with a start and an end time;
- a **Reminder**, something you have to *do* rather than somewhere you have to *be* — no
  duration, a mandatory alert, and it gets ticked off;
- a **Deadline**, a moment something is due by, counting down to it and then up past it;
- a **Time period**, a span of whole days such as a holiday or time off work.

What you pick decides which fields the form then shows. See
[Calendar items](/docs/everyday-use/calendar-items.html) for what each does differently.

---

## A good first hour

To see what the app is designed for, in order:

1. Set up your **Work** pattern properly in the wizard; most of the interesting features
   build on it.
2. Add a **bank holidays** data source (More → Data sources; gov.uk publishes JSON), then
   change your Work rule to `WD, !BankHolidays` and watch the holidays drop out.
3. Add an **inner event** to Work (for example a stand-up) and see it appear only on work
   days.
4. If you work shifts, add a **variant** and see one series carry several sets of hours.

That sequence covers the three ideas the rest of the app rests on.

---

## Where things are stored

- **Events, tags, alerts and settings**: a local database on the device.
- **Notes and descriptions**: plain `.md` files, either in app-private storage or a folder
  you choose (More → Notes & files).
- **Nothing is uploaded anywhere** unless you turn on calendar sharing *and* choose a relay
  server. There is no account and no default cloud.

---

## Next

- [Calendar views](/docs/everyday-use/calendar-views.html): Month, Week and Day, and what the week view is doing
- [Building repeats](/docs/everyday-use/building-repeats.html): the picker, which is what you'll use day to day
- [Repeating events](/docs/everyday-use/repeating-events.html): the rule language behind it
- [Rule reference](/docs/rules-reference.html): the full syntax
- [Editing and deleting](/docs/everyday-use/editing-and-deleting.html): this occurrence, or all of them
- [How Calendite differs](/docs/how-calendite-differs.html): why any of this is shaped the way it is
- [Troubleshooting](/docs/troubleshooting.html): if something isn't behaving