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+ About Astrolabe
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+ Astrolabe is a lightweight, browser-based snippet manager for Vega-Lite visualizations.
+ It's designed to help you quickly create, organize, and iterate on visualization specs without
+ the overhead of a full development environment.
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+ Everything runs locally in your browser—no server, no signup, no data leaving your machine.
+ Your snippets and datasets are stored using browser storage, so they persist across sessions.
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- | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N |
- Create new snippet |
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- | Cmd/Ctrl+K |
- Toggle dataset manager |
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- | Cmd/Ctrl+S |
- Publish draft (save) |
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- | Escape |
- Close any open modal |
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+ Key Features
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+ - Three-panel workspace — Snippet library, Monaco code editor with Vega-Lite schema validation, and live preview
+ - Draft/published workflow — Experiment safely without losing your working version
+ - Dataset library — Store and reuse datasets across multiple visualizations (supports JSON, CSV, TSV, TopoJSON)
+ - Import/export — Back up your work or move it between browsers
+ - Inline data extraction — Convert hardcoded data into reusable datasets
+ - Search and sorting — Find snippets by name, comment, or spec content
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+ Getting Started
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1. Create a snippet
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Click the "Create New Snippet" ghost card at the top of the snippet list. A sample Vega-Lite spec loads automatically.
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2. Edit in the Draft view
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Changes auto-save as you type. The preview updates automatically. Your published version stays safe until you're ready.
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3. Publish when ready
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Click "Publish" (or Cmd/Ctrl+S) to save your draft as the official version. Use "Revert" if you want to discard changes.
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4. Organize with datasets
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Open the Dataset Manager to create reusable datasets. Reference them in your specs using {"data": {"name": "dataset-name"}}.
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+ Keyboard Shortcuts
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+
+
+ | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N |
+ Create new snippet |
+
+
+ | Cmd/Ctrl+K |
+ Toggle dataset manager |
+
+
+ | Cmd/Ctrl+S |
+ Publish draft (save) |
+
+
+ | Escape |
+ Close any open modal |
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+ Storage & Limits
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+ - Snippets — Stored in localStorage with a 5 MB limit (shared across all snippets). The storage monitor shows current usage.
+ - Datasets — Stored in IndexedDB with effectively unlimited space (browser-dependent, typically 50 MB+).
+ - Backup — Use Import/Export to save your work as JSON files. Datasets can be exported individually from the Dataset Manager.
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+ Tips & Tricks
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+ - Extract inline data — When editing a spec with inline data, click "Extract to Dataset" to create a reusable dataset automatically.
+ - Dataset references — Astrolabe resolves dataset references at render time, so you can freely switch between inline and referenced data.
+ - Search across specs — The search box looks inside snippet names, comments, and the spec content itself.
+ - Linked datasets — The metadata panel shows which datasets a snippet uses, and the Dataset Manager shows which snippets reference each dataset.
+ - URL datasets — Reference remote data by URL. Astrolabe fetches and caches it for preview, but the URL is what gets stored.
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