Learning Modules

Velnode Browser  ·  a product of Dignity New Zealand Limited

_{User  |  Version 1.1  |  Last updated 2026-07-03}

Learning Modules

Document type: User Owner: Dignity New Zealand Limited Applies to: Velnode Browser v2.3.2-beta.1 and later Last updated: 2026-07-03 Document version: 1.1 Status: Approved

Eight short modules that take you from "I just installed Velnode" to "I can hand this to a teammate confidently." Each module is roughly fifteen minutes. Do them in order or jump to what you need.

Velnode Browser is a product of Dignity New Zealand Limited.

Module index

M1 — The Command + Context bar

The Command + Context bar is the one input you use to do almost everything. Treat it as four tools in one:

1. Address bar. Type a URL, press Enter. Same as any browser.
2. Search bar. Type a query, press Enter. It searches the current search engine.
3. Vee input. Type a natural-language question. Vee answers in the modal panel.
4. Command bar. Use a prefix to ask Velnode to do something structured.

The structured prefixes worth knowing:

Try each one once. They become muscle memory by the third use.

M2 — Tabs, sidebar, and tab groups

Hover the left edge of the window to reveal the sidebar. Click the pin icon to keep it open. Tabs are auto-grouped by host: opening four pages on the same news site collapses them into a group with a single header.

Try this exercise:

1. Open three pages from the same website. Confirm they collapse into a group.
2. Right-click the group header → Rename. Give it a working title.
3. Right-click the group header → Save as a tab set. Tab sets re-open the whole group later.
4. Drop a sticky note on one of the tabs (note: this is the source for paragraph two).

M3 — Sticky notes and Sticky Memory

Sticky notes are attached to either a tab or a URL. The notes persist across sessions in data/notes.json. Open the Sticky Memory page from the Dashboard or with Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + M to see the board view of every sticky you've ever made.

Exercise:

1. While on any article, type note: come back to the chart in §3.
2. Close the tab.
3. Open the Sticky Memory page. Your note is there, with a backlink to the URL.

M4 — The timeline and EchoVee

Open the Timeline view from the Dashboard or with Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + T. You'll see a reverse-chronological list of what you did — every tab opened, every Vee exchange, every note created.

Now ask Vee:

What were we looking at yesterday morning?

Vee answers from EchoVee's semantic memory, which is built from the timeline. EchoVee never invents history; it always answers from the ledger.

Exercise: clear the timeline (Settings → Privacy → Clear timeline). Ask Vee the same question. Notice that Vee no longer has any memory beyond the current session. Memory in Velnode is yours to control.

M5 — The mindmap

Open the Mindmap from the Dashboard. Drag to create a node. Drag from one node to another to create an edge. Right-click a node to attach a URL, a sticky note, or a Vee summary.

The mindmap is saved to data/mindmap.json. It is local-only; it is not one of the categories that sync to a Velnode Account.

Exercise: pick a topic you're learning about. Create a root node. Add five child nodes, each one linked to a URL you've visited about that topic. Then ask Vee summarise the mindmap and see what comes back.

M6 — Vee for reading

Vee shines when you point it at a page. Try, in order, on the same long article:

1. summarise this page in three bullet points — get the gist.
2. what's the most controversial claim here — pull the load-bearing risk.
3. what's a counter-argument — pressure-test the piece.
4. who is the intended audience — situate the article.

Each prompt teaches you a habit. Together they replace skimming.

M7 — Privacy: Local-Only and Kids Mode

Local-Only mode and Kids Mode are different things.

• Local-Only is for you: it stops outbound AI calls to cloud providers and forces Vee onto the local brain (when you have one).
• Kids Mode is for a child on this device: it forces Local-Only, restricts navigation, and locks itself behind a parental code.

Exercise: turn Local-Only on in Settings → Privacy. Ask Vee a question. Notice that with no local brain downloaded yet, Vee answers from its built-in knowledge only rather than calling a cloud provider. Turn Local-Only off again.

If a child uses this device, set Kids Mode now. See the Privacy Policy §9 for what Kids Mode does at the architectural level.

M8 — Settings, backups, and System Health

Open Settings (Ctrl/Cmd + ,).

• Privacy. Local-Only, Kids Mode, Clear timeline.
• Vee. AI provider, token caps, voice options.
• Plugins. Per-plugin enable/disable. Each plugin shows its declared permissions and live RAM usage.
• Velnode System Health. Real-time disk and RAM usage by component. Look here when anything feels heavy.

The Velnode version is always visible in the title bar next to the wordmark. For the full picture — release notes, the Open Source Notices (third-party open-source components credited there; Velnode's own source code is source-available, not open source) — open ☰ → About Velnode.

For backups: copy the data/ folder out of the Velnode install directory to a safe location. That folder is your Velnode state. See the Backup Procedure for the canonical version of this.

Where to read next

• Keyboard Shortcuts — once the muscle memory starts forming.
• FAQ — the questions everyone has.
• Troubleshooting — what to try when something is wrong.

Document maintained by Dignity New Zealand Limited. Questions: [email protected].