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Getting Started

This guide gets you from nothing to a running Norm Editor and your first interpretation.

Prerequisites

To run the full stack locally you need:

  • Docker and Docker Compose, or
  • Node.js v20+ if you only want to run the frontend against an existing backend.

To save to or load from TriplyDB you also need a Triply API key.

Running the full stack

  1. Create a .env file in the project root with your Triply key:
TRIPLY_KEY_R=your-triply-api-key
  1. Start everything:
docker compose up --build
  1. Open the editor at http://localhost.

All traffic goes through nginx on port 80. The individual services are also exposed for debugging (backend :3000, nlp-api :8081, unwrap-api :5001, wrap-up-api :5002).

For frontend-only development with hot reload, see Local Development.

The six tabs

The editor has a two-tier header. The top bar carries the title, a What's new button that opens the changelog, a GitLab link to the repository, and the load and save buttons. Below it, a row of tabs takes you through the work from left to right:

  1. Set task — say who you are and what you are interpreting.
  2. Collect sources — load documents and pick the sentences in scope.
  3. Interpret sources — highlight text and build frames.
  4. View interpretation — see the acts and claim-duties as a network, and inspect any frame's roles, conditions, and dependencies.
  5. Make interpretations executable — not available yet; the tab shows a "Coming soon" page.
  6. Execute task — not available yet; the tab shows a "Coming soon" page.

You can click any tab at any time. The load and save buttons sit in the header, so you can save or reopen an interpretation from every tab and never lose work between sessions.

Your first interpretation in brief

  1. On Set task, fill in Editor, Label, and Description, then click Continue.
  2. On Collect sources, add a source, tick the sentences you care about, and click Continue.
  3. On Interpret sources, highlight a phrase, choose Fact, Act, or Claim-duty, and start building. For an act, click Select next to a role to mark which fact is the actor, action, object, and recipient.
  4. Open View interpretation to check how your acts depend on each other.
  5. Use the save button in the header to download your interpretation as JSON or to push it to TriplyDB.

Each step has its own detailed page: