Nimbus

Fast flowing for competitive debate — Policy · LD · PF

Nimbus is a desktop flowing app that combines the strengths of paper — seeing many flows at once, spatial argument interaction — with the strengths of a laptop: typing speed, copy/paste, search, and integration with the rest of the debate tech stack.

Built to be FAST: every action is keybound, the app is local-first and works fully offline (tournament wifi can't be trusted), and it loads instantly. It's doc-aware too — a full CardMirror-schema speech doc is built in, and you can import .docx speech docs.

Download

Grab the latest installer from the Releases page:

• macOS — Nimbus_0.2.6_universal.dmg (Intel + Apple Silicon)
• Windows — Nimbus_0.2.6_x64-setup.exe

Builds are currently unsigned, so first launch shows a security warning:

• macOS: right-click the app → Open
• Windows: More info → Run anyway

From 0.2.1 on, Nimbus updates itself — it checks on launch and offers an in-app Install when a new version ships, so you only download once.

New in 0.2.0

• Flow → doc on the backtick — ` sends the cell, ⌘`` the whole speech, ⌘⌫ clears it + pulls its card; hand-typed answers get an "AT: …" header naming what they answer.
• Grouping, reworked — clearer right-side brace + tinted cells; ⌘-click any cells (even 1, 4, 6) then ⌘R, sequential or not, one key.
• Logical default keybinds — marks off the copy/paste family; Extend ⌘→, Group ⌘R (no more ⌘G/⌘⇧G).
• Doc keyboard zoom (⌘= / ⌘-), ⌘F scrolls to the match, and 1NC import splits by block heading (one page per off-case).

Earlier: argument grouping + ribbon auto-fit (0.1.9), Timer (0.1.8), the doc data-loss fix, Save / Save As, and the argument bank (0.1.7).

See the full changelog for details.

What's in it today

Flowing

• Excel-style grid — columns are speeches, rows are arguments; click anywhere and type, no setup ceremony
• Keyboard-first: smart row insertion, extension arrows, abbreviation autocomplete, undo/redo
• Speech-side coloring (aff blue / neg red on every sheet), plus per-cell marks: dropped, star (must-answer), analytic, card
• Templates for Policy / LD / PF — fully editable, side order flippable (e.g. Con-first PF)
• LABEL cell that auto-names a flow as you type its tag
• New pages open blank on their LABEL cell — pick a kind (Off-case / Advantage / Overview / CX) and name it as you go, no naming dialog
• Jump to a speech — the ribbon's Cursor → speech dropdown (or a chip on the round's home) parks your cursor on the top of that speech's column (2AC, 1AR, …), and it stays on that column across every flow
• "Space down" — a keybind (default ⌘\) moves the cursor down N rows to leave room for answers; the row count is set in Settings
• Timer — a draggable stopwatch plus five countdown presets (speech / prep times, adjustable in Settings) that beep at 0:00

The spread (what no other flowing tool has)

• See multiple flows at once — stack them (speech columns aligned across flows) or lay them side by side
• Pick which flows are on the desk; drag to reorder; resize the split

Power tools

• Excel-style ribbon — font, size, bold/italic, ink color, rows, debate marks, view
• Custom keybinds — multiple binds per action, conflict warnings; includes sheet navigation (prev/next, reorder, hover) and all other actions
• Macros — write your own in JavaScript via a flow API (e.g. a one-key "AT:" answer block); runs as a single undo step
• Range selection (drag-select, copy as TSV, bulk-mark, drag-move blocks)

Files & formats

• Two formats: .nimbus (native, full fidelity) and .xlsx (Excel). Convert between them either way, losslessly — flow in Excel or in Nimbus.
• Double-click a .nimbus or .xlsx file to open it straight into Nimbus from Finder or Explorer; ⌘S / Ctrl+S to save; pick your default save format in Settings
• Save/Open flows anywhere on your computer; export an HTML round report
• Excel-style multi-cell paste — paste TSV content and it distributes across the target cells correctly
• Correctly imports Verbatim-exported .xlsx files (handles blank leading rows)

Tournaments = real folders

• A tournament is an actual folder on your computer. Create one and Nimbus makes the folder; link any existing folder to use it as a tournament
• Flows live inside as files; drag a flow between tournaments to move the file on disk — organize in Nimbus or in Finder/Explorer, it's the same files

The speech doc — CardMirror, inside Nimbus

• A full CardMirror-schema editor: highlight (spoken), underline (the cut), emphasis (boxed power word), condensed (unread) — with lossless .docx round-trip
• Structure + read-marking shortcuts, find-in-doc (⌘F), read mode, and standardize highlighting (unify every highlight, with an optional exception)
• Editable doc style & headings — sizes, colors, emphasis/underline/pocket — with a live preview
• Build from the flow — the selection decides where it lands. Highlight some text, one cell, or a whole range and send it at your cursor; hit ↕ Send Entire Row to send the whole speech in flow order (mirrors the flow, de-dupes so re-sending updates rather than duplicates). Typed cells send as analytics, cards as cards. Nothing is auto-added.
• Multiple docs, and a ★ speech doc. Keep several docs in tabs; mark one as your speech doc with the star. Press ` / ~ in any other doc to send its current card straight to the speech doc — the classic Verbatim/ CardMirror "send to speech." Each doc keeps its own undo history across tab switches.
• Quick Cards — save any selection as a reusable card and drop it into the doc from the Quick Cards palette.
• CardMirror editing, ported from source — tag / analytic Backspace, Delete, and Enter behave exactly like CardMirror (Enter splits into a new card, Enter at a tag's end makes a body, protected tag boundaries), plus cross-boundary deletes and node-selection.
• Docs are per flow — each flow keeps its own set of speech docs; open a flow from years ago and its docs are all still there, none bleed between flows.
• Drag a .docx onto the doc pane to open it in a new doc.
• Type --- for an em dash (—); maximize the doc, or pop it out into its own window.

Import .docx

• A 1NC creates off-case sheets; answer docs (AT:/A2…) match your existing flows; the target column is guessed from the round. Every doc's cards are banked for argument lookup.

Make it yours

• Themes (five light, plus Slate and Dark), custom aff/neg/analytic/card colors, adjustable font/size/row height, and bundled Lexend + Calibri fonts that work offline
• Ribbon auto-fits the window (full → icons → slim → micro) so it stays one row on any screen; the density button sets your preferred max verbosity
• Pinch-to-zoom the flow and the doc; tabbed Settings; and a built-in 📖 Manual that explains every feature
• Everything auto-saves to disk and survives updates; export/import your full settings bundle

Acknowledgements

Nimbus's entire speech doc is CardMirror, created by Anthony Trufanov — its editor, its .docx importer and exporter, and its document schema are vendored directly into this app. The highlighting (spoken), underline (the cut), emphasis (boxed power word), the tag/analytic card structure, and the lossless .docx round-trip all behave exactly like CardMirror because they are CardMirror's own code.

Sincere thanks to Anthony Trufanov for building CardMirror and making it available. Nimbus would not have a real, trustworthy speech doc without his work — it is the foundation of the entire feature. CardMirror is used with gratitude under its PolyForm Noncommercial license, and all credit for that engine belongs to him. If Nimbus is useful to you, please support the original work first: CardMirror by Anthony Trufanov.

Planned

Not built yet — this is the roadmap.

• Signed builds (no "unidentified developer" warning)
• Cloud sync / backup across your own devices

Ideas and bug reports are welcome via Issues.

Tech

• Tauri 2 + SvelteKit (Svelte 5) + TypeScript — small, fast native shell; all app logic in the frontend.
• Rounds and settings are JSON files in the app data dir, written atomically.
• Cross-platform installers are built automatically in GitHub Actions on every version tag (macOS universal + Windows x64).

Development

npm install
npm run tauri dev   # desktop app (requires the Rust toolchain)
npm run dev         # browser-only dev at localhost:1420
npm run check       # typecheck

Cut a release (builds macOS + Windows in the cloud):

git tag v0.2.0 && git push origin v0.2.0

Open the 📖 Manual in the app for a full feature reference, or press ⌘/ (Mac) / Ctrl+/ (Windows) for the keybind list.