Choosing a Template

Because every design has the same features, choosing one is purely a matter of look and fit: how dense your subscribers like their information, how much they read on phones versus desktops, and what suits your brand. Every design is available on every supported panel.

Compare them

Template	ID	Layout	Composition	Density	Grouping	Corners	Line length
Row	`row`	Single column	Type-led	Compact	Rules	Square	Medium
Editorial	`editorial`	Narrow column	Reading-first	Comfortable	Columns	Square	Narrow
Canvas	`canvas`	Single column	Airy	Spacious	Space	Soft	Narrow
Prism	`prism`	Faceted	Record-led	Compact	Facets	Square	Wide
Terminal	`terminal`	Narrow column	Session sheet	Compact	Rules	Square	Narrow
Pulse	`pulse`	Dashboard	Status-led	Compact	Bands	Square	Wide
Brutal	`brutal`	Wide board	Grid-led	Dense	Grid	Square	Wide
Arcade	`arcade`	Wide board	Choice-led	Dense	Panels	Square	Wide
Sketch	`sketch`	Single column	Hand-ruled	Comfortable	Rules	Square	Medium
Signature	`signature`	Dossier	Document-led	Spacious	Columns	Soft	Medium
Saffron	`saffron`	Narrow column	Centred	Comfortable	Space	Soft	Narrow
Pulse Nova	`pulsenova`	Dashboard	Card-led	Spacious	Cards	Soft	Narrow
Prism Nova	`prismnova`	Console	Information-forward	Dense	Panels	Soft	Wide
Terminal Nova	`terminalnova`	Console	Monospace	Compact	Rules	Square	Narrow
Arcade Nova	`arcadenova`	Cabinet	Framed screen	Dense	Panels	Soft	Wide
Meter	`meter`	Dashboard	Card-led	Comfortable	Cards	Soft	Wide
Notebook	`notebook`	Narrow column	Hand-ruled	Comfortable	Cards	Soft	Narrow

What the columns mean:

Attribute	What it describes
Layout	The overall structure — one column, a narrow column, a wide board, a dashboard, a console, and so on.
Composition	What leads the page: type, cards, status, a document, a grid.
Density	How much fits on one screen, from spacious to dense.
Grouping	How sections are separated: rules, cards, panels, bands, whitespace.
Corners	Square or soft (rounded) corners.
Line length	How wide text runs before it wraps.

Set the design while installing

An interactive install shows the design chooser on a fresh install:

Choose your Row-Template design
  1  Row
  2  Editorial
  …
  16  Meter
  17  Notebook
  Select [1-17, Enter=Row]:

For an unattended install, give the ID instead:

RT_ASSUME_NONINTERACTIVE=1 RT_TEMPLATE=terminal \
bash <(curl -fsSL https://github.com/iitzSeriZdev/Row-Template/releases/latest/download/install.sh)

An unknown ID stops the install with the list of valid ones, rather than silently falling back to Row. On a server with more than one supported panel, add RT_PANEL as well.

Switch an existing install

Open the manager

row-template

Choose Reconfigure branding, then Template

Pick 2 — Reconfigure branding, then 4 — Template. The manager shows the current design and lists every design installed in the template store.

Pick and confirm

Enter the number of the new design and confirm Switch the template to …? [y/N].

On success you see:

  ok   Template changed successfully
  Previous        Row
  Current         Editorial
  Verification    Passed

What a switch does

The switch is a single transaction:

The new design’s checksum is verified against the template store.
A trial page is generated from it with your current branding — if that fails, nothing has changed yet.
A backup of the current state is taken.
The design is staged, your choice is saved, and the live page is regenerated and validated. On PasarGuard and Rebecca the copy in the panel’s templates directory is replaced too; the panel’s selection is not touched, and nothing is restarted.
If any step after the backup fails, the backup is restored automatically and you are told what happened.

Your branding is untouched by a switch: it belongs to you, not to the design.

Updates keep your choice

row-template update installs the new release’s copy of your design. If a future release no longer ships it, the update falls back to Row and says so:

  warn template 'xyz' is not in this release; falling back to Row.

Check which design is live

row-template verify

  ok   Template store verified (17 design(s)).
  ok   Template: Editorial
  ok   Canonical artifact matches the selected template.

The Installation info screen in the manager (option 6) shows the current design as well.