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.
Two design pillars, in priority order:
- FAST — every action is keybound, the app is local-first and works fully offline (tournament wifi can't be trusted), and it loads instantly.
- SMART — doc-aware today (import
.docxspeech docs, and block suggestions from your own files), AI-assisted soon (see Planned).
Status: Nimbus is usable today for real rounds. The AI features are not built yet — everything under Planned is a roadmap, not a shipped feature.
Grab the installer for your system from the Releases page:
| Your system | Download |
|---|---|
| Mac (Apple Silicon: M1/M2/M3/M4) | Nimbus_<version>_aarch64.dmg |
| Mac (Intel) | Nimbus_<version>_x64.dmg |
| Windows (64-bit) | Nimbus_<version>_x64-setup.exe |
| Linux | Nimbus_<version>_amd64.AppImage |
Builds are not notarized, so first launch shows a security warning:
- macOS: right-click the app → Open, then confirm. If it says the app is
damaged, run
xattr -cr /Applications/Nimbus.appand open it again. - Windows: More info → Run anyway.
1.2.1 is the last version you have to install by hand. From it onward Nimbus checks for new versions itself and offers to install them, and every update is signed. If you are on 1.2.0 or earlier, grab the installer above once and you are done. Nimbus tells you what changed the first time you open a new version.
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
- Answer a block part by part — expand an inserted block and every part keeps
its own row across the whole flow, so each speech after it gets a real cell for
that part. You answer their third card, they answer that, you answer that, out
to the last speech. The tiles are ordinary flow cells: mark them card or
analytic, color them, star them.
Ctrl+Enterinserts a row inside the block - Cross-ex pages — questions and answers, labelled with whose cross-ex it is (1AC, 1NC, 2AC, 2NC), one tab each
Smart blocks (beta)
- Load the files for a round, and when the other team makes an argument — in your lane or your partner's — Nimbus suggests the block that answers it; one click puts the whole block in your next speech, linked as the answer
- Each sheet uses its own file, so two counterplans' AT: Perm blocks never mix; a file with a section per position (a 2AC file) gives each sheet only its own section. Case negs — and, when you're aff, your 2AC file's CASE section — apply to every advantage sheet
- Overviews tab: the first block under each Main heading (Uniqueness, Link, Internal, Impact), plus each advantage's impact overview when you're aff
- File tab: the sheet's file browsed like Doc Search, click or drag to insert
- A library of files pinned into every round's kit
- Reads
.docxand CardMirror's native.cmiralike (so does Doc Search) - Matches your block headings — it's word matching, not AI, and runs fully offline
Flow with your partner (live, two computers)
- Pair with a 6-character code — the host approves explicitly, with the joiner's email shown
- One flow, together, or a flow each: keep your own flow while you see and edit your partner's, so you can drop a block onto their page mid-round. A doc switcher moves between them, each with its own cursor, sheet and undo
- Partner cursor — see which cell they're working in
- Partner lanes — pick your side when you make a flow and every opponent speech you have to flow while your partner preps splits into a column each, so you aren't typing over each other. Flowing neg that's two 2AC columns and two 1AR columns; flowing aff, two 1NC, two Neg Block and two 2NR. Only a 1AC and the speech that closes the round stay single. Each of you sees your own lane headed You and the other Partner, and ⇤ on any lane header collapses that lane — yours or theirs — without changing a thing you send to the speech doc. Importing a speech doc fills your lane, not your partner's
- Your file stays yours. Two people auto-saving one file is how flows get destroyed, so Nimbus won't do it — you each save your own copy, always
- Flowing solo is untouched: no session means no connection and no background work of any kind. Nothing about a flow is stored on a server
- Sessions run on Nimbus's own relay, and fall back automatically if a network blocks it
Prep time
- A clock for each team in the toolbar, counting down from 8 minutes (configurable). Starting one stops the other
- Click the time to correct it when nobody stopped the clock; prep is saved with the flow, so it survives a reload
- A speech timer that pops out into its own always-on-top window — it stays over CardMirror, in four sizes, parked in any corner, with shortcuts that start it from any app and an alarm that rings until you stop it
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. Two densities (full width, or condensed for splitscreen) that resize themselves to the space available instead of scrolling
- Answer this argument (
Ctrl+Shift+G) — jumps to your reply in the next opposing speech and records the link, so the speech doc gets "AT: that argument" instead of guessing - Editable speech formats — rename any speech for a format in Settings
(LD
NR→2NR), or double-click a column header to rename it in one round - 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
flowAPI (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
.nimbusor.xlsxfile 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
.xlsxfiles (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
.docxround-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
- Send to Doc / Cell → Doc — build your speech from the flow, always in flow order; typed cells send as analytics, cards as cards. Nothing is auto-added.
- Maximize it, 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 + dark), custom aff/neg/analytic/card colors, adjustable font/size/row height, and bundled Lexend + Calibri fonts that work offline
- 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
Not built yet — this is the roadmap.
- Scouting hub — track opposing teams organized as
School → Team → Tournament → Round; upload their
.docxspeech docs per round alongside your own answers and notes, with flows auto-linking to the matching team by code (e.g.Greenhill LL) - AI layer (the "smart" half), all optional and with a hard Tournament
Mode off-switch that disables every AI/network feature for rules compliance:
- Row-level argument alignment — line up 2AC answers with the 1NC arguments they respond to, as a suggestion you accept or reject
- Dropped-argument detection — flag arguments with no response before your next speech
- Next-speech coverage checklist
- Cross-flow analysis — double binds and contradictions between positions
- Practice mode: live speech transcription that auto-flows
- Signed builds (no "unidentified developer" warning)
- Cloud sync / backup across your own devices
Ideas and bug reports are welcome via Issues.
- 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).
npm install
npm run tauri dev # desktop app (requires the Rust toolchain)
npm run dev # browser-only dev at localhost:1420
npm run check # typecheckCut a release (builds macOS + Windows in the cloud):
git tag v0.1.5 && git push origin v0.1.5Open the 📖 Manual in the app for a full feature reference, or press ⌘/
(Mac) / Ctrl+/ (Windows) for the keybind list.
Nimbus sends cards straight into CardMirror Desktop over its local bridge. There is nothing to install — no plugin, no community-plugin whitelist, no console commands. It needs CardMirror 1.5.0 or newer.
Tags, cites, underlining, highlighting, emphasis and block structure all
survive, identical to pasting by hand. The card lands in the speech doc you
designated without stealing focus, and picks the right pane in a split
layout. If that document was closed, the send is refused rather than dropped
into some other document — and every send also copies the card, so Ctrl+V is
always there as a fallback.
Nimbus used to need a small CardMirror plugin for this. It doesn't any more — if you installed it, you can remove it.
Your files and prep never leave your computer — Nimbus has no code that uploads them. See PRIVACY.md for the full, plain-language explanation, and audit the repo yourself to confirm it.
Nimbus is built together with @Asaw2011 — his line of releases lives at https://github.com/Asaw2011/nimbus.
The speech doc engine is CardMirror by Anthony Trufanov (https://github.com/ant981228/cardmirror), vendored here under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0 (https://polyformproject.org/licenses/noncommercial/1.0.0/):
Required Notice: Copyright (c) 2026 Anthony Trufanov.
The full required notice is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. In short: PolyForm Noncommercial forbids commercial use.