# Getting Started

The NMR Sample Manager runs in your browser. All data stays on your computer — there is no server and nothing is uploaded. You need Chrome, Chromium, or Edge (the app uses the File System Access API, which other browsers don't support).

## Online Access

Open the application and grant file system permissions when prompted. That's it.

## Offline Access

Download nmr-samples.zip, extract it, and open `index.html` in Chrome or Edge. The app works identically to the online version.

## Setting Up Directories

Click Set next to "Root:" and select your main NMR data folder. Then click Browse to navigate to a specific experiment folder. The app scans the folder for existing sample metadata and experiment directories.

## Creating a Sample

Click New Sample to open the annotation form. All fields are optional — fill in what matters for your work. You can record information about users, sample components (name, concentration, isotopic labelling), buffer conditions (pH, components, solvent), NMR tube details, and laboratory references. Click Save or press Enter to store the metadata as a JSON file in the experiment directory.

## Editing and Duplicating

Select a sample and click Edit to modify it. Click Duplicate to copy it as a template for a related sample — useful for titration series or other experiments where only a few parameters change.

## Ejecting Samples

Click Eject to timestamp when a sample was removed from the spectrometer. This marks the end of the sample's active period and helps track what's currently loaded.

## Timeline

Click Show timeline to see the chronological history of all samples in the current experiment folder, including when they were created, modified, and ejected.

## File Storage

Sample metadata is stored as human-readable JSON files alongside your experiment data, with filenames like `2025-10-23_143022_lysozyme.json`. These files can be opened in any text editor and work well with version control. They follow a shared open schema, so they're compatible with the TopSpin integration, NMRTools.jl, and other tools in the ecosystem.