Getting started

The Webship Workspace is a folder (~/workspace by default) with a web dashboard in it. The dashboard runs in a DDEV container and drives everything else: it builds, starts, stops, backs up and restores real projects through the cmd-*.sh scripts in each workspace folder, with live terminal output, and it embeds an AI assistant that knows the page you are on.

What you need

• Node.js 20 or newer (24 is what the dashboard runs on).
• Docker, and DDEV. DDEV is the only runtime the core needs; other container runtimes come as plugins.
• A terminal. Windows works through WSL2.

The first hour

npm install -g @webship.co/workspace
webship-workspace init ~/workspace

init copies the core into the folder, writes core/config/settings.yml from the lean template (no workspace folders, no plugins), installs the dashboard's dependencies and starts it. Open https://workspace.ddev.site.

The dashboard is empty on purpose. Add a workspace folder:

webship-workspace plugin require dev
webship-workspace plugin activate dev
webship-workspace plugin install dev

Now dev/ exists with its builders (cmd-drupal11-recommended-project.sh, cmd-webship11-0-x-project.sh, …) and its settings file, and the dashboard shows the Dev workspace with a Build button. Build a site from the dashboard, or from the folder:

cd ~/workspace/dev
bash cmd-drupal11-recommended-project.sh mysite

Every build goes through DDEV; the site answers at https://mysite.ddev.site.

Then

• Settings → Plugins shows the catalogue. Add the GIT menu (git), the Web IDE (ide), a hosting provider (upsun, acquia, …), a git forge (github, gitlab, bitbucket), or more workspace folders (test, drupal-modules, docs, ai-agents, …).
• Each plugin with settings gets its own file, core/config/plugin.<name>.settings.yml, edited from Settings. Secrets live there, never in settings.yml.
• webship-workspace update ~/workspace refreshes the core from a newer package without touching your settings files.

Where things are