Worked example: "Northwind Robotics" (a CRM)

This mirrors the bundled CRM & Sales Pipeline template's shape (Company / Contact / Deal / Activity) but is written as literal build-it-yourself steps, so you actually practice schema design and linking rather than just clicking "use template." Using the template directly is a perfectly good shortcut once you've done this once — see the note at the end.

Scenario: you run sales for Northwind Robotics. You want to track the companies you sell to, the people you talk to at each one, the deals in flight, and the calls/emails/meetings behind each deal.

Step 1 — Collection

New collection → Blank → name it Northwind Sales.

Step 2 — Schema

Edit schema → create four types:

Company

Contact

Deal

Activity

Then add four Relationship Types so the link picker has clean labels instead of freehand text: WORKS_FOR (Contact → Company), FOR_COMPANY (Deal → Company), WITH_CONTACT (Deal → Contact), FOR_DEAL (Activity → Deal).

Step 3 — Files and rows

Create four files, one per type: companies, contacts, deals, activities.

In companies, add two rows:

• Initech — Industry: Manufacturing, Website: https://initech.example. Body: "Mid-sized manufacturer evaluating a platform upgrade."
• Globex Corp — Industry: Logistics, Website: https://globex.example. Body: "Existing customer up for renewal this quarter."

In contacts, add two rows:

• Maria Lopez — Title: VP of Operations, Email: maria@initech.example, Phone: 555-0201. Link WORKS_FOR → Initech. Body: "Economic buyer for the Initech deal."
• Tom Becker — Title: IT Director, Email: tom@globex.example, Phone: 555-0202. Link WORKS_FOR → Globex Corp. Body: "Internal champion pushing for renewal."

In deals, add two rows:

• Initech Platform Deal — Stage: Proposal, Value: 48000, CloseDate: 2026-08-30. Links: FOR_COMPANY → Initech, WITH_CONTACT → Maria Lopez. Body: "Proposal sent, awaiting procurement review."
• Globex Renewal — Stage: Negotiation, Value: 22000, CloseDate: 2026-07-15. Links: FOR_COMPANY → Globex Corp, WITH_CONTACT → Tom Becker. Body: "Negotiating multi-year discount."

In activities, add a couple of rows per deal, e.g.:

• Discovery Call — Initech — Type: Call, Date: 2026-08-10, Notes: "Confirmed budget and timeline." Link FOR_DEAL → Initech Platform Deal.
• Renewal Check-in — Globex — Type: Meeting, Date: 2026-07-01, Notes: "Reviewed usage, discussed multi-year pricing." Link FOR_DEAL → Globex Renewal.

Step 4 — Look at what you built

• Select Initech Platform Deal in the grid → the Surface panel shows it connected to Initech, Maria Lopez, and Discovery Call — Initech in one view.
• Try the Explore tab with a query like "every Deal with Stage = Negotiation" to see the pipeline-filtering use case, not just single-item lookups.
• Take a Tag now, called initial-setup — you now have a restore point before you start editing live.

Step 5 — Share it

Open Explorer, find Northwind Sales, and grant a teammate Editor access so they can log activities without being able to change your schema.

Appendix: raw KGL syntax

Everything above can also be edited as text, via the toolbar's Edit File button — the same content the grid renders, in the underlying .kgl format:

# companies.kgl

@Company Initech
Industry: Manufacturing
Website: https://initech.example
---
Mid-sized manufacturer evaluating a platform upgrade.

# contacts.kgl

@Contact Maria Lopez
Title: VP of Operations
Email: maria@initech.example
Phone: 555-0201
[WORKS_FOR] → companies.kgl#Initech
---
Economic buyer for the Initech deal.

A link line is [REL_TYPE] → target_file.kgl#Target Node Name. Everything below --- is the free-text body (Markdown). See the full KGL format reference for the complete spec.