Beginners: Your First Release

This guide is for creators — musicians, visual artists, producers, writers — who want to publish a release using the Capsule Desktop app. No blockchain experience required.

What you’ll end up with

By the end of this guide you’ll have:

• A real NFT on the XRP Ledger (Testnet — no real money)
• A verifiable manifest — your release’s cryptographic identity
• A mint receipt — proof of what was created on-chain
• A recovery bundle — self-contained proof that survives even if this app disappears

Before you start

You need:

1. Capsule Desktop — download from GitHub Releases
2. A wallet credentials file — a JSON file with funded XRPL Testnet accounts (see Setting up testnet wallets below)

You do NOT need:

• Any cryptocurrency or real money
• An XRPL mainnet account
• Technical blockchain knowledge
• IPFS or any storage service (placeholders work for preview)

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Studio Mode — the creative workflow

When you open Capsule Desktop, you’re in Studio Mode — a guided, step-by-step flow designed for creators. Each step unlocks as you complete the previous one.

Step 1: Describe your release

You’ll see a welcome screen with two options:

• Try the demo — loads a sample release (Midnight Signal EP) so you can explore without your own files
• Create a release — starts fresh

For your first real release, click Create a release and fill in:

Field	What it means
Title	The name of your release (album, EP, single, artwork, etc.)
Artist	Your name or project name
Description	A short description of what this release is
Edition size	How many NFTs to mint (1 = one-of-one, 25 = limited edition)

You can also attach files:

• Cover art — the image that represents your release
• Main file — the actual media (music, video, image, archive)

Files are optional during preview. Real IPFS upload comes in a future version.

Step 2: Set collector benefits

Choose what collectors receive when they hold your NFT:

Benefit	Good for
Bonus track	Musicians — an extra track only collectors get
Stems	Producers — individual tracks for remixing
High-res artwork	Visual artists — full resolution files
Private note	Anyone — a personal message to collectors
Custom	Anything else you want to offer

Write a description of the benefit. This is what collectors see when they access your release.

Step 3: Review everything

Before publishing, review:

• Release summary — title, artist, editions, files
• Collector benefit — what collectors receive
• Ownership terms — license type, resale royalty percentage
• Safety — what collectors own vs. don’t own, recovery promise

You can change the license type and royalty percentage on this screen.

Step 4: Publish

The readiness checklist shows what’s ready (green), optional (amber), and missing.

When you click Publish Release:

1. You’ll be asked for your wallet credentials file (if not already loaded)
2. You choose where to save the manifest file (your release’s canonical identity)
3. You choose where to save the receipt file (proof of what was minted)
4. The app mints your NFTs on XRPL Testnet

This typically takes 10–30 seconds. Don’t close the app during minting.

If it times out: Click Check Status to see if the receipt was actually created. The transaction may have succeeded even if the app lost connection briefly.

Step 5: Test collector access

After publishing, test what collectors experience:

• Enter a wallet address and click Test as Collector to see if they’d get access
• Click Test as Non-Collector to see the denial flow

This uses real XRPL token ownership checks.

Step 6: Generate a recovery bundle

A recovery bundle is a self-contained proof file that:

• Proves you created this release
• Contains all transaction hashes and token IDs
• Verifies consistency between your manifest and the chain
• Works even if this app stops existing

Click Generate Recovery Bundle and save it somewhere safe.

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Setting up testnet wallets

Capsule needs a wallet credentials file to mint on XRPL Testnet. This is a JSON file with two funded testnet accounts.

Option A: Using the Capsule CLI

If you have Node.js installed:

git clone https://github.com/mcp-tool-shop-org/xrpl-creator-capsule.git
cd xrpl-creator-capsule
npm install && npm run build
npx tsx packages/cli/src/bin.ts init-wallets \
  --network testnet --fund --authorize -o wallets.json

Option B: Manual setup

1. Go to the XRPL Testnet Faucet
2. Click “Generate Credentials” twice (you need two accounts: issuer and operator)
3. Create a JSON file called wallets.json:

{
  "issuer": {
    "classicAddress": "rISSUER_ADDRESS_HERE",
    "seed": "sISSUER_SEED_HERE"
  },
  "operator": {
    "classicAddress": "rOPERATOR_ADDRESS_HERE",
    "seed": "sOPERATOR_SEED_HERE"
  }
}

4. Save it somewhere you’ll remember — the app will ask for this file when you publish.

Important: This file contains private keys. Keep it secure. For mainnet (future), you’ll use Xaman QR signing instead — no seed files needed.

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Understanding what you just created

After publishing, you have four artifacts:

Artifact	What it is	Why it matters
Manifest	A JSON file with your release’s identity, hashes, and metadata	This is the canonical truth about your release — deterministic and tamper-evident
Receipt	A JSON file with token IDs and transaction hashes	Proves exactly what was minted on-chain
On-chain NFTs	Real tokens on the XRP Ledger (Testnet)	Collectors hold these to unlock access
Recovery bundle	A self-contained verification package	Proves your release exists even without this app

Every claim the app makes is backed by cryptographic proof. The manifest hash is deterministic — the same inputs always produce the same identity. The receipt contains transaction hashes you can look up on any XRPL explorer.

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Advanced Mode

You don’t need Advanced Mode to publish a release. It’s the proof and audit layer — showing every artifact the engine produces:

Panel	What it shows
Manifest	The canonical release identity — schema, hashes, pointers
Mint	Issuance receipt — token IDs, TX hashes, chain proof
Verify	Reconciliation — manifest vs. receipt vs. chain
Access	Policies and grant decisions — who can access what
Recovery	Bundle generation and consistency verification
Governance	Payout policies, proposals, decisions, execution chain

Switch between Studio and Advanced using the button in the title bar. Both modes share the same release context — nothing is lost when you switch.

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Troubleshooting

The app restarted and my draft is gone

Capsule autosaves your draft every 2 seconds. If it didn’t restore:

• Check if the session file exists in your app data directory
• Your draft may have been empty when the app closed

Publish timed out

This doesn’t mean it failed. Click Check Status to look for the receipt file. If it has token IDs, your release was published successfully.

Access test says “denied” for a collector

The access check verifies on-chain token ownership. If the wallet doesn’t hold one of the minted NFTs, access is denied. This is correct behavior — the token hasn’t been transferred to that wallet yet.

I see “Preview” in the title bar

This is intentional. Capsule Desktop is in public preview on XRPL Testnet. The badge is a reminder that this is not a mainnet production tool yet.

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Reporting problems

Click the Report button in the title bar to export a support bundle. This packages your action history, session state, and environment info. It does not include wallet keys, file contents, or personal information.

Attach the bundle to your GitHub issue.

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What’s next

This preview focuses on the core release workflow. Coming soon:

• Xaman QR signing — sign transactions with your phone, no seed files
• IPFS upload — real content-addressed storage instead of file path placeholders
• Mainnet support — publish on the real XRP Ledger

Your feedback during preview directly shapes these features. The most valuable thing you can tell us is where you got stuck, confused, or lost trust in what the app was doing.