How to Run Two Reference Libraries Side by Side in refern

In refern, a library is a workspace. To keep two libraries apart, make one workspace for each. Since refern 1.11.1, you can open the second one with Open in new window on its workspace card, so both are open at the same time.

A common example is a client library and a personal one. The client's references, tags, and boards stay in one window. Your own studies stay in the other.

Decide: one workspace or two

Two workspaces are not always the right answer. A single workspace can already include several folders, even on different drives, with one set of tags and one search across all of them.

These are suggestions, not rules:

• Use one workspace when the collections belong together and you want to search them at once. For example, photos, screenshots, and scans for your own practice.
• Use two workspaces when the libraries should not mix. For example, a client project under a confidentiality agreement, a teaching library you hand to students, or a library on an external drive that is not always connected.

Each workspace has its own folders, tags, smart folders, canvases, workspace settings, and search. A tag you make in one does not appear in the other.

Make the second workspace

A workspace is a normal folder on your disk that refern reads in place. Create a new workspace and pick the folder that holds the second collection. The first workspace guide walks through the choices, such as file types and where the workspace data goes.

Open both at once

1. Click the workspace name at the top of the left sidebar. The window shows your workspace cards.
2. On the card of the second workspace, click Open in new window, under Open. That workspace opens in a new window.
3. In the first window, click the card of your first workspace to open it there again.

Now each window shows one library. You can place the two windows side by side or on two monitors.

Know what each window does

Each window runs as its own copy of refern. A few rules keep the two from getting in each other's way:

• One workspace, one window. A workspace is open in only one window at a time. If you open it again, refern brings its window to the front.
• The first window runs background jobs. The tray icon, update checks, Pinterest board imports, and saves from the browser clipper run in the first window you opened. A clip for a workspace that is open in a later window waits until that workspace is open in the first window. Keep the library you save into most often in the first window.
• Local API imports go through the first window. If you use the Local API or MCP server, imports through it work only in the first window.
• Profiles stay with their workspaces. A workspace that belongs to another profile opens under that profile.
• A new first window. If you quit the first window, the next window you start the usual way takes over the background jobs.

Move work between the two libraries

Two workspaces stay two separate libraries. Search in one window does not find items in the other, and tags do not carry across.

To copy a folder or board from one library to the other, with its tags and canvases, export it as a refern pack and import the pack in the other workspace. The import is a complete copy in a new folder, and the other workspace's own tags stay as they are. How to share a reference folder or board explains packs in detail.

At the end of a client project, a separate workspace also makes the handoff and the archive simpler: the client moodboard guide covers what to keep. Back up each workspace, its files and its workspace data, as described in how to back up your reference library.