# The Prelude

When you define a word in a step, it becomes available to all steps. But when you close and reopen the project, the dictionary is empty again. Words defined in steps only exist after those steps run.

The **prelude** solves this. It's a project-wide script that runs automatically when playback starts and when you load a project.

## Accessing the Prelude

Press `d` to open the prelude editor. Press `Esc` to save and evaluate. Press `D` (Shift+d) to re-evaluate the prelude without opening the editor.

## What It's For

Define words that should be available everywhere, always:

```forth
: kick "kick" s 0.9 gain . ;
: hat "hat" s 0.4 gain . ;
: bass "saw" s 0.7 gain 200 lpf . ;
```

Now every step in your project can use `kick`, `hat`, and `bass` from the first beat.

## When It Runs

The prelude evaluates:

1. When you press Space to start playback (if stopped)
2. When you load a project
3. When you press `D` manually

It does not run on every step, only once at these moments. This makes it ideal for setup code: word definitions, initial variable values, seed resets.

## Practical Example

A prelude for a techno project:

```forth
: k "kick" s 1.2 attack . ;
: sn "snare" s 0.6 gain 0.02 attack . ;
: hh "hat" s 0.3 gain 8000 hpf . ;
: sub "sine" s 0.8 gain 150 lpf . ;
0 seed
```

Step scripts become trivial:

```forth
c1 note k sub
```

The sound design lives in the prelude. Steps focus on rhythm and melody.