# Welcome

> The page a station opens on until somebody takes it off: a trail through every area of the program, each explained on the page with a drawing of it at work, which plays by itself until you take a step; the checks that say what the station already holds; and how to hide the page and bring it back.

**Welcome** is the first entry of the navigation rail, above View, and the page the station opens on, on a new station and on one updated from an earlier version alike, until somebody takes it off. It walks through every area of the program in the order a station is built, one stop at a time, and explains each one on the page itself: what the area is for, three things it does, and a drawing of it at work. Picking a stop never leaves the page; only the stop's own button opens the area.

## Who sees it {#who-sees-it}

| Situation | The Welcome entry | The station opens on |
|---|---|---|
| The station keeps the page (the default), and the role in force holds any of Configure connector, Configure logic, Manage process, Edit dashboards, Manage local users or Manage agent (MCP) | First entry of the rail | Welcome |
| The role in force holds none of them (it watches and operates) | Not drawn | View |
| The page was taken off with **Don't show again** | Not drawn, for every role | View |
| The published demonstration, whatever the station's setting says | First entry of the rail, for every visitor | Welcome |

"Opens on" applies to the default address: the station's own window, or a browser on the network that opens the station's plain address. An address somebody asked for, View's own included, is kept. Each screen answers for its own identity, so a tablet signed in as an operator opens on View while the bench opens on Welcome.

On the published demonstration the page is read-only: **Don't show again** and **Connect an assistant** are not drawn. Under the lead, one line in the visitor's own language says why two languages share the screen: "The interface follows the language you chose on the site. The demonstration screens are in English."

## The tour {#the-tour}

**Take the tour**, at the right of the title, starts a walk through every area of the program in the order a station is built, opening each page and pointing at its real controls (see [The program tour](tour)). Where this page explains each area in place, the tour goes to it. The tour creates, edits and presses nothing, so it can be taken on a station in production. The button is drawn for everybody who sees the page, every visitor of the published demonstration included. The help panel offers the same walk on every page, so taking this page off with **Don't show again** does not take the tour away (see [The window](app-window#contextual-help)). Starting the tour stops the trail.

## The trail {#the-trail}

The trail runs across the page under the title: one stop per area, each with the rail's own mark and name, joined by a line, under the names of the four stretches it is drawn in.

| Stretch | Stops | What joins them |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Connector, Logic, Process, View | The way the data flows: the devices, the rules and tests computed from their values, and the screens that show them |
| With AI | Agent | An assistant that does all of the above when asked |
| Watch | Events, Validation | What the station tells about itself while it runs |
| Station | Users, Remote access, Settings, Account | The station itself: who uses it, from where, how it looks and works, and its license |

The stop on screen is filled in the accent and its stretch's name lights with it; the stops before it keep the accent's outline. Process is drawn dashed, because a station that only watches values never needs a model, and the line between two stretches is dashed too. On a narrow window only the stop on screen keeps its name; the others show their mark.

A stop of an area a station builds wears a check once the station holds something there:

| Stop | Checked when |
|---|---|
| Connector | The Connector holds at least one device |
| Logic | Logic holds at least one variable, alarm or action |
| Process | Process holds at least one model |
| View | View lists at least one screen |
| Agent | Agent access is on |
| Users | The station has at least one local user |

The other stops wear no check: each already works on its defaults. The checks are read from the station while the page is open, so a device added on another screen, or by an assistant, checks the Connector here at once.

## Playing, and taking over {#playing-and-taking-over}

The trail plays by itself, so whoever opens the program sees at once that there is a sequence and that it moves. The first step the reader takes stops it.

| What happens | The trail |
|---|---|
| The page opens | It starts on Connector and plays: every 11 seconds it moves to the next stop, and after Account it comes back to Connector. The line after the stop on screen fills while it waits. |
| The pointer rests on the stage (the stop's words or its drawing) | The wait holds where it is, and goes on when the pointer leaves |
| You pick a stop, press **Previous** or **Next**, or move along the trail with the keyboard | That stop opens and the trail stops playing |
| You press **Pause** | The trail stays where it is, and the same button reads **Play** |
| You press **Play** | The stop on screen starts a whole wait again, and the trail plays on from there |
| You press **Take the tour**, **Getting started** or a stop's own button | The trail stops playing |

**Previous** after Connector goes to Account, and **Next** after Account to Connector. The trail is a row of tabs for the keyboard: once a stop has the focus, the Left and Right arrows go to the stop before and after, and Home and End to the first and the last.

## A stop {#a-stop}

Above the words stand the stop's page, with its mark and name, where it stands on the trail ("1 of 11"), and **Previous**, **Pause** (or **Play**) and **Next**. Under them, the stop's title, one sentence on what the area is for, and three points, each with its mark:

| Stop | Title | The three points |
|---|---|---|
| Connector | Connect your equipment | Drivers for your protocols · Tags in your units · Servers for other software |
| Logic | Add rules and alarms | Variables · Alarms · Actions and triggers |
| Process | Run tests and production | Models and units · Runs with a verdict · Reports and your data |
| View | Build your screens | Place and link · Live while you edit · Full screen |
| Agent | Do it all by asking | It builds · It explains · You decide what it may do |
| Events | See what happened | Alarms waiting now · Search and export · Live console |
| Validation | Find setup problems early | Broken references · One click to the repair · Always current |
| Users | Decide who can do what | Roles · Sign in with a PIN · Not signed in is a role too |
| Remote access | Your screens on other devices | Start on this computer · Enable remote access · Each on their own screen |
| Settings | Make it yours | Your language and formats · Your brand · Backups and updates |
| Account | Your account and license | Works offline · Free mode · Feedback |

Remote access's first point names the address that opens the station on its own computer, `http://localhost:<port>` on the port the station listens on, which answers without remote access:

| Where the page is read | Start on this computer |
|---|---|
| The station's own window | "Open `http://localhost:<port>` in your browser: on this computer the station opens already, with nothing to turn on.", the address a link that opens it in the Windows default browser |
| A browser, on this computer or another | "On the station's computer, open `http://localhost:<port>` in a browser: the station opens there already, with nothing to turn on.", the address as text, because on a tablet localhost is the tablet itself |
| The published demonstration | "On a computer with the program installed, open `http://localhost:18760` in its browser: the station opens there already, with nothing to turn on.", the installed program's address as text |

Account's first point says what each license needs: "With a subscription, the station has to reach the site at least once every 90 days; with the perpetual license, once activated, never again."

Under the points stands the stop's button, and beside it what the station already holds there:

| Element | When it is drawn | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| **Open** and the page's name | On every stop but Agent, when the role in force may open that page on this host | Opens the page. The stop's words and drawing stay for everybody, whether or not the role may open the page. |
| **Connect an assistant** | On the Agent stop, for a role that may manage agent access | Opens the [Agent](agent) page at **Connect a client**, where the assistant is set up and agent access is switched on, beside the areas it opens |
| The check and "Already set up" | When the stop is checked (see [The trail](#the-trail)) | Says it, nothing more |
| "Only if you need it" | On Process, until the station holds a model | Says that a station may do without it |

## The drawings {#the-drawings}

Each stop has a drawing of its area at work, with made-up but believable content, which arrives part by part when the stop opens and keeps moving where the area moves: data running along the lines, a value lighting as it changes, an alarm ringing. The drawing grows with the window. Its words are the area's own, as its page writes them, and its numbers, dates and times are written in the station's formats ([Localization](settings-localization)). It is decoration: everything it shows is said in the words beside it, so a screen reader skips it.

| Stop | What the drawing shows |
|---|---|
| Connector | Three pieces of equipment, each reached by the driver of its protocol; every reading becomes a tag, its raw number scaled into a value in its units; the station's servers hand the same values to other software |
| Logic | Two temperatures feeding a variable that averages them, an alarm on the average ringing until someone acknowledges it, and a trigger running an action that writes a value |
| Process | A model with its channels, recipes, evaluations and the steps of its procedure; two units, one recording its curve; the run's verdict, and the report, label and data it hands on |
| View | A screen with a gauge, a figure, a status light, a tank, a trend and a button, all live, and one more part dragged onto it from the palette |
| Agent | A conversation in a window of your own AI assistant, titled Your AI assistant over Claude, Codex or any assistant with MCP, with a field to type in at its foot: a request that builds a device, its tags and a screen, and a question answered from the help. A line marked MCP joins it to a small Ganter Lab window holding agent access, with one switch per tier, and every change recorded; a pulse runs along the line to the program and back as each request is answered |
| Events | The alarms timeline, newest first, under its tabs, period filter and exports; an alarm waiting for an acknowledgement; the live console |
| Validation | The setup read area by area, and the list of what cannot work, each item opening the editor that repairs it |
| Users | Three roles drawn as their switches per area, the people of the station with their roles, and a sign-in with a PIN |
| Remote access | The station's own screen, and the code and address a device on the network opens it at: this computer's real address, greyed beside Turned off while remote access is off and replaced by No network address on a computer without one; on the published demonstration a made-up one, captioned With remote access on. Then each on a screen of their own at the same time: a tablet signed in as Operator running a recipe, and an office computer signed in as Viewer following a trend dashboard |
| Settings | The interface's languages, the station's formats, the light and dark looks, an integrator's logo, and backups beside a new version |
| Account | The Ganter account licensing the station; that it stays licensed without internet, a subscription 90 days at a time and the perpetual license for good; the free mode's countdown; and feedback with a screen capture |

## Help on every page {#help-on-every-page}

The line at the foot of the page wears the mark of the Help key, the ? in the top-right corner, which opens the documentation of the page you are on in a panel beside it (see [The window](app-window)). **Getting started** opens the [Getting started](getting-started) page in that panel.

## Hiding it and bringing it back {#hiding-it-and-bringing-it-back}

**Don't show again**, at the bottom right, takes the entry off the rail of every screen at once and opens View; from then on the station opens on View. It changes a setting of the whole station, so it is drawn only for a role that holds **Change settings**. The switch **Show the Welcome page in the menu**, under [Startup](settings-startup#show-the-welcome-page-in-the-menu) on the Settings page, brings the page back.