UI & Navigation

Available

CutReady's interface showing sidebar navigation and explorer panel

CutReady uses a modern, VS Code-inspired interface with a sidebar, Explorer tree view, tabbed editors, resizable panels, and a command palette.

Layout

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Title Bar (workspace / project breadcrumb, panel toggles) │
├────────┬──────────────────────────────────┬────────────────┤
│ Side-  │  Tab Bar (open documents)        │  Chat Panel    │
│ bar    ├──────────────────────────────────┤  (AI chat +    │
│ (nav + │  Main Content                    │   Activity)    │
│ gear)  │  (Sketch / Record / Script /     │                │
│        │   Settings)                      │                │
│        ├──────────────────────────────────┤                │
│        │  Output Panel                    │                │
│        │  (Activity | Debug | Terminal)   │                │
└────────┴──────────────────────────────────┴────────────────┘

Sidebar

The sidebar has navigation icons at the top and a gear icon pinned to the bottom:

View	Description
Home	Workspace selection and creation
Project	Combined document list for sketches, storyboards, and notes
Storyboards	Storyboard-focused document list
Sketches	Sketch-focused document list
Notes	Notes-focused document list
Assets	Screenshots and visuals, including orphan detection
Explorer	Tree view of project files
Workspace	Workspace-level settings
Feedback	Feedback popover, pinned above Settings
Settings	Global preferences, pinned to the bottom

The Explorer tree view shows all files in the current project — sketches (.sk), storyboards (.sb), and notes (.md). The Explorer header includes a unified Import button for importing files into the project.

• Toggle visibility: Ctrl+B
• Move sidebar: click the LayoutGrid button in the title bar, or right-click the sidebar and choose the move action
• The sidebar remembers its width across sessions
• Escape cancels any in-progress creation or rename action

Project Switcher

When a workspace contains multiple projects, a ProjectSwitcher dropdown appears in the sidebar. Click to switch between projects or create new ones. A pencil icon next to the project name allows renaming.

Command Palette

Press Ctrl+Shift+P to open the command palette — a searchable list of all available commands. Start typing to filter.

Title Bar

CutReady uses a frameless window with a custom title bar that includes:

• Workspace / project breadcrumb — Shows the current workspace and project path
• Window controls (minimize, maximize, close)
• Feedback button — chat-bubble icon to submit feedback with optional debug log
• LayoutGrid button — leftmost panel toggle; click to flip the sidebar between left and right
• Toggle buttons for sidebar, output panel, and chat panel
• Drag area for moving the window

Output Panel

Toggle with `Ctrl+`` — a resizable bottom panel with three tabs:

• Activity — real-time log of AI operations, tool calls, and sparkle actions
• Debug — captures JavaScript console output and Rust backend log messages for diagnostics
• Terminal — opens a system terminal in the project directory (Windows Terminal or PowerShell on Windows, Terminal.app on macOS, gnome-terminal/konsole/xterm on Linux)

All tabs support export (download as .log file) and per-tab clear. You can also open a terminal from the sidebar by right-clicking any sketch, storyboard, or note and choosing Open in Terminal.

Feedback

CutReady has a built-in feedback system accessible from the title bar:

• Click the 💬 icon next to the panel toggles to open the feedback popover
• Choose a category: General, Bug, Feature, or Design
• Optionally toggle Include debug log to attach diagnostic information
• Feedback is persisted to the app data directory and viewable in Settings → Feedback
• From Settings, you can copy feedback or create a GitHub Issue — the issue body is formatted by AI with the app version and optional debug log

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+P	Open Command Palette
Ctrl+B	Toggle Sidebar
Ctrl+`	Toggle Output Panel
Ctrl+S	Save Version
Ctrl+Shift+I	Toggle Chat Panel
Escape	Close overlays/modals, cancel creation/rename actions

Chat Panel

The Chat Panel is a right-side panel for interacting with the AI assistant:

• Chat tab — Converse with built-in AI agents (Script Writer, Demo Planner, Sketch Improver) or custom agents
• Activity tab — View color-coded logs of AI operations (sparkle button calls, agent responses, errors)
• Toggle — Use the command palette or Ctrl+Shift+I

The chat panel is independent of the main content area — you can keep it open while editing sketches, reviewing storyboards, or working on notes.

Theme

CutReady includes both light and dark themes, toggled from the status bar at the bottom of the window.