CueForge User Manual

This is the reference manual for the CueForge 0.99.1 beta. It is written for the people who run shows, not for software developers: operators, show callers, audio designers, and the technicians who integrate CueForge with the rest of the production.

Pick your learning path

New to CueForge

1. Installation — how the beta is distributed and what first launch looks like.
2. Quick Start — a 15-minute hands-on walkthrough, zero knowledge assumed.
3. Core Concepts — projects, cues, groups, modes.
4. Cue Types — all twelve cue types and when to use them.
5. Show Mode — the live operator surface.

Show caller or operator

• Show Mode — GO, STOP, PANIC, Show Lock, workspaces.
• Operator Checklists — printable lists for every production phase.
• Keyboard Shortcuts — the authoritative key reference.
• Preflight — the checks that stand between you and a failed cue.

Audio designer

• Audio Cues — audio from the cue perspective.
• The Audio Deep Editor — waveform, markers, beat grid, phrases, actor tracks.
• Markers and Cue Points — marking structure inside audio files.
• Outputs — buses, multichannel routing, device bindings.

Technician / integrator

• Control Mapping — MIDI/OSC/HTTP control into CueForge, the Trigger Inbox.
• Triggers — trigger families and how cues fire from the outside world.
• Integration guides — OSC, MIDI, HTTP, grandMA3, QLab, Resolume.
• Troubleshooting — recovery walkthroughs and diagnostics.

The safety philosophy

CueForge is built around a simple rule: nothing reaches an audience that was not checked first.

• Edit Mode is the authoring surface, but audio audition is audible through its configured route. Preview currently aliases Master; isolate outputs during rehearsal. Use the explicit Audition/Play controls for preview.
• Preflight gates Show Mode entry: errors block, warnings are acknowledged deliberately.
• Show Lock freezes the show during performance — no edits, no undo, no relinking.
• PANIC (Escape) stops everything instantly, and recovery is a deliberate, confirmed act.

These mechanisms are described throughout the manual; Core Concepts explains how they fit together.