The main app
What the app at zeonsystems.app is for, how to navigate it, and the hardware limits you need to know about.
The main app at https://zeonsystems.app is the visual half of the platform. You build worlds, author and practise skills, wire up workflows, browse objects, and run things there.
The Web IDE at https://ide.zeonsystems.app is the file half. Same project, same files underneath. The IDE gives you a text editor and a terminal over the project directory, while the main app gives you editors that understand what those files mean. Skill Python lives in files, so heavy skill code is usually faster to write in the IDE; a world layout is a 3D scene, so it is faster to build in the app. Switching between them is safe: both read and write the same project, and changes made in one appear in the other after the project reloads.
Picking a project
Every screen in the main app is scoped to one project, and the project ID is in the URL: /p/<project-id>/....
When you open https://zeonsystems.app after signing in, the app does not ask you to choose. It sends you to the project you last had open, or, if that project is gone or you have never opened one, to your most recently updated project. If you have no projects at all, one is created for you and you land in that.
To switch, use the project dropdown in the header. It lists every project you can open and keeps you on the same kind of screen you were already on. Switching a project remounts the whole app against the new project, so there is a short loading pause while the new project is prepared; nothing from the old project is left on screen.
A project marked gold in the dropdown is a shared, read-only reference project. You can open and read it, but plan to do your own work in a project you own.
The sidebar
The sidebar is collapsed by default. Press the menu button at the far left of the header to show or hide it.
On zeonsystems.app you see four entries:
- Home
- World Builder
- Skills Editor
- Object Database
Workflows is not in the sidebar on
zeonsystems.app. The Workflows entry, the list of past executions, is shown only when the app is running against a local platform install. The cloud is simulation-only and keeps no real-hardware execution history, so the entry is hidden there. If you have followed a tutorial or a colleague's instructions that say "click Workflows in the sidebar" and cannot find it, this is why: you are in cloud mode. You reach the workflow editor from the Home screen instead.
Clicking the logotype at the top of the sidebar also takes you Home.
The header
The header is always visible, on every screen. Left to right it carries:
- The menu button, which shows and hides the sidebar.
- A Home button.
- The project dropdown (see above).
- A refresh button. Its tooltip reads "Refresh project data (re-fetches skills, workflows, worlds from sync)". Use it after you have changed files in the IDE or pushed from the CLI and want the app to pick the changes up.
- The Hardware indicator: a coloured dot and the word
Hardware. Click it for a popover with per-device detail. Read the warning below before you rely on what it says. - Your email address.
- An overflow menu (the vertical dots) containing Restart backend, Hardware Setup, and Log out.
Restart backend asks you to confirm first; the dialog reads "This restarts the gateway and execution services. Any in-progress run will be interrupted. The interface stays open and reloads the project automatically once the backend is back."
Hardware status, and what it does not tell you
Hardware status lives in the header, not on a screen of its own. Read this before you go near a physical rig.
The header hardware popover is not a live arm check. It polls every 10 seconds, but what it reports for arms and cameras is the snapshot taken when the execution service last booted. It changes on restart or reconnect, not when a device drops. An arm that was detected at boot and has since faulted or been unplugged still shows as connected. Do not treat a green indicator as confirmation that it is safe to move physical arms. Confirm the rig physically, and keep clear of the arms' reach before starting a run.
If the dot is grey, the execution service is not responding; it may be starting up or stopped. If the pipette specifically is disconnected, the popover offers a Reconnect pipette button, which reconnects and homes it.
The screens
Where you land in a project, and the jumping-off point for everything else.
The graph, the panels, and the run controls. To design a workflow, see Authoring a workflow.
The scene editor and its panels. To plan a world, see Building a world.
The single-skill workbench. To write a skill, see Authoring a skill.
Browsing the shared catalog. To pull an object into a project, see Adding an object.
The remaining screens, including ones with no menu entry.
Where to go next
If you are starting from nothing, read Your first project. If you want to see something move today, go to Running a workflow in the cloud sim.
Updated 2 days ago