Meet the workspace (2 minutes)

Every button in this chapter opens the surface it describes, live — click it, look at what appeared, read the two sentences, move on. Nothing here changes your project or makes sound; it's a walk through the rooms before you start working in them. (Each button fires a registered action — the same one the AI or an MCP client would call. You'll see every click land in the Activity log later.)

#Views — six postures

The window is arranged by views, named after what you are doing, switched on the topbar's rail. Each holds its own panes, columns and open documents; switching never opens or closes anything, a running instrument keeps running.

Anything else is one click away in each column's picker, and Arrange mode (the topbar toggle) lets you add, pin, rename or save views of your own.

actions:
  - action_id: view.open
    input: { view: build }
    label: "▶ Switch to Build"
  - action_id: view.list
    input: {}
    label: "▶ Every view with its panes and documents"

#The topbar — always visible

Across the top: the Transport Widget in the centre (Play, BPM, the Bar.Beat.Sixteenth counter, loop, and the red Rec dot) and a cluster of icon buttons on the right (Master Control, search, AI Assistant). The transport is the global heartbeat — every sequencer and every transport-following DSP wakes up when you press Play. No button for this one; it's already on screen.

#Documents — your files

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: library }
    label: "▶ Open the Documents panel"

The left rail's file home: OPEN (tabs open right now), PROJECT (every file saved in this project), NEW (spawn a fresh Builder, Faust DSP, or authoring file). Everything you build lives here as a plain file — instruments are documents, not opaque session state.

#Patchbay — who talks to whom

actions:
  - action_id: patchbay.toggle
    input: { open: true }
    label: "▶ Open the Patchbay"

The routing matrix: Sources as rows, Sinks as columns, one click per cable. FaustWave never routes anything implicitly — if the Keyboard plays your synth, it's because a cell in this matrix is filled. When something is silent, this is the first place to look.

#Sequencer — the step grid

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: sequencer-default#roll }
    label: "▶ Open the Sequencer"

A multi-track piano-roll grid driven by a shared Faust master clock (sample-accurate, no JS-timer jitter). Scale-aware highlighting and a diatonic chord palette live here too — § Your first pattern uses both.

#Keyboard — play without hardware

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: keyboard-default }
    label: "▶ Open the Keyboard"

An on-screen MIDI keyboard. It's a real MIDI Source in the Patchbay — route it to any DSP and click keys. No hardware needed to test a synth.

#Master Control — the mixer

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: faustwave-bundled/mixer }
    label: "▶ Show Master Control"

The right-pinned strip: one MixerTrack per attached source (gain, mute, solo, sends), the Master FX rack, and the master volume + meter at the top. The "+ ADD AUDIO" button here is how a saved DSP gets a path to your speakers.

#Recorder — capture the master

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: recorder-default }
    label: "▶ Open the Recorder panel"

Your recordings library — every WAV you capture with the topbar Rec dot, newest first, with in-app preview. Lossless 32-bit float, exactly what the speakers heard.

#Knowledge — this book lives here

actions:
  - action_id: surface.open
    input: { surface: knowledge }
    label: "▶ Open the Knowledge Base"

The local knowledge base: search across Faust libraries, node kinds, music theory, and the manual you're reading right now — every shipped book is listed under Installed Packs. Semantic search runs on a local embedding model; nothing leaves your machine.

#Command Palette — everything by name

actions:
  - action_id: palette.overlay.toggle
    input: { open: true }
    label: "▶ Open the Command Palette"

Ctrl+K (or ⌘K). Every action in FaustWave is registered under a searchable id — the palette is the fastest route to anything you can't remember the location of. Press Escape to close it and come back.

#AI Assistant — the second operator

actions:
  - action_id: chat.panel.toggle
    input: { open: true }
    label: "▶ Open the Assistant panel"
  - action_id: settings.open
    input: { section: ai-provider }
    label: "▶ Set up an AI provider (optional)"

The in-app AI (Ctrl+L) sees the same action registry you do — it can build instruments, route cables, fill patterns, and every move it makes lands in the Activity log for you to audit. It needs a provider (an API key, or a local endpoint like Ollama) — the second button jumps straight to that Settings section. Entirely optional: everything in this manual works without it.

#Hub — the community

actions:
  - action_id: hub.open
    input: {}
    label: "▶ Open the Hub"

Publish and install instruments, sample packs, node packs, knowledge books, whole projects. Requires a (free) account for publishing; browsing installed content works offline.

#That's the map

Also on the rails, when you need them: Audio Inputs / Audio Outputs (device pick), MIDI (hardware devices), Logs, and the Faust Compiler history. You now know where everything lives — continue to § Your first DSP and start using it.