Alerts

Alerts are short, highly visible notifications that appear on output screens during a show. Use them when something needs immediate crew attention that can't wait for the next cue note — "hold", "technical difficulty", "5 minutes remaining".

Unlike messages, alerts aren't threaded or persistent. They're meant to be pushed, seen, and cleared.

Alerts live in the right panel of the Cues tab in director view. There's no separate sidebar tab for them — they're always visible alongside the current cue card.

Notice vs Critical

Every alert has a type that controls how it looks on output screens:

Notice — amber styling. For routine attention items: countdowns, reminders, hold instructions, anything that needs crew awareness without urgency.

Critical — red styling. For urgent situations requiring immediate action. Use sparingly — if every alert is Critical, none of them are.

The type is set when you create the draft and can't be changed after saving. Delete the draft and create a new one if you need a different type.

Creating an alert draft

Click + New alert at the bottom of the Alerts section. A small form appears:

• Text — the alert message. Keep it short enough to read at a glance mid-show.
• Teams — which teams receive this alert. Leave as "all teams" or select specific teams by their colored dots.
• Type — Notice or Critical.

Click Save to add it to your draft list. Drafts are stored persistently — they survive page reloads and reconnects. Build your common alerts before the show starts and they'll be ready when you need them.

Pushing live

Hover a draft to reveal its controls, then click Push live. The alert immediately appears on all targeted output screens. The draft row shows a red LIVE badge while the alert is active on screens.

To push it again after clearing it — say the same hold situation comes back — click Push live a second time. The alert reappears on output screens.

Clearing alerts

Clear a single alert — hover the live draft and click Clear. The alert disappears from output screens. The draft stays in your list for future use.

Clear all — a button at the top of the Alerts section removes every currently live alert from all output screens in one click. Drafts are kept.

How alerts appear on output screens

When an alert is pushed live:

1. It flies in to the center of the screen for approximately 3.5 seconds, overlaying whatever the team member is looking at. This is the attention-grab phase.
2. After 3.5 seconds it moves to a sidebar stack on the edge of the screen, where it stays until you clear it.
3. Multiple live alerts stack — each pushed alert adds to the sidebar. They don't replace each other.
4. Team members who join or reconnect mid-show see all currently live alerts immediately — late arrivals don't miss alerts that were pushed before they connected.

Who can manage alerts

Owner, Director, and Associate Director can create drafts, push alerts live, and clear them. These roles have the is_director permission that gates alert management.

Crew members, observers, and Q&A moderators cannot create or push alerts.