The Main Interface - A Complete Tour of SeaMeet's UI
Chapter 13: The Main Interface - A Complete Tour of SeaMeet's UI
By now, you've used SeaMeet to record audio and video, organized your library, and played back recordings. You've interacted with various parts of the interface, but you may not have a complete picture of how all the pieces fit together. This chapter provides a comprehensive tour of SeaMeet's main interface—every button, panel, indicator, and control—so you can navigate the app with confidence and find features you might not have discovered yet.
Think of this chapter as a guided tour of a new house. We'll walk through each room, examine the features, and explain what everything does. By the end, you'll know exactly where to find every function and understand how the interface adapts to different situations.
The Window Layout: Big Picture
When you open SeaMeet, you see a single window with a consistent layout. This layout remains stable whether you're recording, playing back, or just browsing your library. Understanding this layout is the foundation for using SeaMeet effectively.
The Three Main Zones
SeaMeet's window is divided into three primary zones:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. TOP NAVIGATION BAR │
│ [Logo] SeaMeet Screen & Audio Recorder [⚙️] [⏪] [🔴] │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ 2. SIDEBAR (Recording List) 3. MAIN CONTENT AREA │
│ ┌─────────────────────┐ ┌───────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ 🔍 Search... │ │ │ │
│ ├─────────────────────┤ │ Player / Recording │ │
│ │ 🎤 Recording 1 │ │ Controls / Settings │ │
│ │ 🎥 Recording 2 │ │ │ │
│ │ 🎤 Recording 3 │ │ (This area changes │ │
│ │ │ │ based on what you're │ │
│ │ [Recording cards │ │ doing) │ │
│ │ scroll here] │ │ │ │
│ └─────────────────────┘ └───────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Zone 1: Top Navigation Bar
- Always visible
- Contains global controls
- Quick access to key features
Zone 2: Sidebar (Recording List)
- Always visible (in most views)
- Shows your recordings
- Scrollable list of recording cards
Zone 3: Main Content Area
- Changes based on context
- Shows player when playing recordings
- Shows recording controls when preparing to record
- Shows settings when configuring options
Zone 1: The Top Navigation Bar
The top navigation bar provides navigation and account controls. It stays slim and focused — recording controls and Flashback have moved to the Capture Hub in the main content area (see State 1 below).
Layout of the Top Bar
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [☰ Nav] SeaMeet Screen & Audio Recorder [👤 Account] │
│ │ │ │
│ Navigation toggle User profile menu │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Navigation Toggle (☰)
What it does: Collapses or expands the left sidebar (recording list).
When to use:
- Collapse to give the Capture Hub more horizontal space
- Expand to browse your recording library while not recording
Account / User Menu (👤)
What it does: Opens the user account menu where you can:
- Sign in or sign out
- Open Settings (audio, video, Flashback, storage, language, shortcuts)
- Open keyboard shortcuts reference
- Access Help & Support
How to use:
- Click your profile picture or the user icon
- Select the desired option from the dropdown
Record Button (🔴)
Icon: Red circle (🔴) when ready, Square (⏹️) when recording Label: "RECORD" or just the icon Color: Bright red (indicates recording action)
What it does: Starts or stops recording
States:
Ready to Record:
[🔴 RECORD]
Red circle icon
Click to start recording
Recording Active:
[⏹️ STOP]
Square icon
Timer showing elapsed time
Click to stop recording
How to use:
To start recording:
- Configure your recording settings first
- Click the red Record button
- Recording begins immediately
- Button changes to Stop
- Timer starts counting
To stop recording:
- Click the Stop button (square)
- Recording stops
- File is saved
- Recording appears in sidebar
- Button returns to Record state
What happens when you click Record:
- Audio/video capture begins
- Timer appears showing elapsed time
- Button changes from 🔴 to ⏹️
- Visual indicator shows recording status
- File is being written to storage
What happens when you click Stop:
- Recording stops
- File is finalized and saved
- Recording appears in sidebar list
- Button returns to 🔴 state
- Timer disappears or resets
Important notes:
- Recording starts immediately—be ready!
- No countdown or warning
- Make sure your settings are correct before clicking
- Flashback (if enabled) includes the buffered past
System Tray
SeaMeet installs a system tray icon (Windows notification area, macOS menu bar) the first time it launches and keeps it alive for the entire app session. The tray is the always-available control surface — even when you've closed the main window, SeaMeet is still running, ready to capture, and reachable from a single click on its icon.
Why the Tray Stays Alive
Closing the main window does not quit SeaMeet. Instead the window hides and the tray icon stays put. This is intentional:
- Auto-Detect can still wake the app when a meeting app launches
- Flashback can keep its rolling buffer charged (if armed)
- Global hotkeys (Start Recording, Show Launcher, Show Floater) still work
- A quick recording is one tray-click away
The first time you close the window, SeaMeet sends a one-shot "minimised to tray" hint so you understand the app didn't actually exit. To fully quit, use Exit SeaMeet from the tray menu (see below) or your OS's app-quit command.
The Tray Icon
Default icon (idle):
- Windows: a small SeaMeet logo
.icoin the notification area - macOS: a 22×22 template image in the menu bar that adapts to light/dark mode
Recording icon (in progress):
- Switches to a red-tinted variant so you can see at a glance that SeaMeet is capturing
- On macOS the menu bar also gets a
●suffix; if paused it shows⏸ - The tooltip changes from "SeaMeet" to "SeaMeet — Recording in progress" (or "Paused")
Click behaviour:
- Left-click the icon — toggles the main window (show if hidden, hide if visible)
- Right-click the icon (Windows) / single-click (macOS) — opens the context menu
Tray Menu (Idle State)
When you're not recording, the menu looks roughly like this:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Workspace: Acme Sales (disabled) │ ← only in Lite / cloud builds
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Quick recording (disabled) │
│ 🎤 Record audio │
│ 🖥️ Record fullscreen │
│ ◰ Record region │
│ 📷 Take screenshot (Ctrl+Shift+S)│
│ 📁 Open recordings folder │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🚀 Show launcher (Ctrl+Shift+L)│
│ 🪟 Show floating window (Ctrl+Shift+F)│
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🗔 Show main window │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⏻ Exit SeaMeet │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
What each item does:
- Workspace: <name> — Header that shows which cloud workspace a tray-initiated recording will land in. Only appears in Lite or cloud-enabled builds where you've signed in and picked a workspace. In non-cloud builds the row is hidden entirely so the menu shape stays unchanged.
- Record audio — Starts an audio-only recording immediately. No video sources requested.
- Record fullscreen — Starts a recording of your primary display plus audio.
- Record region — Opens the fullscreen region overlay so you can drag-select an area, then starts a recording of that region.
- Take screenshot — Opens the region selector for a one-shot screenshot. Shortcut shown if you've bound one in Settings → Keyboard.
- Open recordings folder — Opens the OS file browser at your current save directory.
- Show launcher — Toggles the SeaMeet Launcher panel (see Chapter 14). Shortcut is shown when bound.
- Show floating window — Shows/hides the Floater widget. Shortcut is shown when bound.
- Show main window — Brings the main window forward (the same as left-clicking the icon when hidden).
- Exit SeaMeet — The only menu item that actually quits. It sets the internal "is quitting" flag and asks Electron to terminate; everything else just shows/hides surfaces.
Tray Menu (While Recording)
When a recording is in flight the menu reshapes to give you direct transport controls:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ● Recording in progress (disabled) │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⏹ Stop recording (Ctrl+Shift+R)│
│ ⏸ Pause recording │
│ ⚑ Mark event │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🗔 Show main window │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ⏻ Exit SeaMeet │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
Notes on the recording menu:
- The header line is purely a status label (it's intentionally disabled).
- Stop recording ends the capture and saves the file just like clicking the Stop button in the main window.
- Pause/Resume is shown only when the codec/source supports it. Video-only recordings hide the Pause item.
- Mark event drops a timestamp marker into the recording, useful for jumping back to a key moment during playback.
- When paused, the menu swaps in Resume recording in place of Pause and the macOS title flips to
⏸.
Localised Labels
The tray menu honours 15 supported locales (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese, Danish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese). Languages outside that set fall back to English so the menu always renders correctly.
Zone 2: The Sidebar (Recording List)
The sidebar is your recording library's table of contents. It displays all your recordings in a scrollable list, allowing you to browse, select, and manage your collection.
Sidebar Layout
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SIDEBAR │
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 🔍 Search recordings... ││
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 🎤 Team Meeting - Q3 Planning ││
│ │ 47:32 • Today, 2:30 PM • Zoom ││
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 🎥 Client Presentation ││
│ │ 32:15 • Yesterday, 10:00 AM • Screen ││
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ 🎤 Voice Memo ││
│ │ 2:45 • Jan 15, 3:20 PM • Microphone ││
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ [More recordings... scroll to see] │
│ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Search Box
Location: Top of sidebar Appearance: Text field with magnifying glass icon (🔍) Placeholder text: "Search recordings..." or similar
What it does: Filters the recording list in real-time as you type
How to use:
- Click in the search box
- Start typing
- List filters automatically
- Shows only recordings matching your search
- Clear search to see all recordings again
What you can search:
- Recording names
- Source labels ("Zoom", "Teams")
- Dates (if typed in searchable format)
- Partial matches work
Example searches:
- Search "Zoom" → Shows all Zoom recordings
- Search "budget" → Shows recordings with "budget" in name
- Search "March" → Shows March recordings
- Search "client" → Shows client-related recordings
Clearing search:
- Click X button (if present)
- Delete all text
- Press Escape key
Recording Cards
Each recording in your library is displayed as a recording card—a compact summary of the recording's key information.
Two view modes:
- Compact View (default) - Minimal info, efficient browsing
- Expanded View - Detailed info, waveform preview
Compact View
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 🎤 Q3 Budget Review - Team Meeting │
│ 47:32 • Today, 2:30 PM • Zoom • Audio │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Elements:
- Icon (🎤) - Indicates type (audio/video)
- Name - Recording title
- Duration - How long (47:32)
- Timestamp - When recorded (Today, 2:30 PM)
- Source - Where from (Zoom)
- Type - Audio/Video/Flashback
When to use compact view:
- Browsing many recordings
- Quick scanning
- Limited screen space
- Overview of library
Expanded View
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ 🎤 Q3 Budget Review - Team Meeting │
│ │
│ Duration: 47:32 │
│ Recorded: Today, 2:30 PM │
│ Source: Zoom │
│ Type: Audio + Video │
│ File Size: 145 MB │
│ │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ││
│ │ Waveform preview ││
│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ [▶ Play] [✏️ Rename] [📂 Show] [🗑️ Delete] [⋯ More] │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Additional elements in expanded view:
- File size - Storage used
- Waveform preview - Visual audio representation
- Action buttons - All available actions visible
When to use expanded view:
- Working with specific recording
- Need all details
- Before playing
- When organizing
Recording Card Icons Explained
Audio Icons:
- 🎤 - Microphone (audio recording)
- 🔴 - Audio (generic)
- 🔊 - System audio only
- 🎤+🔊 - Combined audio (mic + system)
Video Icons:
- 🎥 - Video recording
- 📹 - Screen recording
- 🖥️ - Fullscreen recording
- 🪟 - Window recording
Special Icons:
- ⏪ - Flashback recording
- 📥 - Imported file
- 🌐 - Web/browser recording
Sorting and Filtering Controls
Location: Usually at the top of sidebar, near search
Sort Options:
- Date (newest first) - Default
- Date (oldest first)
- Name (A-Z)
- Name (Z-A)
- Duration (shortest first)
- Duration (longest first)
- Size (smallest first)
- Size (largest first)
How to change sort:
- Click "Sort" dropdown
- Select sort method
- Click again to reverse order
Filter Options:
- All - Show everything
- Audio only - Audio recordings
- Video only - Video recordings
- Today - Today's recordings
- This week - Recent recordings
- Flashback - Flashback captures
- By Source - Zoom, Teams, etc.
How to filter:
- Click "Filter" button or dropdown
- Select filter criteria
- List updates to show only matches
- Click "Clear" or "All" to reset
Zone 3: The Main Content Area
The main content area is the chameleon of SeaMeet's interface—it changes its appearance based on what you're doing. Let's explore its different states.
State 1: Capture Hub (Idle / Ready to Record)
When shown:
- When you first open SeaMeet
- When no recording is selected and you are not actively recording
What you see — the Capture Hub:
The main content area shows the Capture Hub, a two-panel layout that puts recording and screenshot controls front and center:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CAPTURE HUB │
│ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ START RECORDING │ │ TAKE SCREENSHOT │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ [Flashback] [🎙️] [Auto] │ │ [📷] │ │
│ │ big red │ │ camera icon │ │
│ │ mic circle │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ ● Full Screen │ │
│ │ Flashback status / context │ │ ○ Area Capture │ │
│ │ message │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ [ ] Keep SeaMeet window │ │
│ │ [🎥 Start Recording] CTA │ │ visible when capturing │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ Open Launcher Open Floater │ │ [📷 Take Screenshot] │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Left Panel — Start Recording
The left panel contains all controls for starting a new recording:
Flanking controls (top of card):
- Flashback toggle (left) — Click to cycle Flashback mode: OFF → Audio → Screen → OFF. Shows a ⚡ lightning bolt icon when armed (buffer is charging or ready). See Chapter 7 for full details.
- Big red mic circle (center) — Click to open the Video Settings modal and choose your recording mode (audio-only, fullscreen, window, region).
- Auto-Detect toggle (right) — Enables automatic recording when a meeting app is detected.
Context area (middle of card):
- When Flashback is OFF: shows a brief description of how to get started.
- When Flashback is arming (charging): shows a progress indicator while the buffer fills.
- When Flashback is ready: shows the ⚡ icon and "Flashback armed" confirmation.
CTA button (bottom of card):
- Label and action adapt to the Flashback state:
- Flashback OFF → "Start Recording" (opens Video Settings)
- Flashback arming → "Buffering…" (disabled while filling)
- Flashback ready → "Record with Flashback" (captures the buffer and starts recording)
Quick-launch shortcuts (bottom strip):
- Open Launcher — Opens the SeaMeet Launcher panel with the hotkey shown
- Open Floater — Shows/hides the Floater widget with the hotkey shown
Right Panel — Take Screenshot
The right panel handles screenshots independently from recordings:
- Camera icon button — Large hero button; click to take a screenshot using the currently selected mode.
- Full Screen / Area Capture — Radio buttons to choose between a full-screen capture or drawing a region.
- Keep SeaMeet window visible checkbox — When unchecked (default), SeaMeet minimises itself before capturing so it doesn't appear in the screenshot. When checked, the window stays visible and will appear in the capture.
- Take Screenshot button — Triggers the capture (same as clicking the camera icon).
Purpose:
- One-stop hub for everything you need before you start capturing
- Flashback state is visible and controllable without opening Settings
- Screenshot and recording are cleanly separated into two cards
State 2: Recording Preparation (Video Settings)
When shown:
- When you click the big red mic circle or "Start Recording" CTA in the left panel of the Capture Hub
What you see:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ VIDEO SETTINGS MODAL [X Close] │
│ │
│ Choose recording mode: │
│ ● Audio only (no screen capture) │
│ ○ Fullscreen (full display) │
│ ○ Window (single application window) │
│ ○ Region (custom area) │
│ │
│ Quality: [Original ▼] Frame Rate: [30 fps ▼] │
│ │
│ [Start Recording] │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Purpose:
- Select audio-only or a specific video/screen recording mode
- Adjust quality and frame rate before starting
State 3: Active Recording
When shown:
- While recording is in progress
- After clicking Record button
- Until you click Stop
What you see:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MAIN CONTENT AREA (Recording) │
│ │
│ 🔴 RECORDING │
│ │
│ Elapsed Time: 12:34 │
│ │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ ││
│ │ [Live Waveform Display] ││
│ │ ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ││
│ │ ▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▄▀ ││
│ │ ▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▄▄▀ ││
│ │ Real-time audio visualization ││
│ │ ││
│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ Audio Level: ████████████░░ 85% │
│ │
│ [⏸️ Pause] [⏹️ Stop Recording] [⏺️ Mark] │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Elements:
Recording Indicator:
- Red "RECORDING" text or indicator
- Flashing red dot (in some versions)
- Shows recording is active
Elapsed Timer:
- Shows how long you've been recording
- Format: HH:MM:SS or MM:SS
- Updates every second
Waveform Display:
- Real-time visualization of audio
- Shows sound levels as you record
- Helps you verify audio is being captured
Audio Level Meter:
- Shows current input volume
- Green = Good level
- Yellow = Getting loud
- Red = Too loud (clipping/distortion)
Control Buttons:
- Pause (⏸️) - Temporarily stop recording (if supported)
- Stop (⏹️) - End recording and save
- Mark (⏺️) - Add timestamp marker (if available)
State 4: Playback
When shown:
- When playing a recording
- After selecting a recording and clicking Play
What you see:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MAIN CONTENT AREA (Playback) │
│ │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ ││
│ │ [Video Display or Waveform Visualization] ││
│ │ ││
│ │ For video: Shows the video content ││
│ │ For audio: Shows the waveform ││
│ │ ││
│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ 12:34 / 45:67 [🔊━━] │
│ │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ ││
│ │ ▲ ││
│ │ Playhead position ││
│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ [⏮️] [⏸️] [⏵️] [⏹️] [⏭️] [1.0x] │
│ │
│ Q3 Budget Review - Team Meeting │
│ 45:67 total duration • Zoom • Audio + Video │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Detailed in: Chapter 11 (Playback Features)
State 5: Settings Panel
When shown:
- When you click Settings button (⚙️)
- When accessing configuration options
What you see:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MAIN CONTENT AREA (Settings) │
│ │
│ SETTINGS [X Close] │
│ │
│ ┌──────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ General │ ││
│ │ Audio │ [Setting content here] ││
│ │ Video │ ││
│ │ Flashback│ • Option 1 ││
│ │ Auto-Rec │ • Option 2 ││
│ │ Storage │ • Option 3 ││
│ │ Language │ ││
│ │ Shortcuts│ ││
│ └──────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
│ │
│ [Cancel] [Apply] │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Structure:
- Left sidebar: Settings categories
- Main area: Settings for selected category
- Bottom: Cancel/Apply buttons
Settings Categories:
- General - App-wide settings
- Audio - Microphone, gain, devices
- Video - Quality, mode, frame rate
- Flashback - Buffer settings, auto-start
- Auto-Recording - Detection, permissions
- Storage - Save location, file management
- Language - Language, theme, appearance
- Shortcuts - Keyboard shortcut configuration
Visual Indicators and Status Icons
Throughout SeaMeet, various icons and colors provide visual feedback about the app's state.
Recording Status Indicators
Not Recording:
- Record button shows 🔴 (red circle)
- No timer visible
- Normal window title
Recording Active:
- Record button shows ⏹️ (square)
- Timer showing elapsed time
- May have red border or "RECORDING" indicator
- Window title may change to show "[Recording]"
Paused (if supported):
- Pause button highlighted
- Timer frozen
- "PAUSED" indicator visible
Flashback Status Indicators
OFF:
- Gray color
- "OFF" or no indicator
- Not using memory
FILLING:
- Amber/Yellow color
- Animated or pulsing
- Percentage may show (e.g., "FILLING 60%")
- Wait for green before relying on it
READY:
- Green color
- Steady indicator
- Shows duration (e.g., "30S")
- Ready to capture past moments
Audio Level Indicators
During Recording:
Good Level (Green):
Audio: ████████████░░ 70%
- Consistent green bars
- Around 60-80% is ideal
Too Quiet (Low):
Audio: ███░░░░░░░░░░ 20%
- Hardly any bars
- Increase microphone gain
- Move closer to microphone
Too Loud (Red):
Audio: ██████████████ 100% ⚠️
- Maxed out bars
- May be distorting
- Lower gain or move back
Notification Toasts
SeaMeet may display temporary notification messages:
Success:
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ ✅ Recording saved │
│ File: Meeting_2024.webm │
└─────────────────────────┘
Warning:
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ ⚠️ Low disk space │
│ 500 MB remaining │
└─────────────────────────┘
Error:
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ ❌ Recording failed │
│ Check microphone access │
└─────────────────────────┘
Info:
┌─────────────────────────┐
│ ℹ️ Flashback ready │
│ 30 second buffer active │
└─────────────────────────┘
Resizing and Layout Adjustments
SeaMeet's interface adapts to different window sizes.
Standard Window Size
Optimal size:
- Width: 1000-1400 pixels
- Height: 700-900 pixels
- All elements visible and accessible
Narrow Window (Sidebar Collapsed)
When window is narrow:
- Sidebar may collapse or become a dropdown
- Main content takes more space
- Some controls may move to menus
Wide Window (Expanded View)
When window is wide:
- Sidebar may expand
- More recording cards visible
- Player area larger for video
Fullscreen Mode
Available for:
- Video playback (F key or button)
- Some settings panels
- Presentation mode
How to toggle:
- Enter: F key or double-click video
- Exit: ESC key or F key again
Interface Customization (If Available)
Some versions of SeaMeet allow interface customization.
Theme Settings
Light Mode:
- White/light gray background
- Dark text
- Standard for daytime use
Dark Mode:
- Dark gray/black background
- Light text
- Easier on eyes in low light
- May save battery on OLED screens
How to change:
- Settings → Language & Appearance
- Select "Light" or "Dark"
- Or "Auto" to follow system setting
Sidebar Width (If Adjustable)
How to resize:
- Find edge between sidebar and main area
- Cursor changes to resize cursor (↔️)
- Drag left or right
- Release to set new width
Interface Navigation Tips
Getting Around Quickly
1. Use keyboard shortcuts
- Faster than mouse for common actions
- Space for play/pause
- Arrows for navigation
- See Chapter 15 for full list
2. Right-click for context menus
- Recordings have right-click menus
- Quick access to common actions
- Different options in different areas
3. Look for hover tooltips
- Hover over buttons to see what they do
- Especially helpful for icon-only buttons
- Shows keyboard shortcuts if available
4. Use the search box
- Fastest way to find recordings
- Works in real-time
- Searches names and sources
Understanding Visual Feedback
Colors mean things:
- Red: Recording, error, stop
- Green: Ready, success, active
- Yellow/Amber: Warning, filling, caution
- Gray: Disabled, inactive, off
- Blue: Information, links, selection
Animation means things:
- Pulsing: Loading, filling, in progress
- Static: Ready, complete, stable
- Blinking: Urgent, attention needed
Lite vs Full Mode
SeaMeet ships with two interface modes. They share the same recording engine, the same files on disk, and the same tray icon — but they expose very different amounts of UI.
Picking a Mode
On a clean first launch, SeaMeet shows a mode picker asking you which experience you want. Existing v2.x users who upgrade are silently migrated to Full mode (so nothing visibly changes), but everyone can switch later from Settings.
The chosen mode is persisted as appMode: 'full' | 'lite' in your UI settings. Switching modes while a recording is in flight is held back until the recording drains so you never lose a capture; the Settings modal closes immediately so the "Saving…" spinner is visible during the wait.
Full Mode (Default)
This is the chapter you've been reading so far — sidebar + Capture Hub + main content area, all states (Recording, Playback, Settings) covered in the sections above. Full mode includes:
- The Capture Hub with Flashback and screenshot controls
- The full sidebar with recording cards, search, sort and filter
- Notes and Wiki (see Ch 16–17)
- Media Library (Ch 10)
- All settings categories (Ch 18+)
- Local-first workspaces (see "Workspaces" below)
Use Full mode when SeaMeet is your primary recording surface and you want notes, wiki, agent, and library management in one window.
Lite Mode
Lite mode is a much smaller surface area centred on the system tray and a single cloud-backed meetings list. There is no sidebar, no notes view, no wiki, no Capture Hub — recordings are started from the tray (or auto-detect, or a hotkey), and finished recordings are surfaced as meeting cards once the post-meeting summary pipeline has uploaded them to your SeaMeet workspace.
A typical Lite window looks like this:
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Acme Sales ▼] [🔍] [⚙ Settings]│ ← workspace header
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Thursday, June 4 │
│ │
│ 3 meetings, 2h 14m this week │
│ │
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐│
│ │ Q3 Pipeline Review — Today, 10:00 [Open] ││
│ │ Discovery: Northwind — Yesterday, 14:30 [Open] ││
│ │ Internal sync — Mon, 09:00 [Open] ││
│ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘│
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
What's different from Full mode:
| Surface | Full | Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar with recording cards | yes | no — replaced by cloud meetings list |
| Capture Hub (two-panel) | yes | no — recordings start from tray / hotkey |
| Notes & Wiki views | yes | no |
| Media Library | yes | no |
| Workspace header at top | only in dedicated views | always visible |
| System tray | yes | yes (with workspace header row) |
| Auto-Detect toast | yes | yes |
| Permissions onboarding | yes | yes |
| Settings panel | full category list | scoped "Lite Settings" modal |
Workspace header in Lite:
The very top of the Lite window is a workspace switcher (a button showing the active workspace name with an avatar and a chevron). Clicking it opens a dropdown of every workspace you have access to on the SeaMeet cloud. Picking a different workspace:
- Persists the new workspace ID locally
- Refreshes the meetings list
- Pushes the new workspace name to the tray menu so a tray-started recording also lands in the right place
- Resets pagination to page 1
Signing out clears the tray's workspace header (traySetWorkspaceDisplay(null, null)) so the menu never lies about a workspace you no longer have access to.
Recording in Lite:
- Click the tray icon and choose Record audio / fullscreen / region — or use a global hotkey
- The Lite Recording View takes over the main window with a live waveform, timer, and a single Stop control
- When you stop, the file is saved locally and uploaded to your SeaMeet workspace for transcription and summarisation
- Once the cloud pipeline finishes, the meeting card appears in the list
Use Lite mode when SeaMeet is a background recorder that feeds the SeaMeet cloud — you want the tray to do the work and a clean list of meetings to review.
Switching Between Modes
Open Settings (in either mode), find the "Switch to Full / Lite mode" action, and confirm. SeaMeet drains any in-progress recording, then relaunches the renderer into the other mode. Your files, workspaces, settings, and tray icon survive the switch.
Workspaces
SeaMeet has two distinct workspace concepts that share a name but live in different places. Understanding which is which avoids confusion.
Local Workspaces (Full Mode)
In Full mode, a workspace is an Obsidian-style vault — a folder on disk that holds your notes, your generated wiki, and (by default) your recordings. The WorkspaceManager in the main process owns:
- A registry of workspaces (
{ id, name, path, isDefault? }[]) persisted in your settings file - The active workspace ID (only one is active at a time)
- A chokidar file watcher on the active workspace's path, with polling auto-enabled for external volumes and network mounts (e.g. macOS
/Volumes/, Google Drive's~/Library/CloudStorage/GoogleDrive-<email>/…) where FSEvents wouldn't fire reliably - Per-workspace state (last opened note, recent files, etc.) under
userData/workspace-state/<id>.json
On first launch, if no workspaces are registered, SeaMeet auto-creates a single Default workspace pointing at your save directory. The "Default" name is localised across all 23 languages.
The Workspace Switcher (Sidebar Header):
Both the Notes view (Ch 16) and the Wiki view (Ch 17) render a <WorkspaceSwitcher> at the top of the file tree:
┌────────────────── ────────────────┐
│ [🅰] Acme Vault ⌄ │ ← active workspace
├──────────────────────────────────┤
│ Workspaces │
│ ✓ Acme Vault ~/Notes/Acme │
│ Personal ~/Notes/Personal│
│ Side Project ~/Code/Side │
├──────────────────────────────────┤
│ + Add workspace… │
└──────────────────────────────────┘
- Click the active row to open the dropdown
- Click any other workspace to switch to it — the file watcher tears down, the new workspace's path is mounted, Notes and Wiki refresh, and per-workspace state is restored
- Add workspace… opens the native folder picker so you can register any directory as a vault (uniqueness is checked — registering the same path twice is rejected)
- Remove (×) on a row removes the SeaMeet entry only; files on disk are untouched. You can't remove the last workspace.
- Each row may show a cloud badge (Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, Google Drive) and a git remote badge when sync detection finds them
Switching workspaces is serialised: if a switch is already in flight, the next one waits for it to finish so NotesManager / WikiManager never end up pointing at a stale path.
Cloud Workspaces (Lite Mode)
In Lite mode (and in cloud-enabled Full builds), a workspace means something different: a team workspace on the SeaMeet cloud. The <WorkspacePicker> component fetches your accessible workspaces via the SeaMeet API and persists the chosen one for upload routing.
Cloud workspaces drive:
- Which workspace a new recording uploads to
- Which workspace's meetings appear in the Lite meetings list
- The workspace header row in the tray menu (so you can see at a glance where the next tray-started recording will land)
The cloud picker filters out workspaces where your my_status is INACTIVE. On first sign-in, if your previously chosen workspace isn't in the returned list (you lost membership, schema drift, etc.), the picker auto-picks the first available workspace and persists that — so the menu can never be wedged on an inaccessible ID.
Both at Once
In a cloud-enabled Full build you can have both kinds of workspace selected simultaneously: a local vault that holds your notes and a SeaMeet cloud workspace that receives your uploads. They're independent — switching one doesn't switch the other.
Quick Reference: Interface Elements
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ MAIN INTERFACE QUICK REFERENCE │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ TOP BAR: │
│ [☰] - Navigation toggle (collapses/expands sidebar) │
│ [👤] - Account menu → Settings, Sign in/out, Help │
│ │
│ SIDEBAR: │
│ [🔍 Search] - Find recordings fast │
│ [📂 Open Folder] - Open recordings save folder │
│ [Recording Cards] - Your library │
│ ├─ Icon: Type (🎤 audio, 🎥 video, 📷 screenshot) │
│ ├─ Name: Recording title │
│ ├─ Duration: Length │
│ ├─ Time: When recorded │
│ └─ Source: Origin app │
│ │
│ MAIN AREA (changes based on state): │
│ • Idle → Capture Hub (two-panel: Record + Screenshot) │
│ └─ LEFT: Flashback toggle, big mic, Auto-Detect, │
│ context area, Start Recording CTA │
│ └─ RIGHT: Camera icon, Full/Area toggle, Keep │
│ window visible checkbox, Take Screenshot btn │
│ • Recording: Timer + waveform + controls │
│ • Playback: Video/waveform + timeline + controls │
│ │
│ CAPTURE HUB — FLASHBACK STATES: │
│ • ⚫ Gray ring = Flashback OFF │
│ • ⚡ Amber = Flashback arming (buffer filling) │
│ • ⚡ Green = Flashback ready (can capture past) │
│ │
│ LAYOUT TIPS: │
│ • Resize window: Drag edges │
│ • Fullscreen video: Press F during playback │
│ • Search: Use 🔍 box for fast finding │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Last updated: 2026-06-04 Part of the SeaMeet User Manual Previous: Chapter 12 - Importing Files Next: Chapter 14 - The Floater
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