Getting Started
Creating a device
AutoFlow drives your hardware through devices — a connection to a vMix, CasparCG, or Resolume instance on your network. Open Devices in the menu bar and choose Configure vMix…, Configure CasparCG…, or Configure Resolume… (only the modules your license includes appear). Click + Add vMix and fill in a friendly Name, a unique Device ID, the Host / IP Address of the machine running the software, and its Port (vMix defaults to 8099). Leave Connect on start-up ticked to reconnect automatically each launch. Save, and the device appears in the list and as its own tab in the Assets sidebar. Add as many devices as you need — several vMix machines, a CasparCG server, and Resolume can all run side by side in one production.
Getting Started
Connecting to a device
A newly added device starts Disconnected. From the device manager, select it and click Connect — the status dot turns green. Quicker still: click the device's tab in the Assets sidebar, where a connection bar sits at the top showing the same status and a Connect button. Once connected, that device's inputs, media, and graphics load automatically. If it won't connect, confirm the target software is running, its API/web-controller is enabled, and the host and port match what you entered. A disconnected device isn't fatal — its assets stay in your rundown and simply grey out, resuming the moment the device reconnects. Use Disconnect to release a device without removing it from the production.
Assets & Timeline
Input, Media & Graphics
Inside a vMix device tab, content is grouped the way vMix itself thinks about sources. Inputs are live, continuous sources — cameras, NDI feeds, virtual sets — with no fixed length. Media holds file-based clips: standalone video and audio, plus clip lists, which expand into a folder of individual list items. Media carries its own duration, read from the file. Graphics are your title and lower-third templates, which expose editable text fields and typically play as an in/out animation rather than for a set duration. Each type is colour-coded, and each behaves differently once on the timeline — inputs get a duration you choose, media locks to its real length, graphics expose their text and in/out behaviour. Below these sit Transitions and device-specific Commands.
Assets & Timeline
Dropping an asset onto the timeline
Drag any chip from the sidebar onto a track to drop it in as an asset block, its width matching its duration. Double-click a block (or right-click → Edit…) to open the Asset Editor: set the Output Channel — M for the main mix, or 1–8 for a vMix overlay — adjust Duration in mm:ss:mmm, and set Audio to AUTO, ON, or OFF. File-based clips also expose a Loop toggle. For quick tweaks, click the block's channel badge to switch output, or drag its right edge to resize duration (fixed-length media can't be resized). Right-click also offers Replace with… and Remove. Blocks show a live playhead and progress bar while on air.
Automation & Scripting
Device commands in a script
Beyond playing assets, you can fire device commands — actions that control the switcher without putting a clip on air. For vMix, a device tab's vMix Commands section offers Overlay Off (removes an overlay from a chosen channel) and Sound Level (fades an input to a target volume). CasparCG offers Clear Output under Other. These chips are script-only — drag them into a timeline's script, not onto the timeline itself. Once dropped, each exposes inline controls: Overlay Off lets you pick the channel and an in-offset delay; Sound Level lets you choose the audio channel, target volume, fade time, and start offset. Because they live in a script, commands run at precise moments relative to an asset's playback — closing an overlay two seconds before a clip ends, say, or ducking a mic as a video starts.
Automation & Scripting
Commands in the rundown
The Commands tab holds flow-control blocks that shape how a rundown advances — drag them into the gaps between assets. Wait inserts a timed pause before playback rolls on automatically. Pause stops the timeline and waits for the operator to trigger the next step. Continue auto-advances to the next asset — or the next timeline — with no operator input, chaining segments hands-free. Loop Rundown, placed at the end, jumps playback back to the first asset so a sequence repeats — ideal for looping backgrounds. These appear as small badges between blocks rather than full-width blocks; right-click a badge to adjust or remove it. Group is a script-only organiser. Together they turn a flat clip list into an automated playlist that knows when to wait for a human and when to keep rolling.
Automation & Scripting
Intro to the timeline script
For anything past "play this, then that," a timeline's Script is the advanced layer where you sequence precise, timed actions around your assets. While the timeline shows the broad running order, the script controls the fine detail — triggering an overlay seconds into a clip, fading audio mid-segment, closing a graphic before an asset ends, cutting between inputs, or driving CasparCG and Resolume in step. Right-click a track and choose Edit to open the script editor; a panel shows the track's scriptable assets as tabs. Build a script by dragging command blocks — Wait, Auto Transition, Overlay Window, vMix Clip/Input/Graphic, Sound Level, Overlay Off, CCG Play, Resolume Scene/Clip, Group — into the list and setting their timing. This is where a cue list becomes full show automation.
Automation & Scripting
Using scripts per asset
Scripts are per-asset: each block on a track can carry its own command list, run relative to when that asset starts. In the script editor, the tabs across the top are the track's assets — click one to edit its script, then drag commands or other assets into its list. Each command carries an offset (e.g. "in +2.0s" or "end −1.0s") so actions fire at exactly the right moment. A special On Stop tab holds commands that run when the timeline is stopped — the right place to clear overlays, mute a source, or reset a graphic so nothing is left on air. Commands can nest inside a Group to keep complex scripts organised. Press Esc or the collapse arrow to close the editor; since the script lives on the asset, duplicating it carries the automation along.
Audio
The Audio Mixer
Once a vMix device is configured, an Audio Mixer tab appears in the bottom panel, mirroring vMix's audio bus live: a Master fader on the left, then a strip per audio-enabled input, each with a live level meter, current volume, a draggable fader, and an M mute button. Moving a fader or muting a channel goes straight to vMix, and incoming changes reflect back, so the mixer and switcher stay in sync. With more than one vMix device connected, device tabs let you switch mixers. It's a familiar, hands-on board for riding levels live — balancing a presenter's mic against playback, muting a source between segments, pulling the master down — without leaving AutoFlow or touching the vMix window.
Audio
Sound Level commands
The mixer is also the fastest way to build audio automation. Set a channel's fader where you want it, then drag that channel's name box out of the mixer and drop it into a timeline script — AutoFlow creates a Sound Level command pre-filled with that input and its current volume. Refine it from there: adjust the target volume, set a fade time so the change ramps instead of jumping, and give it a start offset so it fires at the right moment. This turns manual level-riding into a repeatable move — automatically ducking music to 30% when a mic opens, then fading back up as the segment ends. Capturing the level visually on the mixer first means you never guess the number.
Quick Assets
Introduction
Quick Assets is a soundboard-style panel at the bottom of the screen for the sources you reach for most — stingers, lower-thirds, backgrounds, replays, or entire pre-built timelines — laid out as cards in a grid for instant, one-click access instead of hunting the sidebar mid-show. The panel supports multiple tabs, so you can group cards by segment or show, and each card can carry a hotkey. Cards show device, name, output channel, and duration at a glance, and light up to reflect vMix tally or playback state. They're dual-purpose: fire a card live on its own, or drag it into a rundown as a building block. You can even store a whole timeline as a single card and drop it in to recreate that sequence instantly.
Quick Assets
Creating a card
Adding a Quick Asset is pure drag-and-drop. Click + in the panel's tab bar to add a tab, and double-click a tab to rename it. Then drag any asset from the sidebar and drop it onto an empty cell to create a card. Drag a block from a timeline into the grid to capture it — channel and settings included — or drag a whole timeline from the rundown to save it as one reusable card. Once a card exists, its ⋯ menu lets you rename it, edit its settings, assign a hotkey, or remove it. Graphics prompt for their text and in/out behaviour as they're added. Cards rearrange freely between cells, so you can lay the board out exactly the way your operator's hands expect.
Quick Assets
Triggering a card
Three ways to fire a card live. Double-click plays it immediately to its configured channel — the card highlights while active, and doubling-clicking again stops a playing timeline card. Fastest during a show: a hotkey — open the card's ⋯ menu, click into the Hotkey field, and press a key combination; from then on that keystroke fires the card from anywhere in the app. A single click just selects the card without playing it. Cards reflect live status as they fire — vMix sources show program/preview colouring from tally, and any card shows a playing state — so the operator always has visual confirmation. Instant, non-destructive triggering makes Quick Assets work as a live soundboard alongside a scripted rundown.
Quick Assets
Using cards in the timeline
Quick Assets double as reusable building blocks for your rundown. Drag any card onto a track and it becomes a normal asset block — carrying the card's source, channel, and settings — ready to be scripted like anything else, so you can prepare a source once and reuse it across segments without reconfiguring it each time. Timeline cards go further: dragging one onto the rundown spawns a complete new track — assets, transitions, commands, and scripts included — recreating a whole pre-built segment instantly. That makes Quick Assets an effective template library: build a polished opener or a standard lower-third sequence once, save it as a card, and drop it into any show. Combined with hotkeys for live use, the same library serves both your scripted rundown and an operator's improvised moments.
App
Tools → Settings
Open Tools → Settings to configure how AutoFlow behaves. Playback controls timing defaults: Preview Delay (how long after an asset starts before the next is cued into vMix Preview, default 1000 ms), Input Default Duration (length given to live inputs dropped on the timeline, default 5 s), and Default Transition Time (default 460 ms). Hotkeys assigns keys for Cue, Play/Continue, Pause/Resume, Stop, Copy, Paste, Delete, and Edit — click a badge and press the combination. Bridge shows the connection to the AutoFlow Bridge service and lets you set its port (default 9999). License displays your key, status, expiry, enabled modules, and app version, with a Re-check button to refresh activation. Changes apply on Save.
App
The Logs tab
The Logs tab in the bottom panel is your window into what AutoFlow is doing behind the scenes — device connections, commands sent, playback events, warnings, and errors, streamed in real time with timestamps. Checkboxes filter by level: Errors, Warnings, Info, Verbose, so you can focus on problems or watch full detail. The view auto-scrolls as events arrive, and the tab flags unread activity so nothing slips by while you're working elsewhere. Clear Logs empties the current view; Save Filtered Logs exports the currently visible entries to a file — useful when reporting an issue, since it captures exactly what led up to it. When a device won't connect or a command doesn't fire, this is the first place to look.
Prompter
Creating a Prompter Production
Switch to Prompter view from the top bar (or the View menu) to start writing. The script is organized into blocks — each with its own title and collapsible body — so a longer show can be split into logical sections (Open, Segment 1, Break, Close, etc.) while still playing back as one continuous read. Type directly into a block like a normal text editor: paragraphs, line breaks, and formatting (bold, underline, color, alignment) all work as expected, and every new script starts with two locked placeholder lines at the top to anchor the read-in.
To bring a device into the flow, drag an asset — a vMix input, clip, graphic, CasparCG template, Resolume clip, or even a saved Quick Asset timeline — directly from the sidebar into the text at the point where it should fire. It lands as a compact, color-coded chip inline with your words; graphics prompt you to configure their text fields before they're inserted. You can also drop in Pause, Wait, and Continue command chips to control pacing: Pause halts the read until you resume it manually, Wait resumes automatically after a set duration, and Continue is a no-op marker. Once placed, right-click any asset chip for Edit…, Replace with…, or Remove, exactly like in Rundown — so swapping a graphic or clip later doesn't mean retyping anything around it.
Prompter
Reading and Executing a Script
Press Cue to reset the read to the top — the first word lines up on the trigger triangle and every device is prepared. Play starts the scroll: text advances at a configurable words-per-second pace (adjustable live from the toolbar or hotkeys), with the current word highlighted as it's read. As the scroll reaches each asset or command chip, it fires automatically and in order — no separate button press needed — while ordinary text simply keeps scrolling underneath. A currently-playing chip is marked with a red accent so you can see at a glance what just went to air, and it clears again once that chip's moment has passed (or, for Pause, once you resume).
The top bar's NOW and NEXT fields track this automatically: NOW shows whatever asset or command most recently fired, counting down its remaining duration if it has one, while NEXT previews whichever chip is coming up so the operator always knows what's about to happen before it happens. Stop ends the read and returns to a clean state, ready for the next Cue.
