Documentation
Install Tangle, build a project, connect devices and run it. The same content is available offline:
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Introduction
What Tangle is, who it is for, how its six parts fit together, and what each edition includes.
Install
Download and install the Tangle desktop app, the core service, the tangle CLI, device modules and the simulator on macOS, Windows or Linux.
Quick start
Build a first Tangle project with a simulated PJLink projector, a scene and a dashboard, without any hardware.
Concepts
The building blocks of a Tangle project - rooms, devices, modules, capabilities, state, intents, scenes, timelines, automations, variables, listeners, dashboards and core nodes.
Tutorial: a gallery installation
Build a complete project from scratch with the simulator - two projectors and a media player, automations that start and stop the room on a schedule, and a dashboard for the staff.
Guides
Designer
The Tangle designer, on the web and on the desktop - projects, the project tree, signing in, token scopes, each section, and how saving and conflicts work.
Devices
Add, configure, test and discover devices, manage the device modules that drive them, and pin hardware to one machine.
Device catalog
Every official Tangle device module by category, with what it controls, its protocol and the setup each device needs.
Timelines
Build timecode timelines and cue lists, run the transport, chase incoming timecode and generate timecode outputs.
Automations
Step lists that run on triggers, from buttons, listeners or by hand - with conditions, control flow, variables, expressions, library functions, run modes and a run log.
Dashboards
Build control panels for operators, rooms and wall panels with tangle-interact: widgets, device layouts, screen sizes, access, kiosks and skins.
Redundancy
Run the same show on two or more tangle-core machines in lockstep, with automatic failover in under a second.
Sentinel
Monitor devices, core nodes, network assets and custom metrics, raise alerts and notify people by email, SMS, push, webhooks, Slack or Teams.
Licensing
Tangle editions and what each unlocks, activating and moving a license, offline use, free designer and demo modes, and expiry.
Simulator
Run virtual projectors, media players and servers, OSC and line-based devices, serial gateways and DMX receivers with tangle-sim to build and test a show without hardware.
Operations
Run tangle-core in production: run options, services, file locations, logs, API tokens, remote access, backups, ports and upgrades.
End-user views
Give the people using a site one place for their dashboards and maps, at /view, with its own menu and access. Embed maps, web pages and cameras in dashboards.
Listeners
Let other systems trigger Tangle with their own messages - WebSocket, HTTP, TCP, UDP, OSC or serial - matched by rules that set variables, run steps and automations, and answer the sender.
Device creator
Teach Tangle a device it has no driver for - connection, commands, feedback and controls in the designer, optional code, then save and install. Share the result on the community repository.
Reference
REST API
Configure and control a Tangle project over HTTP and JSON. Tokens, scopes, conventions, errors and every route of /api/v1.
WebSocket
The live client protocol at /ws: hello and authentication, subscriptions, events, intents, timeline control, automations, sentinel and errors.
MCP
Let AI assistants read, configure and run a Tangle project through the Model Context Protocol, with show protection.
Command line
Every command and option of tangle-core, tangle and tangle-sim, the environment variables they read, and where they keep their files.
Project file
The Tangle project file format in JSON or YAML - rooms, devices, scenes, timelines, dashboards, automations, variables, listeners and Sentinel monitoring.