Interface Overview & Workspace Navigation

The Dual-Surface Workspace Architecture

ARMES is built around a dual-surface philosophy: rather than forcing you into a single restrictive interface, the platform offers two complementary ways to work, designed for flexibility across every workflow, screen size, and device:

1. Focused Standalone Pages (Mobile-First Design, Full Desktop Fidelity): Dedicated, single-task surfaces such as Chat (/), Context & Notes (/context), Agent Library (/library), Settings (/settings), Subscription (/subscription), People (/people), Messages (/messages), and Dashboard (/dashboard). These pages are engineered mobile-first with touch-friendly controls, smooth slide-overs, and zero cognitive clutter, while rendering with expansive fidelity on wide desktop monitors.
2. The Command Center (/command) (Desktop-First Multitasker, Responsive on Mobile): An IDE-inspired, three-panel power workspace uniting installed agents, multi-tab conversational canvases, and a persistent knowledge base into a single screen. Designed desktop-first for heavy multitasking, cross-agent consultation, and simultaneous note editing, Command also features responsive collapsing panels when used on tablets or phones.

To move seamlessly between these surfaces, ARMES provides three universal navigation anchors:

• The Profile Dropdown (Top Right): Omni-present global anchor for project switching, account billing, preferences, appearance themes, and direct page routing.
• The Floating Command Orb (Lower Right): Living launcher on standalone pages providing fast drawer-based agent switching, inline notes access, and page jumps.
• The Command Center Navigation (Tabs & Hotkeys): Dedicated panel dividers, tab headers, and keyboard shortcuts within /command.

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1. The Universal Profile Dropdown (Top Right)

Located in the top-right header of both standalone pages and the Command Center, your Profile Avatar is the universal anchor for account management, environment configuration, and instant navigation.

Clicking or tapping the avatar opens the Profile Menu (rendered as a desktop dropdown or a native mobile bottom sheet), organized into seven distinct functional zones:

Profile Menu Breakdown

• Header Profile Card: Displays your profile photo or custom robot avatar, your handle/display name, your current subscription badge (Free, Eco, Pro, or Ultra), active connection status ring, and a dynamic creative persona title.
• Project Switcher (Top Section): Switch your active workstream lens instantly from any screen. A colored dot on your avatar trigger shows the active project color at a glance. You can switch projects, open the + New Project modal, or manage existing projects without opening Settings.
• Navigate: Direct, one-click routes to every primary application hub:
  • Command (/command): Jump directly into the 3-panel multitasker workstation.
  • Dashboard (/dashboard): View compute consumption, active sessions, and productivity metrics.
  • People (/people): Manage your human network, discover colleagues, and configure collaboration handles.
  • Messages (/messages): Access private direct messages (DMs) and multi-agent shared rooms (includes a live unread message badge).
  • Context & Notes (/context): Open your full-page markdown knowledge base, persistent file vault, and Google Drive files.
  • Agent Library (/library): Browse, install, and configure from the catalog of 40+ specialized agents.
• Account:
  • Settings (/settings): Global preferences, custom instructions, memory ledger, developer MCP configuration, and privacy vault.
  • Subscription (/subscription): Plan upgrades, renewal dates, invoice history, and token budget management.
  • Invite Friends ($10 Badge): One-click trigger that opens the Referral modal with your unique short link (armes.ai/r/...), share buttons, and earnings ledger.
• Help & System:
  • Docs (/docs): Instant link to this verified documentation portal.
  • What's New (/changelog): Review chronological release notes and newly deployed frontier capabilities.
  • Support & Feedback: Direct mailto link to ARMES engineering and support (support@armes.ai).
  • Admin Dashboard (/admin): Rendered exclusively for verified workspace administrators.
  • Reload App: Gracefully reloads the application bundle and synchronizes offline stores without clearing your active session.
• Appearance Controls:
  • Theme Toggle: Switch dynamically between Light, Dark, and System color palettes.
  • Visual Mode: Adjust UI visual effects to your preference: Minimal (clean flat backgrounds for maximum battery conservation), Static (subtle gradients), or Animated (dynamic GPU-accelerated atmospheric particle effects). (Note: Chat thinking animation overlays are decoupled and configured independently with a live in-settings preview in Settings → Appearance).
• Sign Out: Secure, audited session revocation.

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2. The Floating Command Orb (Lower Right)

On standalone pages (such as Chat, Context, Library, and People), you will find the Floating Command Orb resting in the lower right corner. The Orb is a living, breathing navigational hub designed for rapid mobile touch navigation and desktop agility.

Key Capabilities of the Orb

• Keyboard Shortcut: Press ⌘ + . (or Ctrl + .) anywhere on a standalone page to toggle the Orb open or closed. Press Escape to back out of a sub-panel or dismiss the launcher.
• Global Search (⌘K): Tap the search icon in the Orb header to open universal fuzzy search across all your chats, notes, files, and agents.
• Interactive Action Rows:
  • My Agents (pink): Slides out an inline agent switcher. Select any installed agent to start chatting immediately without reloading the page.
  • Command (purple): Directly transitions your active session into the /command 3-panel canvas.
  • Context/Notes (amber): Opens an inline slide-over drawer displaying your pinned notes and persistent files. You can reference or create notes right beside your current conversation.
  • People (emerald): Routes to the human and team directory at /people.
  • Messages (blue): Displays your real-time unread message count and opens your direct messaging threads.
• Footer Shortcut (+ Add Agents): One-tap shortcut straight into the Agent Library (/library) to discover new teammates.

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3. The Three-Panel Command Architecture (/command)

When working on complex projects, multi-source research, or deep coding sessions, Command Center (/command) provides an IDE-style three-panel workspace where everything remains in view simultaneously.

Panel 1: Left Panel (Agents & Roster)

• Project Filter Dropdown: Scopes the entire roster and conversation history to your active Project lens.
• Specialist Switching: Instant switching between your installed agents (e.g., ARMES GPT, Code Architect, ARMES Research).
• Roster Search & Organization: Filter active agents by title, discipline, or custom tags.
• Thread History: Quick access to pinned and recent conversations, with full-text search across prior turns.
• Add Agents Button: Direct footer button linking to the Agent Library.

Panel 2: Center Panel (Tabbed Canvas & Thinking Drawer)

• Multi-Tab Workflows: Open several conversations simultaneously in individual browser tabs. Run a code refactoring session with your Code Architect in Tab 1 while consulting your CMO Agent in Tab 2.
• Mode & Model Selector: Positioned in the top right of the chat header (in both the Command Center center-panel Chat Tab and standalone Chat at /chat):
  • Auto Mode (🧠 — All Plans, Tier-Scaled Ceiling): Intelligent, dynamic routing that right-sizes compute to your prompt complexity (Ultra Auto > Pro Auto > Eco Auto > Free Auto).
  • Max Mode (🔥 — All Plans, Tier-Scaled Ceiling): Locks routing exclusively to the highest-intelligence reasoning models in your subscription tier (Ultra Max > Pro Max > Eco Max > Free Max).
  • Eco Mode (🌿 — Eco, Pro & Ultra; Locked Upgrade CTA on Free): High-efficiency sparse Mixture-of-Experts routing for fast, low-energy everyday turns (on the Eco plan, Eco Auto and Eco Mode share this exact same routing logic).
  • Manual Model Pinning (All Plans — Free, Eco, Pro & Ultra): Browse models by AI Lab and manually select or pin any model unlocked in your subscription tier's pool, switching models anytime mid-conversation.
• Pinned Context Files (📌 N pinned): A header popover providing complete visibility into documents persistently anchored to the conversation, with one-click unpinning.
• Tool Grounding & Live Citations: Search citations, calculations, Google Doc replacements, and image artifacts render directly in the message stream.

Panel 3: Right Panel (Context & Knowledge Base)

• Notes Workspace: Create, edit, and organize persistent notes in rich markdown with auto-save while continuing to chat.
• File Library: Inspect persistent files uploaded to your account, review their automated summaries, and copy references into your chat prompts.
• Prompt Templates: Quick-insert reusable, battle-tested prompt templates with pre-linked context notes.
• Google Drive Integration: Browse and reference connected Google Drive documents directly.

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Composer Controls & Productivity Hotkeys

At the bottom of every chat canvas (both on standalone chat and Command Center), the composer provides rich prompt-engineering tools:

• Improve Prompt (Eco+ / Magic Wand): Automatically refines rough or fragmented prompts into structured, high-performance instructions using our background prompt-engineering specialist.
• Thinking Overlay Animation: While your agent reasons or executes connected tools (web search, memory recall, code sandbox, file extraction), the chat input smoothly transitions into a locked compact status bar showing real-time tool badges and your chosen thinking animation (ARMES Vector Orb, Original, 3D Quantum, or 2D Nodes). You can configure your preferred overlay anytime in Settings → Appearance.
• Attachment Picker (Paperclip): Attach temporary files for immediate analysis or upload documents to your permanent File Library.
• Prompt Templates (Sparkles): Browse and insert categorized prompt patterns with pre-linked context notes.
• Fast Keyboard Triggers:
  • / — Quick commands and slash tools.
  • @ — Reference notes or persistent files directly into conversational context.
  • # — Summon or switch between installed agents mid-thread.
• Mobile Action Menu (+): On mobile devices, compact screen real estate consolidates Attachments, Templates, Improve Prompt, and Help into an expandable action popover.
• Message Action Bar: On completed assistant responses, access Voice Playback (speaker icon for neural text-to-speech), Save to Notes, Copy Text, Delete Message, and Feedback.

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Resizable Dividers & Keyboard Shortcuts

On desktop displays in /command, you can customize your workspace layout dynamically:

• Drag Dividers: Drag the subtle divider bars between panels to adjust your visual balance.
• Collapse Agents Panel: Press ⌘ + \ (or ⌘ + B) to collapse the Left Agents roster for full focus on the chat canvas.
• Collapse Context Panel: Press ⌘ + ⌥ + \ (or ⌘ + ⇧ + B) to collapse the Right Context drawer.
• Toggle Floating Orb: Press ⌘ + . on any standalone page.
• Global Quick Search: Press ⌘ + K anywhere in ARMES.

For the complete catalog of multi-tab, editing, and navigation shortcuts, see the Keyboard Shortcuts Guide.

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Workspace Navigation Quick Reference