---
title: "Tamora — User Guide"
description: "How to run a live event with Tamora, rough edges included."
---

# Tamora — User Guide

How to run a live event with Tamora. These pages describe what the product does
today, including the rough edges — if something is half-built or works differently
than you'd expect, it says so rather than leaving you to find out during a show.

For installation, deployment, and local development, see the
[project README](../../README.md) instead. This guide is for the people running events.

## Start here

| Page                                    | What it covers                                                                   |
| --------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| [Controller](controller.md)             | Creating a room, building your rundown, and running the show                     |
| [Share links](share-links.md)           | Handing out the Viewer, Agenda, and Moderator screens (and the Operator console) |
| [Viewer](viewer.md)                     | The big countdown for stage monitors and projection                              |
| [Agenda](agenda.md)                     | The public running order for delegates and green rooms                           |
| [Moderator](moderator.md)               | Sending messages to the stage from a phone or tablet                             |
| [CSV import](csv-import.md)             | Building a rundown from a spreadsheet                                            |
| [Saved shows](saved-shows.md)           | Reusing a rundown across rooms and events                                        |
| [Team management](team-management.md)   | Inviting colleagues and what each role can do                                    |
| [Agent access](agent-access.md)         | Tokens for scripts and automations to create rooms and schedules for you         |
| [Connect Claude via MCP](mcp-setup.md)  | Letting Claude create rooms and schedules using an Agent access token (Beta)     |
| [Legal & Company Information](legal.md) | Privacy, terms, cookies, and how to contact us                                   |

## The five surfaces

Tamora shows the same room through several purpose-built screens. One person
drives; everyone else gets a read-only or narrowly-scoped view.

| Surface        | Who uses it                 | Needs a login?  |
| -------------- | --------------------------- | --------------- |
| **Controller** | Show caller / producer      | Yes             |
| **Operator**   | Second operator at the back | Yes             |
| **Viewer**     | Speaker on stage, audience  | No — share link |
| **Agenda**     | Delegates, green room       | No — share link |
| **Moderator**  | Stage manager, comms        | No — share link |

The Controller is a desktop console and is not designed for phones. Use the
**Moderator** screen on a phone or tablet, and the **Operator** console on a
second laptop.

## Before your first show

1. Create a room and set its timezone — [Controller](controller.md#create-a-room).
2. Build your rundown, by hand or from a spreadsheet — [CSV import](csv-import.md).
3. Create the share links you need and test each one on the device that will use
   it — [Share links](share-links.md).
4. Read [Things that will catch you out](#things-that-will-catch-you-out) below.

## Things that will catch you out

Every one of these is current, real behaviour. They are the most common surprises,
collected in one place so you meet them here rather than mid-show.

- **The skip buttons reset the clock.** `⏮` and `⏭`, and clicking any session in the
  list, stop playback and zero the elapsed time for the session you land on. Skipping
  forward and back does **not** restore the time already run.
- **Time nudges are ±30 seconds, and do nothing while stopped.** There is no
  ±1 minute button.
- **Durations must be `mm:ss` or plain seconds.** `90:00` is ninety minutes.
  `1:30:00` is silently misread — do not use `h:mm:ss` anywhere.
- **Only one message shows at a time.** Showing a message hides the previous one.
- **Blackout hides live messages too**, not just the timer.
- **Breaks do not appear on the public Agenda**, but they still consume time — so
  delegates see gaps between start times.
- **Share links never expire** and cannot be time-limited from the app. Remove
  them when the event is over.
- **The `Viewer` team role is not read-only.** Do not use it to grant safe access —
  see [Team management](team-management.md#roles-do-not-restrict-much-yet).
- **Team invites are not emailed.** As shipped, an invite cannot be delivered from
  the app at all — see [Team management](team-management.md#sending-an-invite).
- **Deleting a room archives it**, and there is no way to restore it yourself.
- **Loading a saved show into an existing room replaces its entire rundown.** It does
  not add to it, the way CSV import does — see [Saved shows](saved-shows.md).
- **An agent access token is shown once and must never go in a chat message.** Copy
  it the moment you create or rotate one — there is no way to see it again after that.
  It belongs in a script or automation's own credential store, or in Claude's connector
  authentication field — see [Agent access](agent-access.md) and
  [Connect Claude via MCP](mcp-setup.md).

## Getting help

If something here does not match what you see on screen, the docs are wrong —
please [open an issue](https://github.com/nickilby/event-timer/issues).

A CI check (`docs-drift.yml`) requires the relevant page to be updated whenever a
change lands in the code that surface is built from, which should keep the two
close. It is not a guarantee: it watches each surface's own route directory plus a
few shared modules the pages quote directly, so a change somewhere less obvious can
still leave a page behind. The rules it enforces are in `scripts/docs-drift.ts`, and
the surfaces deliberately left out are listed there.