Working with it

Order, slots and the keyboard

The column never reorders itself, so the third row is the same project tomorrow, and a key you press blind is right every time.

The order is yours

A project seen for the first time is appended at the bottom. From then on it moves only when you move it: drag the grip on the right, or use Move up and Move down in the row's More menu.

The column never reorders itself, and that is a decision rather than a missing feature. Sorting by urgency is the obvious design and it is wrong: a row that moves is a row you have to find again, and the moment your eye has to read the names, the glance has become a search. A row that needs you lights up where it already is.

A project with no live session keeps its place. Its slot is simply empty until it has one. A row folded under Resting keeps its slot too.

Keys inside the panel

Once you have clicked the panel, it takes a few keys of its own:


⌘K	the bar: find a session or a past conversation, write to one, ask LampMaster
⌘,	Settings
J, K	move a ring down and up the rows that wait for you
O	open the row under the ring
A, D	allow or deny the permission the panel holds for that row
the digits	pick an option of a question held under its row

Slots

The first nine rows are slots 1 to 9. The number is not printed on the row, because that cell now carries the context ring, but the card says it along with the command that opens it.

lampboard next       raise the next waiting session
lampboard open 3     raise whatever holds slot 3
lampboard new 3      open a new conversation in slot 3's project
lampboard chat 3     open the Hub on slot 3
lampboard open       list what the slots address

Because the column keeps your order, slot 3 is the same project tomorrow, which is the only way a key you press without looking can be right every time.

lampboard open <n> answers in three distinct ways, because a key pressed blind has to tell them apart:


exit 0	raised, and it prints what
exit 1	that slot is empty: nothing bound, or the project has no live session
exit 2	that is not a slot number

It never opens the neighbouring row when a slot is empty. For a key you press without looking, opening the wrong project is the worst thing it could do.

Binding one to a key

LampBoard does not register a global shortcut, and that is a choice. On macOS 26, the only mechanism that needs no extra permission registers without errors and then never delivers the events, and the app has no way to notice. A switch that can lie is worse than a switch that is not there.

Use the Shortcuts app instead:

New shortcut, then the Run Shell Script action.
Paste the full path: /Applications/LampBoard.app/Contents/MacOS/lampboard open 1
In the Details panel on the right, Add Keyboard Shortcut.

It is better than having it inside the app on three counts: you pick the combination, the interface tells you straight away whether it is already taken, and when it does not work you can see it. Raycast, Alfred and Karabiner work the same way.

The commands

lampboard                          start the panel
lampboard status                   configuration and detected sessions
lampboard selftest                 check the whole chain and report what is missing
lampboard sessions                 the column as the running app sees it
lampboard terminal on|off|status   rows for agents started in a terminal
lampboard rename <folder> [name]   the panel's word for a row
lampboard focus <workspace>        reproduce the click and explain what happens
lampboard help

sessions and next talk to the running instance. The terminal process knows nothing about the column's state, and asking the running app is the only way to get a true answer instead of a plausible reconstruction.