User Guide¶

This guide is for beamline scientists running experiments with Lightfall. It covers everything you do through the application window: logging in, moving devices, running plans, watching data come in, keeping records in the logbook, and putting the embedded Claude assistant to work — including having it build new panels for you.

No Python or Bluesky experience is required for most of it. Where a page does involve writing code (user plans, for example), it says so up front.

Suggested reading order¶

1. Getting Started — install Lightfall, launch it, and learn the layout of the main window.

2. Logging In — authentication options, user roles, and what guest access can and cannot do.

3. Your First Session — a hands-on walkthrough with simulated devices: move a motor, run a scan, watch the plot, find the run afterwards. Start here if you learn by doing.

4. Using Panels — a reference for every panel and how the docking system works.

5. Running Plans — plan selection, parameters, pause/resume/abort, and writing your own user plans.

6. Claude Assistant — the embedded agent: asking questions, controlling the application in plain language, and approving tool use.

7. Customizing Lightfall with the Agent — have the assistant build or modify a panel for you, with every change committed to git.

8. Using the Logbook — automatic run and device records, manual notes, images, and offline-first sync.

9. Preferences — every settings page, from themes to device backends.