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Getting started

This walkthrough takes you from a fresh install to apps launching on the right screens on every boot. It assumes Panes is installed and you can open the UI at https://127.0.0.1:31077.

1. Sign in​

On first run Panes seeds one admin account with a random password written to admin.password in the data dir (C:\ProgramData\Panes on Windows, /var/lib/panes on Linux). Sign in with it — you'll be forced to set a new password immediately.

2. Identify your displays​

Open the Layout page (the default view). The toolbar shows how many monitors are connected. If you have two identical panels you can't tell apart on the canvas:

  1. Click Identify displays. Panes flashes a large number on each physical screen for a few seconds.
  2. The same number appears on each monitor card in the UI, so you can match card → screen.

3. Arrange the canvas​

Drag the monitor cards so their arrangement matches your real, physical wall — left screen on the left, stacked screens stacked, and so on. Cards are to-scale and snap to a grid.

Click a card to open its panel and give it a label (e.g. "Lobby left", "Ops top"). Then click Save — saving is explicit; nothing is written until you do.

note

In this version, dragging cards is a labelling aid — it records how you think about the wall. It does not change the OS display arrangement.

4. Add a command​

Select a monitor, then Add command in its panel:

  1. Name it (e.g. "Dashboard").
  2. Pick a preset — Chrome kiosk or Edge kiosk for a URL, or Generic application for any executable.
  3. Set the URL (kiosk presets) or executable path (generic).
  4. Choose a placement — Fullscreen, Maximized, a half, or a Custom rect.
  5. Toggle Launch at startup on, and leave Restart if it exits (the watchdog) on.

Save the command. See the commands reference for every field, the available presets, and the {{monitor.*}} template variables.

5. Apply​

Click Apply now. Panes launches the enabled, start-at-boot commands immediately and positions each window on its assigned monitor.

From now on Panes re-applies this layout on every boot, restarts anything that dies, and re-places windows after a monitor is unplugged and reconnected — see Concepts for exactly how.