Manual: Mission Control TUI, Web Studio & Diagnostics Visual Guide
This visual guide documents the full interface layout, visual components, interactive hotkeys, and data interpretations for the ZQK Mission Control Console (zqk ui), Visual Web Studio (zqk ui -w), and Test Verification Dashboard (zqk test dashboard).
1. System Navigation & Header Anatomy
When launched in a terminal (zqk ui), Mission Control renders a responsive ANSI terminal user interface (TUI).
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Header & Navigation Bar
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active Tab | Reverse video [1: ⚡ State] |
Indicates the currently active telemetry projection. | Use number keys [1]–[8] or [Tab] / [Shift+Tab] to cycle views instantly. |
| Editor Profile | newb / pro / jedi |
Display density profile. Press [z] to cycle. |
newb shows full borders; pro compresses into 1-line top bar; jedi maximizes screen rows for high-density monitors. |
| Dynamic Message Line | 🔔 MESSAGE: <status> |
Real-time ambient status accumulator and alert banner. | Green ✓ means normal; Yellow ⚡/⏳ indicates background compaction or sync; Red ✗ indicates blocked work or broken invariants. |
| Interactive Search Buffer | 🔍 SEARCH: [/<query>█] |
In-memory substring filter active across current tab rows. | Press [/] to enter search query, [Enter] to commit, [n]/[N] to jump between matches, [Esc] to clear. |
2. Tab 1: ⚡ State (Real-Time State Seismograph & Mutation Journal)
The State Tab provides a real-time seismograph of kernel mutations flowing through the change journal Write-Ahead Log (WAL).
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 1
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status Badge | Green bold Status: ENFORCING |
Kernel admission controller policy enforcement status. | Confirms all incoming mutations pass structural schema validation and invariant checks. |
| Buffer Counter | Buffer: 5 state mutations |
Total count of mutations retained in memory journal buffer. | Monitors WAL buffer depth before disk sync or memory compaction. |
| Rate Sparkline | Rate: [ ▂▂▃▄▄▅▆] |
Moving 60-second mutation frequency across all active planes. | Spikes indicate heavy autonomous swarm ingestion or batch commits. |
| Auto-Scroll Mode | [AUTO-SCROLL: ON] / [PAUSED: +N] |
Viewport tracking behavior for the live event stream. | Press [Space] or [↑] to pause live tracking and inspect specific records; press [Space] to resume. |
| Types Counter | Types: none / BLI: 3, REQ: 1 |
Per-kind event breakdown across the current buffer. | Quickly shows which entity types are undergoing rapid evolution. |
| Event Badges | ⚡ PROMOTE, ⚡ UPDATE, ⚡ CREATE, ⚡ LATCH, ⚡ TRANSITION |
Mutation category and state plane membrane transition. | PROMOTE marks graduation from draft to CAS master; LATCH marks test criterion satisfaction; CREATE mints new entities. |
| Cursor Marker | > [TIME] (Cyan bold) |
Currently selected row in the mutation stream. | Navigate with [↑]/[↓]; press [Enter] to open the 7-panel modal inspector for this object. |
3. Tab 2: 📜 Audit (Operational Audit Log & CAS Cryptographic Provenance)
The Audit Tab provides non-repudiable audit logs tracking which human or AI agent performed each action.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 2
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stream Channel | Cyan bold Stream: audit_event |
Dedicated high-volume operational audit stream channel. | Disambiguates audit logs from domain object mutations. |
| Buffer Depth | Buffer: 5 audit events |
Count of cryptographic audit records retained in active ring buffer. | High volume indicates active multi-agent pipeline activity. |
| Actor Breakdown | Actors: ACC-SYSTEM (2), PER-DEFAULT-LEAD (1), PER-DEFAULT-OPERATOR (2)... |
Aggregate event counts grouped by caller persona or daemon. | Detects unbalanced actor activity, runaway agent loops, or rogue background workers. |
| Actor Badge | PER-DEFAULT-LEAD, ACC-SYSTEM, PER-DEFAULT-OPERATOR |
Cryptographically attributed identity of the actor initiating the operation. | Non-repudiation tracking for governance, security audits, and multi-agent coordination. |
| Operation Column | claim_work, ref_add, promote, scheduler_tick, cas_verify |
Fine-grained API mutation verb executed against the kernel. | Audits exact command actions; helps identify failed assertions or unauthorized mutation attempts. |
| Cryptographic Provenance | Row selection [Enter] |
Opens complete JSON modal displaying SHA-256 CAS hash, parent hash, and timestamp. | Verify immutable cryptographic provenance before signing off on release candidates. |
4. Tab 3: 🤖 Swarm (Multi-Agent Swarm Topology & Seating)
The Swarm Tab visualizes running agent processes, seated roles, active task assignments, and message queues.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 3
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Throughput Status | Green bold executing [✓ ACTIVE] |
Live state of the continuous autonomous multi-agent loop (CAP). | Verifies that the autonomous execution engine is actively driving backlog delivery. |
| Active Priority Plans | Numeric count 3 |
Number of active priority plans currently being executed by swarm agents. | Confirms program alignment and active workstream progress. |
| Executing Tasks | Numeric count 5 |
Concurrently executing agent instructions and holon work units. | Quantifies swarm parallelism across the workspace. |
| Total Instructions | Numeric count 12 |
Total instruction messages queued, in-flight, or latched in the swarm. | Tracks task pipeline depth; warns if work queue is starving or congested. |
| Bound Personas | Bound Personas: 5 [✓ OK] |
Count of agent personas with valid skills and tools attached. | Unbound personas indicate misconfigured seating; run zqk system agent-onboard to repair. |
| CAP Orchestrator | SCH-cap-orchestrator [✓ ACTIVE] |
Background CAP orchestrator daemon status. | Drives autonomous work claiming, evaluation, and progression without human intervention. |
| Instruction Queue | PROPOSED, APPROVED, EXECUTING, COMPLETED |
State distribution of agent instruction objects. | Monitors throughput bottlenecks across the instruction lifecycle. |
| Managed Daemons | ambient, privileged-writer, scheduler, steward |
Process table showing PID, uptime, restart counts, and health. | Restart count > 0 indicates crashes or OOM; triage with zqk system check --details, zqk scheduler health-check, or zqk feed doctor. |
5. Tab 4: 📋 PM (Gantt Matrix, Workstreams & Priority Plans)
The PM Tab displays the Technical Program Management (TPM) Gantt matrix and backlog status breakdown.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 4
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Alignment | Mission: Continuous Autonomous Development |
Top-level organizational mission guiding autonomous program execution. | Root intent node anchored in the knowledge kernel graph. |
| BLI Pipeline Vitals | Pipeline (10), Planned: 4, InProg: 3, Blocked: 0, Done: 3 |
Global delivery breakdown of all backlog items in the active priority plans. | Highlights pipeline bottlenecks and claimant saturation across the swarm. |
| Priority Plans Table | PLAN ID, STATUS, BLIS, WORKSTREAMS, TITLE |
Active priority plans grouping strategic milestones and workstreams. | Press [Enter] to inspect plan details, causal dependency tree, and deliverable runway. |
| Runway Depth | Shovel-ready count in BLIS |
Number of unblocked backlog items ready for immediate claiming. | Runway depth <= 1 triggers TPM replenishment warnings. |
| Priority Tiers | P0 (Critical), P1 (Core deliverable), P2 (Polish), P3 (Hygiene) |
Strict precedence tier for swarm work selection. | Swarm agents must strictly claim P0 items before grooming lower tiers. |
| Work Units Table | BLI ID, PRIO, STATUS, CLAIMANT, TITLE |
Shovel-ready backlog items ready for or currently under autonomous execution. | Select and press [Enter] to drill down into acceptance criteria and test cases. |
| Technical Debt Table | DEBT ID, PRIORITY, CATEGORY, TITLE |
Code hygiene, deprecated references, and cleanup tasks. | Ensures engineering hygiene items are addressed systematically between feature milestones. |
6. Tab 5: 📊 Metrics (Kernel Vitals & Subsystem Telemetry)
The Metrics Tab reports operational telemetry, execution latencies, and cache efficiency.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 5
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resource Hygiene | 385 process objects, 24 kinds, 52 files, 6 lanes |
Low-level storage and kernel process layer footprint. | Monitors disk usage and stream file growth in .zqk/process/. |
| Command Telemetry | COMMAND, CALLS, DURATION, LAST RUN |
High-resolution latency profiling of CLI and API commands. | Identifies slow operations indicating lock contention or missing indices. |
| Duration Metric | 42ms, 18ms, 124ms, 28ms, 8ms |
Mean wall-clock duration per command invocation. | A shift in P99 latency past 250ms indicates file lock contention or heavy unindexed traversals. |
| Cache Hit Rates | Percentage badge in telemetry | Hit rate on the in-memory Schema Registry and object index. | Hit rates below 80% indicate redundant spec reloading; run zqk system check to verify index health. |
| CAS File Locks | Target Kind, Contention Count, Duration, Status |
File lock contention and wait times for CAS and change journals. | High contention indicates simultaneous uncoordinated writers; review daemon concurrency. |
7. Tab 6: ⏱️ Sched (Scheduler Daemons & Maintenance Jobs)
The Sched Tab monitors autonomous background jobs, self-healing timers, and retention sweeps.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 6
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job Identifier | SCH-001 through SCH-005 |
Registered cron or interval maintenance jobs. | Primary daemon tasks responsible for self-healing and data integrity. |
| Schedule Expression | @every 5m, @every 1h, @every 6h, @every 1m |
Configured trigger interval or cron expression. | Ensures compaction, audit aggregation, and hygiene sweeps execute predictably. |
| Last Run / Next Run | Timestamps 12:10:00 / 12:15:00 |
Execution timing tracking daemon cadence. | If Next Run is in the past, daemon is frozen; restart with zqk scheduler stop && zqk scheduler start. |
| Job Status | Green bold active / Red bold failed |
Health state of the scheduled maintenance job. | Press [t] to trigger immediate manual execution; press [d] to delay execution by 10s. |
| Compaction Job | change_journal_compaction |
Compresses historical journal entries into immutable CAS chunks. | Prevents change journal files from exceeding the 10MB memory-mapped ceiling. |
| Memory Watchdog | memory_leak_watchdog |
Monitors RSS footprint of running agent holons and daemons. | Automatically triggers graceful recycling if a daemon exceeds 512MB RAM. |
8. Tab 7: 🧪 QA (Definition of Done & Verification Radar)
The QA Tab provides full downward traceability verification: proving every backlog item is grounded in verifiable test cases and acceptance criteria.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 7
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traceability DoD | 0% – 100% [PENDING / MET] |
Mathematical percentage of acceptance criteria satisfied by test suites. | Strict gate: code cannot graduate to stable without 100% DoD satisfaction. |
| Intact Chains | N / M [INTACT / BROKEN] |
Causal lineage chains connecting Goals ➔ REQs ➔ BLIs ➔ TSTs ➔ CRITs. | Broken chains indicate orphaned requirements or floating tests; run zqk test bind to link. |
| Unbound Criteria | 0 [✓ OK] |
Acceptance criteria lacking binding test case implementations. | Must be 0 for release readiness. |
| BLI Coverage Bar | [░░░░░░░░] 0% – [████████] 100% |
Graphical progress bar indicating test coverage over active backlog items. | Provides at-a-glance delivery confidence. |
| Lineage Badge | ✓ INTACT vs ✗ BROKEN |
Cryptographically latched requirement-to-test lineage. | Fails VDS Done-Gate if any chain is ✗ BROKEN. |
| Criteria Counter | 1/1 ok, 3/3 ok |
Ratio of latched criteria to total required criteria for this test case. | All criteria must be ok before PR merge is permitted. |
| Test Suites Table | TEST CASE ID, STATUS, LINEAGE, CRITERIA, TITLE |
Downward traceability matrix showing all verified test functions. | Press [t] to trigger re-scan; press [Enter] to inspect test definition and criteria. |
9. Tab 8: 🛡️ Health (Kernel Storage & Membrane Integrity)
The Health Tab reports storage plane consistency, filesystem watcher health, and lock state.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Tab 8
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Status | Green bold HEALTHY / Yellow DEGRADED |
Unified health verdict across all 4 layers of the compliance cake. | If degraded or unhealthy, inspect violations table below for remediation steps. |
| Freshness Indicator | FRESH (2m ago) |
Time elapsed since last full kernel integrity scan. | Yellow or red warnings indicate stale diagnostics; run zqk system check to refresh. |
| Storage Vitals | 26,920 files, 200MiB |
Content-Addressable Storage (CAS) blob volume and disk footprint. | Detects runaway blob leaks or storage bloat. |
| File Descriptors | 10 / 245,760 open [CLEAN] |
Operating system file descriptor consumption. | Guards against file descriptor leaks during intense concurrent operations. |
| Process Overseer | 4/4 running [STANDBY] |
Status of daemon overseer maintaining background services. | Overseer guarantees background daemons automatically respawn if terminated. |
| Storage Membrane | 200MiB (26920 objs) |
Authoritative CAS store size and object count. | Runbook RB-CAS-001 applies if hash mismatch occurs. |
| Active Violations | 0 total (0 fixable) |
Count of structural or ontological invariant failures. | Must remain 0; any non-zero count triggers fail-closed execution locks. |
10. The Test Verification Dashboard (zqk test dashboard)
For dedicated CI/CD runs and local terminal verification, zqk test dashboard --check-dod provides a live stream of test execution and criteria latches.
Visual Terminal Screenshot: Test Dashboard
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| Datapoint / Component | Visual Format | Semantic Meaning | Why It Is Useful & Action Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target Line | Target: TestPureGoIndex (unit) |
Test function name, file path, and testing category (unit, integration, e2e). |
Pinpoints exact test execution context and isolation boundaries. |
| Criteria Pills | [🟢 CRIT-STORAGE-PUREGO] |
Real-time criteria latch states evaluated during test execution. | Green indicates verified; yellow indicates testing; red indicates failure. |
| Chain Graduation | [REGRESSION POOL] badge |
Automatic promotion of satisfied test cases into the regression pool. | Prevents redundant test execution and keeps CI/CD test passes rapid. |
| DoD Compliance | Progress counter [3/3 criteria latched] |
Overall Definition of Done satisfaction for the active branch. | When 100%, branch passes pre-merge validation gate. |
11. Visual Web Studio (zqk ui -w at http://127.0.0.1:8080)
When launched with the -w flag (zqk ui -w), ZQK starts a zero-dependency HTTP server embedded directly in the core binary, providing browser-based interactive exploration across two distinct projections:
- Chronological Timeline & Gantt Roadmap (
/studio/gantt): Technical Program Management (TPM), milestone gates, swimlane groupings, and execution schedules. - Ontology & Causal Dependency DAG Visualizer (
/studio/dag-visualizer): Directed acyclic graph exploring upstream goals down to cryptographic acceptance criteria.
11.1 View 1: Timeline & Gantt Roadmap (/studio/gantt)
The Timeline & Gantt view projects the Knowledge Kernel's strategic roadmap along a continuous chronological timeline. It groups work by workstreams, anchors progress against the current day, and visualizes milestone delivery gates.
Visual Web Studio Screenshot: Timeline & Gantt View
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| UI Component / Datapoint | Visual Location | Semantic Meaning | Diagnostic Value & Operator Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| View Switcher Tabs | Header (Center-Left) | Toggles between ☊ DAG Graph and ▤ Timeline & Gantt. |
Click to switch instantly between topological graph view and chronological time projection without losing active node focus. |
| Status Filter Pills | Sub-Toolbar (Left) | Interactive status toggles: [All], [In Progress], [Planned], [Completed]. |
Filters visible Gantt rows. Click [In Progress] during daily standups to isolate active work units across all workstreams. |
| Grouping Selector | Sub-Toolbar (Center) | Dropdown menu: Workstream, Priority Plan, Milestone. |
Restructures timeline swimlanes. Default Workstream groups tasks into top-level themes (WS-CORE-LAUNCH, WS-STORAGE). |
| Task Counter | Sub-Toolbar (Right) | Badge reporting visible item count (e.g. 8 items). |
Confirms the total quantity of roadmap entities matching active filter criteria. |
| Interactive Legend Bar | Top Bar | Defines visual markers: ◆ Milestone (Orange), 🌐 Workstream (Blue), ▶ In Progress (Blue), ⏳ Planned (Gray), ✓ Completed (Green), | Today Line (Red). |
Reference guide for reading roadmap entity types and completion states at a glance. |
| Calendar Axis & Day Ticks | Header Grid (Top) | Seven-day continuous calendar axis with weekday sub-labels (Sep 26 Sat to Oct 02 Fri). |
Provides temporal grounding for work estimates. Grid columns expand proportionally across available browser viewport width. |
| Vertical "Today" Line | Full Canvas Height | High-contrast red dashed vertical line (#f85149) with TODAY badge at top. |
Anchors current time. Items strictly to the left of the line represent past deliverables; items bisected by the line are in-flight; items to the right are future runway. |
| Swimlane Section Headers | Timeline Canvas | Dark container bars grouping related items (e.g. 🌐 WS-CORE-LAUNCH (4 items)). |
Visually segregates distinct architectural initiatives and displays aggregate task count per workstream. |
| Milestone Diamond Markers | Timeline Grid | High-visibility diamond glyphs (◆ in #f0883e) aligned to deadline dates. |
Critical strategic release gates (e.g. MIL-COMMUNITY-LAUNCH). Shows ✓ Achieved when all constituent priority plans and criteria latch complete. |
| Horizontal Gantt Progress Bars | Timeline Grid | Rounded task bars spanning start date to target completion date. | Bar length reflects scheduled duration; inner text indicates completion percentage (e.g. ▶ 75% complete) or state (✓ complete). |
| Interactive Selection Highlight | Timeline Row | Blue vertical accent bar and glowing background tint on selected row. | Clicking any row highlights its bar and automatically populates the right-hand Gantt Inspector drawer. |
| Gantt Inspector Drawer | Right Sidebar (372px) | Expandable detail panel showing selected entity's metadata, duration, parent milestone, downward backlog chain, and action buttons. | Click 🚀 Transition Plan to graduate states (zqk object promote), 🔗 Link Milestone to mutate relations, or 📜 Raw CAS JSON to audit cryptographic hashes. |
11.2 View 2: Ontology DAG Dependency Graph (/studio/dag-visualizer)
The DAG Dependency Graph view maps the causal dependency chain linking strategic intentions down to automated test latches.
Visual Web Studio Screenshot: Ontology DAG Visualizer
Datapoint Breakdown & Operator Guidance:
| UI Component / Datapoint | Visual Location | Semantic Meaning | Diagnostic Value & Operator Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directed Bezier Splines | DAG Canvas | Smooth cubic Bezier curves (M... C...) with directional arrowheads. |
Traces causal influence from upstream goals (GOAL-*) through requirements (REQ-*), priority plans (PRI-*), and backlog items (BLI-*) down to test cases (TST-*) and acceptance criteria (CRIT-*). |
| Node Kind Color Palette | Canvas Nodes | Color-coded entity card borders: | |
• WORKSTREAM (#39c5bb Teal) |
Top-level architectural themes and program boundaries. | ||
• GOAL (#a371f7 Purple) |
Strategic product and engineering business objectives. | ||
• PRIORITY PLAN (#58a6ff Blue) |
Groomed, shovel-ready milestones scheduled for execution. | ||
• BACKLOG ITEM (#3fb950 Green) |
Discrete units of work claimed and executed by agents. | ||
• TEST CASE (#db61a2 Pink) |
Executable automated verification suites. | ||
• CRITERIA (#3fb950 Emerald) |
Objective Definition of Done (DoD) verification latches. | ||
| Subgraph Focus Banner | Top-Center Toolbar | Pill indicator: 🎯 Subgraph: <id> with ✕ All reset button. |
Isolates the complete upstream and downstream causal ancestry of any selected node, hiding visual noise from unrelated subsystems. |
| Kind Visibility Filter Chips | Top-Right Toolbar | Multi-select chips: All, WS, Goals, Plans, BLIs. |
Filters graph density to focus on strategic layers (Goals/Plans) or operational layers (BLIs/Tests/Criteria). |
| Canvas Pan & Zoom Controls | Top-Left Toolbar | + (Zoom In), − (Zoom Out), ⟲ (Reset Zoom), ⛶ (Fit to Window). |
Navigates large-scale knowledge kernel graphs containing hundreds of connected entities. |
| Schema & Lineage Side Drawer | Right Sidebar (372px) | Authoritative object inspection showing kind, status, timestamps, upstream/downstream refs, and one-click CLI mutation actions. | Inspects SHA-256 CAS payload integrity and triggers atomic lifecycle transitions without leaving the browser. |
12. Operator Quick Cheatsheet
| Command | Action | Primary Output |
|---|---|---|
zqk ui |
Launch full Mission Control TUI console | 8-tab interactive terminal interface |
zqk ui -w |
Start local visual Web Studio | Web browser at http://127.0.0.1:8080 |
zqk ui --tab qa |
Launch directly into QA DoD radar | Vitals card, test matrix, and criteria bars |
zqk test dashboard |
Terminal test verification dashboard | Active test cards and WAL shockwave stream |
zqk test dashboard --check-dod |
Verify 100% Definition of Done | Fails closed (exit code 1) if criteria open |
zqk state stream --dashboard |
Stream real-time mutations | Visual ANSI seismograph with auto-scroll |
zqk object inspect <kind> [id] |
Deep object inspection | TUI radar, CAS profile, and Policy Studio |