# The screen at a glance

> Name every region of the Board screen: the HUD, the toolbar, the build dock, the Board, the Inspector, and the Inbox button, and what each HUD figure means.

The Board screen has five regions: the HUD at the top left, the toolbar at the top right, the build dock at the bottom, the Inspector on the right, and the Board itself behind all of them. A round Inbox button sits at the bottom right. Everything else is a panel that opens on top.

![The Board screen with each region labeled: HUD, toolbar, Board, build dock, Inspector, and Inbox button.](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/screen.png)

*Find the HUD first, top left. Then follow the numbers: the HUD tells you how the Company is doing, and the Board shows why.*

The game shows few controls at the start and adds the rest as you need them. A control missing from your screen has not been earned yet. It is not hidden by a setting.

## The HUD

The HUD is the card at the top left. It shows the figures that matter right now, one row each.

![The HUD at the start of a Company: Cash, Users, Apdex, and Latency.](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/hud.png)

*Look at the four rows under the Era name. Each has a name, a value, and a small note beside it.*

**The header row** holds three things:

- The **Menu** button, labeled **Menu (Esc)**. It opens the game menu.
- The Era name, such as Garage.
- The calendar, such as `D1 14:01`. One second of real time is one minute on the calendar.

A bar under the header fills as your users approach the next [Funding round](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/explanation/progression.md). When it is full, a button appears in its place that reads the next Era's name followed by **offer**. At the last step before going public it reads **IPO**.

**The rows** read as follows:

| Row | Value | Beside it | Click |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Cash** | The money you can spend | Net change per second, then runway in months | Opens the Dashboard, only when Cash is short |
| **Users** | The people using the Company | ▲ or ▼ with the recent change | Opens **Why users leave** |
| **Apdex** | Satisfaction, from 0 to 1, over the last hour | `/` and the Era's target | Nothing |
| **Errors** | The share of requests that fail | Nothing | Nothing |
| **Latency** | The mean time to answer a request | Nothing | Nothing |

Read them as a chain. **Apdex** at or above its target makes **Users** grow. More **Users** send more requests, which raises the load on your Nodes. When a Node runs out of **Capacity**, **Apdex** falls and **Users** leave. A ▼ next to **Users** with a red **Apdex** means a Bottleneck is hurting you now.

Some details of each row:

- **Cash** turns red below zero. The note after the runway figure is `mo` for a 30-day month. At zero Cash you can still sell and research, but you cannot place or upgrade anything.
- **Users** shows the change over the recent trend, not the total gained.
- **Apdex** turns red below its target. Hover the row to read how the target works.
- **Errors** appears the first time a request fails. Hover it for the causes, but only after you research Structured logs. Before that, the hover says **Research Structured logs to see causes**.
- **Latency** becomes **p99** once you research percentiles. The mean then shows beside it with a `μ`. See [Read p99](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/guides/read-p99.md).

Later rows appear when they apply: an **SLO** row, an **SLA** row, an Insight card with your running Study, and a Team card. They are covered in [Research and Team panels](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/research-and-team.md).

## The toolbar

The toolbar is the strip at the top right. Hover a button to read its name and key.

| Button | Key | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Research** | `R` | Opens the research tree. A badge counts the Studies you can start. |
| **Team** | `T` | Opens the Team panel. An amber dot means the backlog is empty. |
| **Playbooks** | `P` | Opens saved Design parts. Appears after your first Exit. |
| **Exit** | None | Opens the Exit panel, from Series A. It shows the Legacy you would earn. |
| **Dashboard** | `D` | Opens the Charts. Needs the `metrics` research. |
| **How to play** | `H` | Opens the six core actions and the key table. |
| **Glossary** | `G` | Opens the engineering terms. Appears after your first Tradeoff card. |
| **Undo** and **Redo** | `Z`, `Shift+Z` | Appear after your first action on the Board. |
| **Pause** or **Resume** | `Space` | Stops and restarts the clock. |
| **Speed** | `S` | Shows the speed, such as `1×`. Each press moves to the next one. |
| **Tidy by zone** | `Shift+T` | Arranges the Nodes by zone. |
| **Fit the board** | `Shift+F` | Zooms and pans so every Node is in view. |
| **Fullscreen** | `F` | Toggles fullscreen. |

At the start you see **How to play**, **Pause**, **Speed**, and the three board buttons. The rest appear as they become useful. On a phone, a **More** button holds the same actions. [Clock, undo, and saves](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/clock-undo-saves.md) covers the speeds. [Settings and key reference](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/settings-and-keys.md) lists every key.

## The build dock

The build dock is the row of group icons at the bottom. It is how you place a Component.

![The build dock at the start of a Company: four group icons, with the Edge list open.](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/dock.png)

*Look at the icons in the bottom row. Each is a group of Components. The list above them is what the open group holds.*

There are seven possible groups: **Edge**, **Compute**, **Data**, **Messaging**, **Platform**, **Observability**, and **Managed**. A group shows only when it holds something you can place or will unlock next. A new Company shows four of them. Hover an icon to read its name and number, such as **Edge (1)**.

[Place Components](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/place-components.md) walks through the dock step by step. While you hold a part, the dock shows its name, **Click the board**, and an X button. The same bar slot shows the selection bar when you select Nodes, and a sell bar when you ask to sell. Those are in [Move, select, copy, sell](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/move-and-select.md).

## The Board

The Board is the surface behind everything. Your Nodes are cards on it, and Links join them.

- Drag empty space to pan.
- Use the mouse wheel to zoom, from a quarter size to one and a half. Pinch on a touch screen.
- Click empty space to deselect.

Far out, a card loses its rows and then shrinks to a small chip. Use **Fit the board** to see the whole Design, and zoom in when you need to read a card. [Read a Node card](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/read-a-node-card.md) explains every row on one.

## The Inspector

The Inspector is the panel on the right. It opens when you select a Node, and it closes with the X button or `Esc`. It shows live figures, warnings in a red or amber box, and the options of that Node. [The Inspector](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/the-inspector.md) covers its sections.

## The Inbox button

The round button at the bottom right is the **Inbox** (`I`). A number badge counts unread Mail. The badge turns red, and the button pulses, when a message waits for your action. [Mail, Dashboard, Glossary](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/mail-dashboard-glossary.md) explains the folders.

## The top lane and toasts

Along the top of the Board, the game puts what needs a quick look: the region tabs once you run in more than one region, the pager and the incident banner when something breaks, and the change pill. The change pill names your last change, such as **Resized App Server**, and shows its effect on cost, latency, and errors, with an Undo button.

A short message, called a toast, appears when the game refuses an action or confirms one. Refusals use plain text, and each page of this section quotes the ones it can cause.

## Mistakes to avoid

- Do not look for a button that is not there yet. **Research**, **Team**, and **Undo** appear when the game decides you need them.
- Do not ignore the **Errors** row when it appears. A request failed, and the Node that caused it is the one to open.
- Do not keep trying to place with a red **Cash** value. At zero or below, every placement is refused.

Next: [Place Components](https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/place-components.md).

Source: https://wiki.playquorum.dev/play/the-screen