> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.kula.digital/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.kula.digital/the-kula-app/phone.md). # How the Kula app works The Kula iPhone app for studio staff, screen by screen — Now, Work, Apps, Talk, Inbox, Capture and Meetings — what each tap does, where a thing goes, and who sees it. The Kula app is the iPhone app a studio's staff carry on shift. It has five tabs — **Now**, **Work**, **Apps**, **Talk** and **Inbox** — and two sheets that open over them: **Capture** (say it, snap it, type it) and **Meetings** (a meeting recorded in Talk). Every screen has a **?** in its head. It opens a short "How it works" sheet for that screen, and under it **Ask Kula**: a question about the screen goes to Talk with the screen named ("Asking about the Kula app's Work screen."), and Kula answers from this page. The questions people ask most are answered here, screen by screen, with what actually happens end to end. Two things hold everywhere: * **Asking isn't ordering.** Anything you ask of a colleague can be handed back to you with a reason. * **Nothing on Work pushes.** A hand-over, an ask, a Done, a hand-back — they appear on the other person's Work, and in their brief at the start of the next shift. Kula pushes the shift brief (unless the app is already open), situations between briefs once the studio has pushes switched on, and one quiet notice per new Inbox message — never in your quiet hours, never while the app is open. ## Now ### The brief It lands once at the start of a shift: three things worth knowing, then the situations Kula would act on. Each count opens its app, and you come back here when you're done. **Where the brief comes from.** Kula Ops writes it, once a day for each person, at the studio's shift-start time. It reads the studio's record and composes a headline and a few plain sentences: what is waiting for a decision, today's classes (and the ones you teach, if the studio has linked you to the timetable), and who has gone quiet. Then, only when there are any: notices waiting to be read, things asked of you by name, checks still to confirm, meetings of yours Kula has read, what is waiting in your Inbox, deliveries in, claims waiting on a manager's word, and Studio Whispers waiting to be sent. Each of those is a count, and tapping the count opens the app it belongs to. A manager or owner also sees what Kula got wrong since yesterday, when there was anything. There is one brief per person per day; it cannot be written twice. If the app was open at shift start, nothing is pushed — the brief is already on Now. Otherwise a push arrives, "Your shift brief", with the headline. ### A situation Do that records Kula's move and the card leaves. Talk it out opens the consult with the picture brought in; the decision is made there, with your reasons. Leave records that too. **What a situation is.** A card Kula raises when it would act on something — a member drifting, a hand-over waiting, an agent with a question, a colleague's ask. It carries the picture (what Kula saw), the line "Kula would …", and the kind's tone. Only the people whose sites and role it concerns see it. **What each tap does.** * **Do that** records Kula's proposal as your decision, on the picture it was made with, and closes the situation. On a hand-over card it takes the item on for you. On an agent's question it is "yes, go ahead". * **Talk it out** opens the consult: the picture, what happened last time, and the two ways. Nothing is recorded by opening it. The decision is made there, with your reasons in your words, and then the situation closes. * **Leave** records that you left it, with your reasons if you give them. On an agent's question it declines. A decision is recorded once. Tapping the same answer again returns the decision already made; a different answer on a situation someone has already decided is refused and shows what stands. Some cards ask in their own words — a thing asked of you by name offers **On it**, **Later** and **Done**; an item handed back to you offers **I'll do it**, **Leave it** and **Cancel it** — and those do what they say on the item itself. ### Was it right? An owner's Yes or No on the brief is the measure behind what Kula pushes. **What the mark does.** An owner or manager marks a brief accurate or not. Those marks are the trust measure. A studio starts brief-only: situations wait on Now for the next brief and are never pushed. Pushes between briefs are switched on for the studio once the marks show the brief has been right — and even then a push is held in your quiet hours, while the app is open, and past the day's noise budget; the card is on Now regardless. ## Work ### Mine and Handed over Items you make or take, and ones handed to you. What the previous shift left sits under Handed over until someone takes it on. **The tabs.** **Mine** is what is yours now — things you made, took, or were asked by name. **Handed over** is what the last shift let go of, waiting for whoever opens the next one; taking an item makes it yours and in progress. **Waiting on others** is what you asked of other people. **History** is what closed. A manager or owner also has **All**: everything open at their sites. ### Asking someone Asking isn't ordering: they can hand it back with a reason. What you asked waits on Waiting on others until it's done or comes back to you, with no push either way. **What happens when you ask.** You can ask a named colleague, or a label at the item's site (the front desk, say). The item goes onto their Mine with a line like "Alex asked · by 5:45pm", and onto your Waiting on others as "Waiting on Sam · by 5:45pm". Nobody's phone buzzes. It is in their brief at the next shift start as a thing asked of them, and the count opens those items. **What comes back.** When they mark it Done, what came of it appears on your Waiting on others under **Back today**: "Done by Sam · 4:52 pm: 40 in the cupboard". When they hand it back, it returns to your Mine with their reason: "Sam handed it back: no towels in the store room". Back today shows what came back since the start of the studio's day, most recent first. ### Done and Hand it back Done asks what came of it; outcomes are what Kula learns from, not how many were done. Hand it back asks why, said or typed, and whoever asked reads it on their Work. **What happens when you tap Done.** The item closes, and Kula asks what came of it — the outcome, in a sentence or two. The outcome goes on the item's record and is what Kula learns from. If someone asked you for the item, it is what they read under Back today on their Waiting on others, with your name and the time. No push goes to them. An expense claim is the one thing Done cannot close: a claim closes with a manager's review, approved or declined, with a note. **What happens when you hand it back.** Hand it back needs a reason, said or typed. The item returns to whoever asked — onto their Mine — and the reason is on it in words: "Sam handed it back: …" for them, "You handed it back: …" for you. Only the person holding an item can hand it back; an item asked of a label is taken by someone first. ### Hand over What you'd tell the next shift, in your words. The next person reads it first. **What happens when you hand over.** The item lets go of you and waits under Handed over for whoever opens the next shift. Your note is what you would tell them, and it is the first thing they read on the item. Taking it makes it theirs. A hand-over also shows the next person as a card on Now, where Do that takes it on. ### Capture Say it, snap it, type it. The kind — a task, a claim, a hand-over, a note — is Kula's answer, and one tap files it. See [Capture](#capture) below for what happens to it. ## Apps ### The launcher Favourites first, then today's work — the count on a tile is the work waiting — then every other app, A to Z. Tap the star on an app to keep it at the top. **How the launcher is ordered.** Favourites are tiles, in the order you kept them. Then the apps the brief counted today, as tiles with the count as a numeral — that number is the work waiting in that app. Then every other app as a short row, A to Z, each with a star. The star on an app's page adds it to Favourites or removes it; a favourite stays at the top until you remove it. Apps built for this studio, or shipped by Kula, open on their page in Skills & agents. ### Skills and agents A skill is a way Kula does something for the studio; an agent is a skill on a trigger. Find one or make one in the Skills & agents app. **What a skill is.** A way Kula does one thing for the studio, in steps, with a voice and checks — reviewing a claim, reading a meeting, writing a hand-over. The studio has its own shelf, Kula ships a shelf, and what is for you comes first. **An agent** is a skill on a trigger: a time of day, a meeting finishing, a kind of capture. Skills and Agents sit under the search as two doors into the Skills & agents app, which holds every shelf, New, Edit, copy, share and adopt. Run a skill from Talk in your words, or from its page. ### Saved Reports and pages the studio's AI made, kept here. ### The Studio Whisper **What a studio whisper is.** A short message from the team to a member who has not shown up lately and has nothing booked — by SMS as the studio, or by email — to bring them back. Kula drafts it. Anyone on shift opens the Studio Whisper app, reads the drafted message, and says **Send** or **Decline**; a sent one goes out as the studio on Kula Fitness's next pass, within the member's consent and the studio's quiet hours. The brief counts the whispers waiting, and the count opens the app ready to run. The Studio Whisper is an add-on: a studio without it does not see the app. ## Talk ### Say it Say it and Kula files it: a claim, a task, a hand-over, a note. Or ask a question. No menu first. Hold the mic, or tap it and talk; what you type asks. **What happens to what you say.** What you say at the mic is a capture first: Kula works out the kind and files it, or shows the card with one tap to file (see [Capture](#capture)). A question is answered from the studio's own data, and Kula says what it looked at. The thread's last turns go with the next question, so "her" and "that class" resolve. ### A job for someone else Say who and by when and Kula asks them — after your tap, never before. It then waits on your Waiting on others. **What happens.** Kula shows the job as a card: who, what, by when. Nothing is asked until you tap. Then it is asked the same way as from Work: on their Mine, on your Waiting on others, no push, and they can hand it back. ### A meeting Kula listens and writes the words on this iPhone; the sound never leaves it. When the meeting ends Kula reads the words and brings back the things to do and the decisions for you to review. See [Meetings](#meetings). ### Skills Run one of the studio's skills from here, in your words. ### History Every thread is kept on this phone; open one from the sidebar. **Where threads live.** On the phone, and nowhere else: a thread is not sent to the studio's record. Delete one from the sidebar and it is gone. ### Ask Kula about this screen A question tapped on a help sheet comes here with a quiet line naming the screen ("Asking about the Kula app's Work screen."). The line joins the thread as context and goes with the question, so Kula answers about the app rather than about the studio's numbers. ## Inbox ### Ops and Tribe Ops is your studio's own conversations on Kula Ops. Tribe is the teachers': their threads come from Kula Fitness. **What the two are.** **Ops** conversations are the studio's staff talking to each other inside the app: a direct message, a small group, or one thread per thing in play — a work item, a situation, an agent run. They live on Kula Ops. **Tribe** conversations are the teachers' threads in Kula Fitness, shown here for the people in those conversations when the studio has Kula Fitness; a reply you send goes to Kula Fitness. **Who can see a conversation.** Only the people in it: the ones the conversation was started with, or, for a thing in play, the people on that thing. Anyone else cannot see it, or find that it exists. The brief tells you what is waiting in your Inbox, and the count opens it. ### Voice, photos and files Hold the mic for a voice note; the + takes photos, PDFs and files as far as the thread allows. A message with replies says so under it. **Replies.** A thread is a list of messages, newest at the bottom, and any message can have replies of its own. A message with replies says so under it; open it to read them and to reply to that one message rather than to the thread. **Attachments** go with a message, up to ten at a time — photos, PDFs, voice notes and files. A teachers' thread says what it takes: none, photos and PDFs, or every kind. ### Mute A muted thread stays; it just stops notifying you. **What notifies you.** A new message in one of your threads sends one quiet notice to your phone — never twice for the same message, never in your quiet hours, never while the app is open. Mute keeps the thread in the list, with its unread count, and stops the notices; unmute starts them again. ## Capture ### Say it, snap it, type it Hold the mic and let go, or tap Next. Say "Task:" or "Claim:" first to skip the question. A photo goes straight onto the card. **What happens, end to end.** The sentence, the photo or the typed words go up to Kula Ops in one round trip. Kula reads them against the studio's record — the people, the open orders, the paper it has seen before — and answers with the kind it would file and how sure it is. A photo of paper (a docket, a receipt, an invoice, a PDF shared from Mail or Files) is read too, and the facts it found are on the card for you to check. Saying "Task:" or "Claim:" first is your word: Kula takes that kind without asking. ### Kula's card Kula says what it would file and asks only what it still needs. When it is sure it files without asking; otherwise one tap does. Something else shows every kind. **When it files without a tap.** Only for a task, a member note, a follow-up — and a delivery, when it matches an open order — and only when Kula is sure. Then the record is made at once and the card says "Filed as task · change", which undoes it. In the middle, Kula offers two choices and one tap files. When it is not sure, it asks "What is this?" with the list. A claim, a hand-over, a notice, a record, an order, a pickup and a job for someone else always wait for your tap, however sure Kula is: those are things Kula should never do on its own. The first time a kind of paper is seen at this studio, Kula asks what to do with it and remembers the answer. ### Changing it Keep talking over the card — "send it to the bookkeeper", "it was for the front desk" — and the card changes. ### Offline A capture waits on this phone and goes when it next reaches Kula Ops. If Kula needs your word, it waits on Work. **How offline works.** The capture queues on the phone and is sent when there is a connection again. Each capture carries its own reference, so a retry never files it twice. If Kula could not file it without your word, the item waits on Work for your tap. ## Meetings ### Before you start Tell everyone Kula is recording and tick Everyone knows. Pick who's here so Kula can name people. **Why.** Everyone knows is your word that the room was told. Who's here is the list of names Kula may use when it reads the words — anyone at the site you could ask. ### While it records Mark a note or a decision as you go, with the buttons or by saying so. Pause is off the record. ### After The words are written on this iPhone; the sound never leaves it. Kula reads the words and brings back the things to do and the decisions for you to review. Nothing is asked of anyone until you do. **Where the recording goes.** Nowhere. The iPhone turns the sound into words on the phone itself; only the words and the marks you made go up to Kula Ops, and audio is never accepted there. Kula keeps the words, never the sound. **What Kula does with the words.** First it turns your own marks into your items and decisions. Then every agent on the studio's shelf that reads meetings — Kula's Meeting notes, a studio's own analyses, another model to compare — reads the words and proposes things to do. When the readings are in, the meeting is ready and you get one card. **Review.** Open the meeting in the Meetings app (the brief counts your meetings to review): the readings as tabs, the kept notes and decisions, and one list of things to do, your own marks first. Keep or drop each, say who and by when, change its kind, answer "Which Sam?". Then **Send** files every kept item as you, each one once, through the same door as asking someone — so each lands on someone's Mine and your Waiting on others, with no push, and afterwards each reads where it stands on Work. Nothing is asked of anyone until you Send. **Read it again** runs a failed reading again, or one more by a named agent; **Cancel** is a meeting not made. **Who sees a meeting.** You, as the person who ran it; a manager at the site; and a named attendee once the meeting is made. The words themselves are yours to read, and a manager's at the site.