Everything the booth needs. Nothing it doesn't.
A layered script editor, cue formatting that cascades, live collaboration, exports any console op can open, and access control built for a production team. What follows is what Cuelist does today — not a wish list.
01 · The editor
A working surface, not a document viewer.
Open a PDF script and the editor is the room: the script in the middle, layers on the left, the cue rail on the right. The tools you reach for live on a rail down the side, each with its own keyboard shortcut.
A tool rail with shortcuts.
Select, annotate, place a cue — every tool has a single-key shortcut, shown as a subscript badge on the rail and spelled out when the rail is expanded. Press a tool's key again to drop back to select.
Fit-page zoom, one click back.
Fit the page to the viewport, or hold ⌘/Ctrl and click to reset the zoom. The script stays where you put it; the editor doesn't fight you.
Lock the page.
Lock the script while you read or call so a stray drag can't move a mark. Locked is a clear yellow state, not a hidden toggle.
Marks survive page revisions.
Annotations anchor to the page content, so when the script changes mid-tech your cues don't scatter.
02 · Layers
One script, every department's marks.
Lighting, sound, video, stage management — each department works on its own layer over the same script. Define the layers your show needs; show or hide them as you work.
Per-layer cue defaults.
Each layer carries its own cue-marker style — shape, colour, font, the connector between marker and label. Set it once and every cue on the layer follows.
Change a layer, cascade the cues.
Edit a layer's cue style and Cuelist offers to apply it to the cues already on that layer, in one step — soft-deleted and other-layer cues are left alone.
Assign layers to groups.
A layer can be scoped to specific groups, so a department sees the layers that concern it.
03 · Cues
Cues you can format, find, and renumber.
Place a cue against a line and it snaps to the text baseline. Style it past the layer default when one cue needs to stand out. Then work the list as a list.
Per-cue overrides.
Right-click a marker for quick settings, or override shape, colour, placement, and prefix on a single cue without touching the layer.
Find and replace.
Search the cue list and replace across matches in place. The find panel stays open while you select, so a sweep is one pass, not many.
Select and act in bulk.
Shift-select a run, invert the selection, or clear it — then act on the set.
04 · Collaboration
See who's in the script, follow the call.
Open a project with the rest of the team and you see each other: presence on the script, cursors moving, annotations appearing as they're made. No reload, no merge step.
Follow another viewport.
Shadow the stage manager's view during tech so everyone is on the same page — literally.
Sessions you can step out of.
Disable sessions for yourself on a project and the privacy is symmetric: you're invisible to the others and they're invisible to you. Toggle it back when you want the room again.
Offline is the fallback.
When the venue Wi-Fi gives up, work continues and syncs when the connection returns.
05 · Import
Bring an existing cue list in.
Already have a list in a spreadsheet or another desk? Import it, review the parse, then commit it onto a layer — nothing lands until you've checked it.
CSV and JSON.
Cue number, label, page, notes. The dependable path: cue numbers, labels, notes, and group structure round-trip cleanly.
Coming from QLab, Eos, or Hog?
Cuelist doesn't read their native binary formats directly. Use the desk's own Export → CSV and bring the CSV in.
Review before commit.
The parse is shown for you to check before anything is written to the layer.
06 · Export
Hand the show to anyone.
The console operator doesn't need an account, or the app. Flatten the show to a PDF, or take the cue list as a CSV.
Flatten to PDF.
Layers, cues, and page labels rendered as native PDF annotations — opens in any reader.
Cue list as CSV.
The cue list out as a spreadsheet for the desk, the report, or the archive.
Preview first.
See the export before you download it.
07 · Integrations
Wire Cuelist into your own tooling.
Cuelist emits outbound webhooks for the events that matter to your org, signed so you can verify them. Build the automation your production needs around them.
Signed outbound webhooks.
Subscribe to the events your org cares about; deliveries are HMAC-signed and recent attempts can be replayed.
Slack and Teams are next.
First-class Slack and Teams delivery is a planned follow-up; today the webhook covers the same ground.
08 · Access & security
Theatre-grade access control.
A production is a group of people with different jobs. Cuelist's access model matches that, and keeps a record of who did what.
Roles and permissions.
Role-based access at the org level with project-scoped overrides. System roles are read-only; build a delegated-admin role when you need one.
Two-factor and an audit log.
TOTP plus recovery codes on every plan, and an audit log of permission decisions you can filter and export to CSV.
Licensed seats.
Members without a seat see every tab read-only and can request one; an admin grants, denies, or revokes it. A disabled member can't sign in at all.
Run the show.
See it on your own script.