Let Nova walk you through a docs page

Some pages of the SpanDock docs now come with a short guide from Nova, a guide character who explains the page of the app that the docs page describes. Each guide is a small round video in the bottom right corner of the page, muted, with captions. This guide shows how to play one, how to use its controls, how to watch it again, and how to turn the guides off if you'd rather read.

What you'll set up

Nothing needs installing or configuring. You'll learn:

• which docs pages have a guide today;
• when a guide starts on its own, and when it doesn't;
• the player's controls: sound, a bigger view and close;
• how to replay a guide, and how to switch the guides off for the whole site.

The SpanDock app plays the same clips, with the same player behaviour, so what you learn here applies there too.

Prerequisites

• A web browser. Guides start by themselves only on a wider screen, so a laptop or desktop is easiest; on a phone you can still play them with the button.
• One of the docs pages that has a guide. Today these are:
  • Getting started, with five guides: the setup guide, integrations, the dashboard, activity and analytics;
  • Pairing clients, for the computers page;
  • Model proxy and budgets, for model routing;
  • Guardrails on computers;
  • MCP gateway, with two guides: the MCP gateway and change management;
  • MCP and the assistant, for the assistant;
  • Skills;
  • Destinations.

Other docs pages have no guide yet.

Steps

1. Open a page with a guide

Open one of the pages above, such as Pairing clients. On a wide enough screen, the page's first guide opens by itself in the bottom right corner when the page loads. It starts muted, and its captions appear just above the video.

It doesn't open by itself on a phone, when your system asks for reduced motion, or on your first visit to the site. It also stays closed on a page where you closed it before. In all of these cases you can start it yourself with the button in the next step.

2. Start it with the button

At the top of the page, above the text, there is a button: Watch Nova explain this page. Select it to play the guide from the start.

On a page with more than one guide, there is one button per guide, each named after the page of the app it explains, such as Watch Nova explain Change management on the MCP gateway page. Pick the one you want.

3. Use the controls

The round video has three small buttons:

• Sound, below the video, turns the sound on or off. With the sound off, the captions show above the video. If the guide has finished, this button plays it again from the start.
• Bigger, next to it, makes the video larger; select it again to make it smaller.
• Close, at the top right, stops the guide and closes the player. Pressing Escape does the same.

4. Watch it again

Closing a guide is remembered for that page, so it won't open by itself there again. To watch it again, select Watch Nova explain this page (or the guide's own button); after that, it opens by itself on that page again. If that guide is already open, its button restarts it from the beginning; another guide's button switches to that guide.

5. Turn the guides off, or back on

Next to the buttons there is a Page guides switch. Turn it off to stop guides everywhere on the site: any open guide closes, the buttons are replaced by "Page guides are off", and no guide opens by itself on any page. Turn the switch back on to bring them back.

Verify it works

• On a page with a guide, select its button. A round video appears in the bottom right corner, playing muted, with captions above it.
• Turn the sound on. The captions disappear and you hear the guide.
• Press Escape. The player closes. Reload the page: the guide stays closed.
• Turn off Page guides, then open another page with a guide. It shows "Page guides are off" and nothing plays.

Troubleshooting

The guide didn't start by itself. That is expected on a phone or narrow window, with reduced motion turned on in your system settings, on your first visit to the site, on a page where you closed the guide before, and when Page guides is off. Use the button at the top of the page, or turn the switch back on.

My choices aren't remembered. Closing a guide and the Page guides switch are saved in your browser's storage. If your browser blocks site storage, the choice lasts only until you leave the page.

There is no button on a page. That page has no guide yet. See the list under Prerequisites.

Next steps

• Start with Getting started, which has the most guides.
• Pair your first computers with Pairing clients.
• Set up spending controls with Model proxy and budgets.
• Connect your organisation's tools through the MCP gateway.