Narrator Legacy
The Narrator panel shows what an Orchestrator run is doing: its execution graph, its phases, every step inside them, and the raw input and output of each step. It is an inspector, not an agent. It generates nothing and writes nothing back.
Heads up
The name is misleading and predates the current product. The Narrator does not write narratives, tell stories, or speak. It is a debugging view over Orchestrator runs. The AI chat you are probably looking for is the Composer.
Where to find it
View > Agents > Narrator, or click Narrator in the Orchestrator panel. It is also part of the Quantitative Analysis and Visual Brainstorming layout presets.
How it fills
The panel connects to the backend’s /ws/orchestrator-logs/ socket and subscribes to the run id of the message you last sent from the Orchestrator. Any time that run id changes, it clears itself and subscribes to the new run. Until you send an Orchestrator message it reads No logs captured yet. Start an investigation to see the graph., and the footer reads No active run.
What it shows
- Live Activity. A timestamped scroll of the run’s progress lines, newest at the bottom, with a pulsing dot on the most recent one. Hidden when there are no progress messages.
- Execution Graph. The run’s node graph, topologically sorted into layers so that nodes able to run in parallel sit on the same row, with an arrow between layers. Backend runs report the phases Kickoff, Impression, ToolRace and Synthesis. Each node is colored by status: gray for not started, blue and pulsing while running, green when completed, red on error. Clicking a node that has a log opens its detail card. Nodes carry the first four characters of the map id when a step is scoped to one map.
- Progress. A bar plus an n/N phases count, marked (running) while any phase is still active.
- Phase sections. One collapsible section per phase, showing the step count and the elapsed time between the phase’s first and last step. Each step row shows its status dot, node name, tool name, map id prefix, and a truncated preview of its content.
- Detail card. Clicking a step opens a card with its node, phase, timestamp, the step’s content, the model’s impression when one was recorded, the tool name, and Parameters, Input, and Output as formatted JSON. Each of those three blocks has a Copy button.
- Footer. The label Narrator and the id of the run being shown.
Limits
- Orchestrator runs only. Composer turns, Mantis Coding, and the Voice Agent panel do not appear here.
- One run at a time. Switching runs clears the graph, the activity feed, and every logged step. There is no history and no way to reopen a finished run.
- No export. Individual step payloads can be copied from the detail card; the run as a whole cannot be downloaded.
- Read only. You cannot retry, cancel, or edit a step from this panel. To stop a run, send another message in the Orchestrator, which cancels the one in flight.
- Reconnects silently. If the socket drops, the panel retries every three seconds without showing a connection state, so an empty panel can mean either “no run yet” or “not connected”.
Other things called Narrator
The name is reused in two unrelated places, neither of which is this panel:
- Narrator is the default mode in the mode dropdown of the legacy chat panel and of the Voice Agent panel.
- Layout presets sometimes label the legacy chat panel itself “Narrator”.