Guided tour

Invoke’s main window, the workbench, is built from panels that you can arrange to suit the job in front of you. Put the tools you use together side by side, move the gallery to whichever side you prefer, float the Preview over the canvas, and save the result as a layout preset so you can return to it with one click.

The parts of the workbench

Hover over a numbered circle, or tap it on a touchscreen, for a short description. The table below describes each one in full.

	Part	What it does
1	App menu	Links to Projects, the Model Manager, Fonts, the Queue, Widgets…, Settings and help. The search button beside the project switcher opens the command palette.
2	Project switcher	Shows the active project and switches between projects. See Working with Projects.
3	Layout preset tabs	One tab per saved layout. A dot on a tab’s icon means that layout has unsaved changes in this project; the active tab’s arrow opens the preset menu. When there are more tabs than fit, the row fades at its edge and an arrow scrolls to the rest.
4	Save as new preset	Saves the current arrangement as a new preset.
5	Invoke controls	The number of iterations and the Invoke button. Its card, shown on hover, sets the route: where the settings come from and where results go. See When Invoke is blocked.
6	Rails	A strip of icons down each edge of the window, one icon per panel placed on that side.
7	Rail menu (…)	Adds panels to a rail or removes them. Widgets… at its foot lists every panel.
8	Side panels	Show the selected panel from the neighbouring rail.
9	Resize handle	Drag to make a side panel wider or narrower, or to collapse it.
10	Center panel	The main work area: Preview, Canvas, Gallery, Workflow editor or Image Map.
11	Center view menu	Switches what the center shows, and adds or closes center views.
12	Floating window	A panel detached from its rail, which you can move and resize anywhere.
13	Floating panel’s rail slot	A dashed icon that marks where a floating panel came from. Click it to bring the window to the front; right-click it to dock or remove the panel.
14	Status bar	Small status chips: server connection, queue, gallery, autosave and notifications.

Rails and side panels

The left rail is for panels you create with, such as Generate, Upscale and Video. The right rail is for panels you inspect results with, such as Gallery, Layers and Queue. Each rail can hold several panels, but its side panel shows one at a time:

• Click a rail icon to show that panel. Hover over an icon to see its name.
• Click the icon of the panel that is already showing to collapse the side panel and give the center more room. Click it again to bring the panel back at the same width.
• Drag the resize handle between a side panel and the center to change its width. Dragging well past its narrowest size collapses it.

Side panels shrink as needed when the window gets narrow, so the center always keeps a usable width.

The center panel

The center panel shows one view at a time. The button in its top-left corner (for example Preview) names the current view; click it to open the center view menu:

• Center views lists the views already placed in the center. Choose one to switch to it.
• Add to center lists other panels that can be shown in the center.
• Close removes the current view. The center always keeps at least one view.

Press Z to swap the Preview into the center and back to the view you had before. It is a quick way to check a result while you work on the canvas or a workflow.

The Preview’s Auto-switch button, in its header, shows the current mode as its icon (hover over it to see the name) and opens a menu that chooses what the Preview shows while work runs:

• In progress: each image as it is being generated, then the finished result. New projects start here.
• Newest: each finished result, without the in-progress frames.
• Off: the Preview stays on what you chose; new results appear in the Gallery only.

Choosing an item yourself, in the Gallery or with the Preview’s arrows, turns Auto-switch Off so your choice stays on screen; clicking a generating tile in the Gallery turns it back to In progress. The setting is saved with the project. Projects created before this setting existed open with it Off.

The Preview’s header holds the next steps for the image it shows. Click the board and item name at its start to open a mini gallery and jump to another image or video. Edit opens Edit on Canvas, Upscale, Send to Video, Add to Canvas as… and New project from image; Use offers the image as a reference, a control or a prompt template, and reuses its settings: Remix image (R), All settings (A), Use prompt (P), Use seed (S), Use size (D) and Use CLIP skip. Each item says what it does. The ⋮ menu holds the rest: copy, download, Load workflow, Select for compare, Move to board, Delete and more. A Preview narrower than 560 pixels, and a Preview in a side rail at any width, shows Edit and Use as icons and moves Select for compare into ⋮. Below 280 pixels only the star and ⋮ remain, and ⋮ holds everything.

To step through the Gallery’s items in the Preview, press the arrow keys, or hover over the image and click the arrows at its left and right edges. To show or hide the filmstrip along the Preview’s bottom edge, turn Show filmstrip on or off in the settings behind the gear in the Preview’s header, or press T.

The status bar and bottom panel

The status bar along the bottom holds small chips. Hover over Server Status, the queue chip or Autosave for details; click Notifications to see recent messages. Some chips, such as Gallery, open a bottom panel above the status bar. Drag the top edge of the bottom panel to resize it.

Floating windows

Preview and Image Map can float in their own windows above the rest of the workbench. Click Float Window in the panel’s header to detach it. Then:

• Drag the title bar to move the window, and drag any edge or corner to resize it.
• From the keyboard, focus the title bar and press the arrow keys to move the window, or focus the grip in the bottom-right corner and press the arrow keys to resize it. Hold Shift for larger steps; Home on the grip shrinks the window to its smallest size.
• Double-click the title bar, or use Maximize, to fill the workbench; double-click again, or use Restore, to return to the previous size and position. Double-clicking a collapsed window’s title bar expands it.
• Collapse shrinks the window to just its title bar and Expand opens it again. The panel keeps what you were doing while collapsed.
• Click a window, or move keyboard focus into it, to make it the active one: it comes to the front and is outlined like a focused panel, and keyboard shortcuts for its panel apply to it.
• The dock button in the title bar, named for where the window came from (for example Dock to right panel), returns the panel to the place it floated from.
• The × button closes the window and takes the panel out of the layout. Undo in the notice that follows brings it back.
• The panel’s dashed rail icon keeps its place while the window floats. Click it to bring the window to the front and expand it; right-click it to dock or remove the panel.

A window remembers where it was. Dock or remove a floating panel and float it again later, and it reopens at the same position and size.

If the panel you float was also the only view in the center, the center shows where it went, with Show window and a dock button. Docking or removing the window gives the center its view back.

A floating Preview is handy on the Edit layout: keep the canvas in the center and watch results in a small window beside your work.

When Invoke is blocked

When something stands in the way, Invoke turns grey and says how many issues there are, for example Invoke · 2 issues. Hover over it to see them; click it, or press Enter on it, to open the list and move into it. The list shows:

• Source and Destination: the panel Invoke takes its settings from (Generate, Canvas, Workflow, Upscale or Video) and where results go. If that panel isn’t in the layout, or isn’t the one you meant, choose another source right there among the panels the layout holds.
• Each issue, with a way to fix it: Show opens the panel and section that needs attention (a Generate setting, the prompt, a widget), Show node selects the workflow node and zooms to it, Show layer selects the canvas layer, Open Model Manager when no usable model is installed, Add for a missing source panel, and a one-click fix where Generate has one (for example a size that fits the model). A lost server connection is listed without a button; it clears when the connection returns.

Ctrl+Enter still queues whenever nothing is in the way.

Arranging panels

Available panels

Each panel can be placed only where it makes sense:

Panel	Left rail	Right rail	Center	Bottom	Can float
Generate, Upscale, Video	✓
Workflow	✓		✓	✓
Canvas			✓
Gallery	✓	✓	✓	✓
Image Map	✓	✓	✓		✓
Preview		✓	✓		✓
Layers, Queue		✓
Diagnostics		✓

A panel can appear in more than one place at once, for example the Gallery in the right rail and in the center, but only once in each place.

Adding and removing panels

Click the … button at the bottom of a rail, or right-click an empty part of the rail, to open its menu (Create widgets on the left, Inspect widgets on the right). It lists every panel that rail can hold, with a check mark beside those already placed. Choose a panel to add it, or choose a checked panel to remove it.

To remove a panel quickly, right-click its rail icon and choose Remove. Removing a panel only takes it out of the layout. Its contents and settings are kept, and it comes back as you left it when you add it again. A notice confirms the removal with an Undo button.

Widgets…, in the app menu, at the foot of each rail menu and in the command palette (Show widgets), opens one list of every panel, split into those in this layout and those not. Each row says where the panel is (a rail, the center, the status bar or a floating window) and offers Show to bring it forward, Add to put it back in the layout, Dock for a floating window, and Remove. The command palette also has a Show entry for each panel, such as Show Image Map.

Center views are added and closed from the center view menu.

Moving panels between rails

Drag a rail icon to reorder it within its rail, or drop it on the other rail to move the panel to the other side. The side panel opens to show the panel you moved. You can also drag an icon onto the status bar to tuck the panel into the bottom panel, and drag a chip back up to a rail.

While you drag, each place shows Drop here if the panel can go there, Unavailable if that panel isn’t allowed there, or Already placed if it is there already.

On a touchscreen, press and hold an icon briefly before dragging.

Layout shortcuts

Keys	Action
T or O	Collapse or expand the left panel
G	Collapse or expand the right panel
F	Collapse or expand all side and bottom panels at once, for a clear view of the center
Z	Swap the Preview into or out of the center
Ctrl+Alt+Z	Undo the last layout change: adding, removing, moving or resizing a panel, floating or docking a window, a preset switch, a revert, a route change
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Z	Redo the layout change you undid
Alt+1 to Alt+4	Switch to the Compose, Edit, Video or Workflow preset

On macOS, use Cmd in place of Ctrl. These shortcuts don’t fire while you are typing in a text field. You can change any of them; see Hotkeys.

Layout undo only moves panels, windows and routing back. What you typed or set inside a panel since then, such as a prompt, stays as it is, and a panel the undo takes out of the layout keeps its settings for when you add it again. The Undo in a layout notice works while that change is still your latest; after another layout change, or once you have undone it with the shortcut, the notice goes away.

Layout presets

A layout preset is a saved arrangement of panels. The tabs in the middle of the top bar switch between them, so you can move from generating to canvas editing to building workflows without rearranging anything by hand.

Built-in presets

Invoke comes with four presets:

Preset	Center	Left rail	Right rail
Compose: generate images from text	Preview (Gallery also available)	Generate, Upscale	Gallery, Image Map, Queue
Edit: paint and composite on the canvas	Canvas (Preview also available)	Generate, Upscale	Layers, Preview
Video: generate video	Preview	Video, Upscale	Gallery, Queue
Workflow: build and run workflows	Workflow editor (Preview also available)	Workflow	Queue, Preview, Gallery, Image Map

Each preset also sets where Invoke takes its settings from and where results go. For example, Compose generates from the Generate panel into the Gallery, while Edit works from and into the Canvas. A route you have locked from the Invoke card is left alone.

New projects open with Compose unless you choose a different starting point when you create them.

Switching presets

Click a preset’s tab, or press Alt+1 to Alt+4 for the built-in presets. Switching changes only the arrangement: every panel keeps its contents, so a half-written prompt or a scrolled gallery is exactly as you left it. A short notice confirms the switch with Undo, and says so when the switch changed what Invoke runs or where results go.

When the window is narrow, the tabs show only their icons. Hover over one to see its name.

Changing a preset

Once you move, add or remove panels, the active preset’s tab shows a dot on its icon to say the layout no longer matches the saved preset; hover over or focus the tab to see Unsaved layout changes. Nothing is lost if you switch away: each preset keeps the arrangement you left it in, floating windows included, and switching back brings that arrangement back, so several presets can have unsaved changes at once. These working arrangements belong to the project and are saved with it; other projects open each preset as it was saved.

Click the arrow on the active tab, or right-click any tab, to open the preset menu:

• Save changes stores the preset’s arrangement in the preset, so it opens that way from now on. On a tab that isn’t active, it saves the arrangement that preset was left in without switching to it.
• Revert layout to saved preset puts the panels back as the preset saved them. Choosing the active preset again with its shortcut (Alt+1 to Alt+4) or from the command palette does the same. On a tab that isn’t active, it forgets that preset’s unsaved arrangement. Either way, Undo in the notice, or Ctrl+Alt+Z, brings the arrangement back.
• Edit preset… changes the preset’s name, icon and default routing.
• Delete preset… removes a preset you created.
• Manage presets opens the list of all presets.
• On a tab that isn’t active, Switch to this layout switches to it.

You can also save changes to the built-in presets. Your version replaces the original for your account only, and you can restore the original at any time from Manage presets.

Creating your own preset

1. Arrange the panels the way you like them.
2. Click the + button to the right of the preset tabs (Save this layout as a new preset).
3. In Save as new preset, enter a Preset name and choose an Icon for its tab.
4. Choose the Default source, the panel Invoke reads its settings from (such as Generate or Workflow), and the Default destination, Canvas or Gallery.
5. Click Save preset.

The new preset captures the whole arrangement, including floating windows and their positions. It becomes the active preset and gets a tab at the end of the row; the preset you started from keeps its saved arrangement.

Managing presets

Manage presets lists every preset in tab order. From there you can:

• drag presets by their grip to change the order of the tabs;
• click the pencil to edit a preset’s name, icon and routing;
• restore a built-in preset you have changed to its original arrangement. Changed built-ins are marked with a dot;
• delete presets you created. Built-in presets can’t be deleted.

You can also reorder tabs by dragging them in the top bar. With the keyboard, focus a tab, press Space, move it with the arrow keys, and press Space again to drop it.

Deleting a preset only removes the saved preset. Projects that were using it keep their current arrangement.

What is saved where

• The current arrangement belongs to the project. Each project remembers its own panels, sizes, center view and floating windows, so switching projects also switches layouts. See Working with Projects.
• Presets belong to your account. Custom presets, changes to built-in presets and the order of the tabs are available in all of your projects. With multiple users, each person has their own presets.

To start over, choose Revert layout to saved preset in the command palette, or Reset layout under Data & workspace in Settings. Both put the current project’s panels back as the active preset saved them, and the notice that follows offers Undo. This is different from Restore built-in in Manage presets, which resets a built-in preset itself to the version Invoke ships with.

Tips

• Build a preset for each kind of work. A “Portraits” preset might keep Generate and the Gallery side by side with a floating Preview; an “Inpainting” preset might keep Layers and Preview on the right of the canvas.
• Keep the center for the work itself. Use F to hide all side panels when you need the whole window for the canvas, and press it again to bring them back.
• Use the Gallery in the center for triage. Add the Gallery to the center to review a large batch at full width, then press Z to jump between it and the Preview.
• Save built-in changes you like. If you always move the Queue to the left, save that change into the preset rather than repeating it in each project.
• Highlight the focused area. Highlight focused regions in Settings (on by default) outlines the part of the workbench that keyboard shortcuts will act on. The center is focused when a project opens, until you click or move focus elsewhere, and takes focus back when a focused window docks or closes.