Settings

Access Settings from the gear icon in the bottom navigation bar.

Theme

Choose Light, Dark, or System. System follows your macOS appearance setting and switches automatically when you change it.

AI configuration

Configure the on-device AI model for the Portrait and FBA Workspace features. See AI Setup for step-by-step instructions on downloading and selecting a local model.

Interval cues

Configure how sight·line signals interval boundaries during recording.

• Audio cue — choose from several tones (soft click, beep, chime) or disable audio entirely. Useful in quiet classrooms where an audible tone would draw attention.
• Visual cue — the screen pulses at each interval transition. Can be used alone or alongside audio.

Both options can be active simultaneously or independently.

Backup and restore

sight·line takes automatic daily backups of your local database in the background, on every tier, including Free. The last 7 daily backups are kept, and a snapshot is also taken before every app update. This is on by default and needs no setup.

You can also export a manual backup at any time. It captures your entire local database (students, sessions, templates, Library items, and settings) as a single file, saved to a location you choose on your device. Manual backup and restore are available on every tier.

Use a manual export when:

• Moving sight·line to a new machine
• Archiving data at the end of a school year
• Taking a precautionary snapshot before a major change

Restore replaces your current database with a backup, either an automatic daily snapshot or a manual export. Before restoring, sight·line copies your current database aside first, so that copy is your undo if the restore turns out to be a mistake. This means restore needs free disk space: room for that copy plus roughly 2 GB free. If there isn’t enough space, restore refuses to run rather than leaving your data partway through the swap.

Backups live on this computer, next to your data. They protect against accidental deletion and a bad update, not against a lost, stolen, or reimaged laptop. sight·line has no cloud sync, so for that kind of protection, export a copy to another drive.

Backup files are unencrypted SQLite databases. Treat exported copies the same way you’d treat any other export of student data, per your district’s data policies.

Demo mode

Demo mode loads a set of pre-built sample data — students, sessions, and results — so you can explore sight·line without touching your real data. Your actual data is hidden while demo mode is active.

To exit demo mode, toggle it off. Your real data returns exactly as you left it.

Demo mode is useful for training new staff or walking through the app in a presentation.

Data management

sight·line gives you full control over your local data:

• Delete a student — removes the student and all associated sessions and data. Requires confirmation.
• Bulk delete sessions — select and delete multiple sessions across any student. Useful for clearing old or practice sessions.
• Wipe all data — removes everything and resets sight·line to a fresh state. This is irreversible. A confirmation prompt is required.

All destructive operations are confirmed before executing. Consider exporting a backup before performing any bulk deletion.

Telemetry

sight·line collects anonymous usage telemetry to understand which features are used and to catch crashes. This data never includes any observation content, student names, behavior data, session recordings, or any information about the people you observe.

Telemetry is on by default and can be turned off here at any time. The toggle takes effect immediately.

License

Enter your license key to activate sight·line or to check your current license status.

The license panel shows:

• Current tier — Free, Starter, or Pro
• Expiry date — when your license is valid through
• Deactivate — releases the license from this machine so you can activate it on another. Deactivation requires an internet connection.

If you need to move sight·line to a new computer, deactivate here first, then activate on the new machine with the same key.

See sight-line.app/download for a comparison of what each tier includes.

About

Shows the current app version, build number, and links to documentation and support. If you’re filing a bug report, include the version number shown here.