Diagnostics

Diagnostics is a read-only view of available observations, not a guarantee that the show is healthy. Its persistent header separates active alerts from coverage: Checking, Setup needed, Limited coverage, Checks unavailable, or Observations stale. It refreshes every three seconds; Refresh observations reads the same sources without probing the network.

Use the category list for Computer, Show applications, Control network, Audio network, Other networks, MIDI, USB, Alerts and Recent changes. Computer metrics are informational. Memory is an estimate of physical memory minus free/inactive pages. MIDI lists endpoint availability without enabling message capture. USB reads the macOS registry without opening devices. Recent changes retains up to 80 events for this session.

Configure expected system opens a separate setup panel. Choose installed or running applications, or an app file; there is no need to type bundle identifiers. Enabled launch items contribute their applications, including the default application for a document. Monitor exclusions persist when the launch list is refreshed. Removed or disabled launch items stop requiring their derived app. Older expectations have unknown origin and remain manually managed. An unresolved legacy name shows Needs setup rather than a false Not running result.

Assign interfaces to Control, Audio or Other, then add observed devices from the network page or enter known devices manually. Every expected device needs a name, IPv4 address, MAC address and explicit interface. Older configurations load safely but require interface selection before configured-device checking. Assignments travel in the configuration; review interface names on a different Mac. Setup edits save to the current session; Save As exports a configuration file.

Two MAC identities for one IP on one interface within 60 seconds raise a critical Possible duplicate IP alert. A configured address with a different identity on its assigned interface is critical; the expected identity at a different address on that interface is a warning. Both shortened and full MAC octets are supported. One network cannot cause a configured-device conflict on another. Alerts preserve incident start times; cache observation time is not a device heartbeat. On collection failure previous network alerts remain visible. When evidence expires after successful collection, Recent changes says it is no longer detected, not proven resolved.

The network inventory is the current macOS ARP cache, not a complete network scan. Observed in cache does not mean reachable; Not observed does not mean offline. Enabled describes an interface setting, not cable link health. Each ARP command is limited to 1.5 seconds and 1 MB per output stream. Diagnostics does not ping, inject packets, capture traffic, change settings or open audio devices. IPv6 conflict detection, MIDI/USB expectation rules, vendor clock/audio/redundancy monitoring and the Show Control API remain outside this build.