Media Log

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Monthly note runs monthly · the 1st, 6pm and keeps the Watchlist dashboard fresh. Once a month — the board brought up to date, and a word only when there is one.
• What is captured lands in the Media log record, which lives at Data/Media Log in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Watchlist dashboard reads from the record and shows, at a glance: on the log · watching now · finished, month by month · by kind · the log · verdicts · where things stand · what this is.

The wiring, in one breath: Media capture writes to Media log · Media log shown by Watchlist · Watchlist kept fresh by Monthly note · Monthly note run by Cove · Cove holds Media capture.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Say it in the moment and forget about it — "we started the Nordic one last night", "finished it, loved it", "someone recommended the heist film". Media capture files each one as you speak; there is nothing to open and no form to fill.
• Read the board when you want the answer to "what was that thing we loved?" — Verdicts is the honest panel, because it is your own words against your own dates. Where things stand tells you whether the watchlist is running away from you.
• Give a verdict only when you actually have one. A finished row with the verdict left blank is a complete row, and Cove will never ask you for one — which is exactly what keeps the verdicts you do give worth reading.
• Ask Cove rather than searching: "what did we watch in the spring?", "what did I think of the farming game?" It answers from the log, in your words, and it will not spoil anything you have not got to.
• Let the Monthly note be quiet. It lands on the first only when something finished, something has sat half-watched a while, or the watchlist has grown — a month with nothing to say sends nothing, and that is the design rather than a fault.
• Correct it out loud when it gets something wrong — the kind, the date, a title it misheard. The log is yours to edit directly too, and the board follows it.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, records and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• How you like verdicts kept — a word, a number, or not at all — said once and remembered.
• Which kinds belong on the log: say "never podcasts" and they stop being filed.
• Whether the Monthly note runs at all, or the board is the whole of it.
• How much Cove says back when it files something — silent by default.
• The titles, kinds and verdicts themselves: the log is yours to edit, and the board follows it.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing ends with "Meet Cove" — who keeps what you watch, play and listen to. The conversation is short and entirely in prose: what is on the watchlist, what you are in the middle of right now, and anything you finished recently that you still have an opinion about. Rows land as you say them, so stopping after three things still leaves you with a working log.
2. Then one question, and only one: how you like to put a verdict on something — a plain word, a number out of five, or nothing at all. Cove keeps that as a preference rather than a row, and reads it back before writing any verdict. "Nothing at all" is a real answer, and it is offered as one.
3. Nothing is asked of your email, your calendar or any account, now or later — no service records what a person watched, so this kit is built to work from what you say instead of apologising for a connector it cannot have.
4. If you mention a book, Cove checks whether the Reading & Learning Kit is installed and hands it to Scout rather than keeping the same thing in two places. Without that kit, something you listened to can live here as an audiobook.
5. Until the log has its first row, nothing runs: the monthly note stands down silently, and Cove's chat, the kit page and the Watchlist board each carry the same quiet offer to start. The first row — whenever and however it lands — retires all three for good.
6. From then on the Monthly note runs on the first of the month, brings the board up to date, and writes to you only when there is genuinely something to say.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

← All kits