Movies & TV

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 dataset, which lives at Data/Media Log in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Cast & crew dataset, which lives at Data/Cast and Crew in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Watchlist dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: on the log · watching now · where things stand · where you are · by kind · finished, month by month · verdicts · 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 · Cove holds Queue and lists · Queue and lists updates Media log · Media capture writes to Cast & crew · Cove holds Picks by taste and mood.

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 movie". 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.
• Keep your place in a series by saying it: "we're on season two, episode four". When several have moved on, press Start on Where you are on the Watchlist board: it goes through the series and podcasts you are part-way through one at a time, with the season and the episode, and saves each back onto your log.
• When you cannot decide, ask Cove outright: "what shall we watch tonight? Something short and light." It starts from your own queue: what fits, laid out by what you asked for in the order things went on the list, and which ones it cannot judge because you never said how long they are or what they are like. It never ranks them and never picks for you. Saying "six half-hour episodes, really light" when you add something gives it more to go on next time.
• Make your own lists in a sentence: "put the courtroom drama on the Christmas list", "I'd watch that one again". Queue and lists keeps them on the row, so "what's on the Christmas list?" and "what would I watch again?" have answers.
• Ask for something new, or just ask what to watch: "what should we watch tonight?" If you have not said how you feel, Cove asks once. Picks by taste and mood starts from what fits on your own list, then suggests a few new movies or series that suit your taste and the people you follow, each with its year, who made it and one line on why. Every new title is checked against an open source before you see it. The picks come as a card with each cover: tap Add on the ones you want, or just say which, and they go on your watchlist at once with Cove as who recommended it; the rest are not kept anywhere, and nothing is ever ranked or spoiled.
• Open the Media log and it shows as a gallery of covers, on shelves by where each one stands: what is queued, what you are watching, what you finished. Something with no cover gets a neat typeset one of its own. Cast & crew opens the same way, each photo with its credit. Switch to the table or the board whenever you want the details.
• Name a movie or a series as you add it, with the year if two share a name. Media capture finds its cover, its year, who made it, who stars in it and a short line on what it is about, and asks which one you meant if it is not sure. Something it cannot match keeps your words and nothing else; podcasts, games and audiobooks are kept just as you say them.
• Tell Cove who you follow: "I love anything with her in it", "we watch everything he directs". They are kept on Cast & crew with a photo, its credit, what they are known for and why you follow them, and Cove uses them when you ask what to watch.
• 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, datasets 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.
• Your taste: what you love, what you cannot stand and what you reach for in which mood, said once and changed the moment you say "I'm off horror".
• Who you follow on Cast & crew: add or remove someone in a sentence.
• Which kinds belong on the log: say "never podcasts" and they stop being filed.
• Your own lists: what they are called and what is on each, said in a sentence and changed the same way.
• A standing rule for choosing, such as "on a weeknight, nothing over an hour", said once and applied whenever you ask what to watch.
• 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. Before it asks you anything, Cove looks at what you have already told 1Presence and at any list in your vault, such as an export from Letterboxd or IMDb or a watchlist note, and offers what it finds for you to confirm. It asks only for the gaps.
2. 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. If you have an export of what you have watched in your vault, the whole list comes in at once.
3. 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.
4. Then, if you are happy to go on, a few minutes on taste: two or three things you loved, what you cannot stand, what you reach for in which mood, who you usually watch with, and any actors or directors you follow. Cove keeps your taste as one note in your own words, puts what you loved on the log with its cover, keeps the people on Cast & crew, and uses all of it only when you ask what to watch. You can stop at any point.
5. 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. The one thing fetched from outside 1Presence is a movie's or a series' cover and details, and a photo of someone you follow, from open sources.
6. 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.
7. Until the log has its first row, 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. Skip the conversation, or stop part-way, and what is still missing waits on the Kit page with a way back to Cove, and Cove offers it once the next time you talk. That can be the log itself, what you are in the middle of or have queued, what you have finished, or the people you follow. Tell it a part does not apply to you, or that you have finished setting up, and it stops asking.
8. 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 →

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