Moderator login and access

Moderators do not have a personal account in Timers Studio. They open the room URL, type the password the director gave them, and land on the Moderator view. This page walks through the login flow, what the password actually protects, and what to do when it is rejected.

Prerequisites

• The room ID (the <room> segment the director uses at /id/<room>).
• The session password, set by the director in the Links modal of their Studio.
• A modern browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge, recent stable build.

Steps

1. Open the moderator URL

Paste timers.studio/moderator/<room> into the browser address bar. ModeratorPlayerView boots and checks whether the room has a password configured (moderator_settings.moderator_password). If no password is set, the view unlocks immediately. If one is set, ModeratorLoginView takes over the whole screen.

You will see:

• The TIMERS STUDIO wordmark top-left.
• The brand icon centered, labelled Moderator Dashboard Login.
• A single input field with the placeholder Enter Session Password….
• A red Enter Studio button that stays disabled until you type something.

2. Enter the session password

Type the password the director sent you. The field is a standard password input, so characters appear as dots. Click Enter Studio or press Enter.

The client compares your input against the string stored in moderator_settings.moderator_password for that room. On a match, the login screen fades out and the Moderator view renders. On a mismatch, the input glows red and a small caption shows Access Denied • Invalid Password below it.

3. Land on the Moderator view

Once authenticated, you see the two-zone Moderator layout:

• Main area — the Player mirror, a pixel-for-pixel copy of what the audience sees at /player/<room>.
• Widget grid — the side panel with the widgets the director enabled (intercom, polls, Q&A, visual pager, etc.).

The unlock is held in component state for the current tab. There is no cookie, no JWT, and nothing written to localStorage — closing the tab ends the session.

4. Re-lock or leave

Simply close the tab to end the session. If you need to hand the view over to someone else on the same machine, refresh the page: the login screen comes back and the next person types their own copy of the password.

Expected result

After a correct password, the Moderator view loads in under a second on a healthy connection. The Player mirror starts ticking at the same tempo as the stage, and the widget grid responds to director changes through the Gateway module.

Troubleshooting

Access Denied — Invalid Password Double-check the password with the director. Trailing whitespace, missing characters and a different room ID are the three common reasons. Make sure the URL ends with the exact room the director is running.

The login screen never appears, I land on the view directly. That room has no password set — the director left moderator_password empty. This is a valid configuration for rehearsals, not a bug. Ask the director to set one from the Studio Links modal if you want the gate back.

The password worked yesterday but not today. The director may have rotated it. Passwords are stored in plain text in moderator_settings and the director can change the value at any time from the Studio. Ask for the current one.

Rotating the password (director)

The director opens /id/<room>, clicks Share or Links in the top bar, and edits the Moderator password field. Saving the modal updates moderator_settings.moderator_password immediately. Any moderator already logged in keeps their session until they close the tab, but new sessions will require the new value.

Next reads

• Moderator module overview — how the module fits with Timers, Agenda and Gateway.
• Widget grid and layout — reorder and resize the nine widgets.
• Intercom chat with the director — private messaging between director and moderator.