Learn FlowMaster, chapter by chapter.

01 — Basics

Getting Started

In shortWhat FlowMaster is, signing in, and your very first flow.

What FlowMaster is

FlowMaster is a collaborative flowing app for competitive debate. You flow rounds on a structured grid, share it live with your partner, prep from your case library, scout on OpenCaselist, follow pairings on Tabroom, and get AI help — all in one place. Public Forum is fully supported; Lincoln-Douglas and Policy are in beta.

Signing in

Create an account with your email and a password, or sign back in on any Mac. Your flows live in your account and sync automatically, so a new laptop is never a fresh start.

The welcome tour

On your first launch FlowMaster plays a short five-card tour of the essentials. You can replay it anytime from the button at the top of the in-app guide.

Creating your first flow

A flow is a grid: one column per speech, one row per argument. Pick a format and the columns are set up for you.

1. Click New Flow in the sidebar (or press ⌘N).
2. Choose a format — Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Policy — or one of your custom templates.
3. Name the flow and press Return. You land straight in the editor.

Importing a .flow file

FlowMaster flows export as .flow files — flow grid, speech doc, fonts and all. Double-click a .flow file in Finder, or use Import Flow from the ⌘K command palette. If a flow with the same identity already exists you can replace it or import as a copy.

02 — Home base

The Dashboard

In shortYour home base — recent flows, stats, pins and the command palette.

Home at a glance

Home greets you with a Continue Flowing card for the round you touched last, stat cards for your season, and — once Tabroom is connected — a tournament calendar. One click puts you back mid-round.

Pinning flows

Pin up to three flows to keep them at the top of your list — ideal for the rounds you're actively prepping. Right-click a flow (or use its ⋯ menu) and choose Pin.

Sorting and searching

Sort your flows by last edited, name, or format, and filter instantly with the search field. Starred and Shared in the sidebar are ready-made views of the flows you've starred and the ones shared with you.

Cleaning up in bulk

Enter multi-select mode to check off several flows and delete them in one action — end-of-tournament cleanup takes seconds.

The command palette

Press ⌘K anywhere on the dashboard to summon the command palette: create flows, join a shared flow, open FlowMaster AI, sync, import, jump to Settings, or open any recent flow — all from the keyboard.

03 — The editor

Flowing a Round

In shortThe grid, rich text, the speech doc, and getting your flow out.

The flow grid

Each column is a speech — Constructive, Rebuttal, Summary, Final Focus in PF, and the right lineup for LD and Policy. Each row tracks one argument across the round, so you can read any clash straight across. Click a cell and type; add rows as arguments multiply.

Custom templates

If your event or scrimmage format needs different columns, build a custom template with your own headers and a speech time for each column (pick 1–9 minutes per speech) — the in-round timer’s speech list uses those times. It appears alongside the built-in formats whenever you create a flow, and shared flows carry the columns with them. Edit or delete a template any time: right-click its card on the dashboard, or open it from the new-flow window.

Rich text in cells

The format bar gives you bold, italics, underline, highlights and more inside any cell — flow the way you'd mark a paper flow, with color for what matters.

The speech doc

Slide open the speech doc pane to draft speeches beside the grid — a full rich-text document that travels with the flow. Drag the divider to give the grid or the doc more room.

Finding things fast

Press ⌘F to search the flow, then ⌘G and ⇧⌘G to hop between matches — invaluable in a dense Policy flow.

Saving and exporting

Solo flows autosave as you type, and everything is cached on your Mac first — no connection required mid-round. Export any flow as a .flow file to archive it or pass it on.

04 — Time

Timer & Prep

In shortSpeech timers, presets, and the prep-time bank.

The timer sidebar

Press ⌘B in the editor to show or hide the timer sidebar. It runs a countdown or stopwatch, and turns red in the final thirty seconds so you can wrap cleanly.

Speech presets

One-tap preset pills match your format — four minutes for a PF constructive, three for summary, and so on. Tap a pill and the timer is set.

The prep-time bank

Prep time is tracked as a bank across the whole round: run prep, pause it, run it again — FlowMaster keeps the running total so there's never a dispute about how much you have left.

Adjusting speech lengths

Local circuit runs different times? Settings → Timer lets you change every speech length and total prep per format, and reset to defaults when you're back on the national circuit.

05 — Together

Collaboration

In shortShare codes, live cursors, roles, comments and suggestions.

Sharing a flow

Open a flow's share option and FlowMaster generates a short share code. Your partner chooses Join Flow, enters the code, and is in the round with you — live.

1. Click Share on the flow you want to open up.
2. Send the code (or the collaborate link) to your partner.
3. They click Join Flow in the sidebar and enter the code.

Roles

Every collaborator has a role: owner, editor, commenter, or viewer. Editors type in the grid, commenters can discuss but not change cells, viewers watch. The owner assigns roles, so the whole team can be in the room without stepping on the flow.

Live cursors and presence

You see your partner's cursor and colored selection in real time, plus who's active in the round. Edits land in under a second — flow the same speech from both ends of the table.

Comments and suggestions

Attach comments to any cell to talk through an argument without touching it. Suggestions go further: propose replacement wording for a cell, and the owner accepts or rejects it — a paper trail for every prep decision.

Offline and conflicts

FlowMaster is offline-first: lose Wi-Fi mid-round and you keep flowing; everything syncs when you're back. If the same cell changed in two places, a conflict view shows both versions and lets you pick.

06 — Intelligence

FlowMaster AI

In shortFact-checks, rebuttal blocks, CX questions and round-aware chat.

The FlowMaster AI page

FlowMaster AI in the sidebar opens a full chat. Chat mode is a debate-trained assistant; search mode grounds every answer in live web results with citations. Attach one of your rounds and the AI reads the flow before it answers.

Fact-checking

Paste a claim from the round and get a verdict backed by citations from a live web search — built for calling out a shaky statistic between speeches.

Rebuttal blocks and CX questions

Ask for responses to an argument and the AI drafts rebuttal blocks against its strongest ground. Ask for cross-examination and it writes pointed CX questions from the argument you highlight.

The in-editor AI panel

Inside a flow, the AI panel works on your selection: compare two arguments, turn selected arguments into responses, write CX questions, or fact-check a claim — without leaving the grid.

The AI disclaimer

Using AI during a live round may break your tournament, league, or circuit rules — staying compliant is your responsibility, and FlowMaster takes no part in how its AI is used. AI can also make mistakes: treat answers as leads to verify, not evidence to read, and double-check key facts before they hit the flow. You can review this disclaimer anytime in Settings → About.

07 — Prep

Prep Library

In shortCases and blocks — Google Docs, Word and PDFs beside your flow.

Three kinds of documents

The Prep Library holds your cases and blocks from three sources: Google Docs (connected to your Google account), Word .docx files stored on this Mac, and PDFs. Everything is available offline once added.

Google Docs, live

Connect Google and pick documents with the Drive picker. Edits sync both ways in about a second — change a block in FlowMaster and it's changed in Google Docs, and vice versa. Comments sync too.

Word, PDF and Pages

Add .docx files and PDFs straight from your Mac. Apple Pages documents are converted through Pages on import. PDFs open in a built-in viewer with search.

The document workspace

Open any document into a full editing workspace — save with ⌘S, search with ⌘F, and on Google Docs, read and reply to comments without leaving the app.

08 — Scouting

OpenCaselist

In shortThe wiki, open evidence and one-click scouting.

Browsing the wiki

The OpenCaselist page recreates opencaselist.com inside FlowMaster: browse schools, teams, and their disclosed rounds and cites, with browser-style back and forward.

Two-speed search

Search filters what's on screen instantly as you type; press Return to run a full wiki search across everything. Fast when you know the team, thorough when you don't.

Open evidence

Camp files from the Open Evidence project are organized by area — browse a season's worth of camp evidence without leaving the app.

Straight into your prep

Any open-source doc or camp file has an Add to Prep Library button — one click downloads it into your library, ready to open beside a flow.

09 — Round day

Tabroom

In shortLive pairings, judges, paradigms and your season at a glance.

Connecting your account

Sign in with your tabroom.com account on the Tabroom page. FlowMaster pulls your tournaments, entries and results — securely, on your machine.

Live pairings

When pairings post, FlowMaster shows your round, room, side and opponent — refreshing automatically as tab makes changes. No more refreshing tabroom.com in a hallway.

Judges and paradigms

Tap your judge to read their paradigm and judging record before you walk in — adapt your speed, your weighing, your everything.

Results and records

Round results, speaker points, and competitor records — yours and your opponents' — are all a click away, including a team's history across past tournaments.

Your season on Home

Once connected, the dashboard shows a season calendar with your next tournament counting down — so round day never sneaks up on you.

10 — Yours

Settings & Shortcuts

In shortMake FlowMaster yours — and every keyboard shortcut in one place.

A tour of Settings

Open Settings from the gear by your profile. General sets autosave and new-flow defaults; Editor picks your font and size with a live preview; Timer customizes speech lengths and prep; Account manages your profile, sign-out, and account deletion; About links to the privacy policy and support.

Every keyboard shortcut

The full set — learn these and you'll rarely touch the trackpad in a round.

• ⌘N New flow
• ⌘K Command palette
• ⌘B Toggle timer sidebar
• ⌘F Find
• ⌘G Next match
• ⇧⌘G Previous match
• ⌘S Save document

Deleting your account

Settings → Account → Delete Account removes your account and data — flows, AI chats, and profile photo. It asks you to type DELETE because there's no undo.

Getting help

Stuck on something this guide doesn't cover? Head to the Support page — a real person reads every message, usually within a day or two.

Quick answers

• Do I need the internet to flow?

  No. FlowMaster is offline-first — every edit saves to your Mac instantly and syncs when a connection returns. Only collaboration, AI, OpenCaselist and Tabroom need to be online.

• Which formats are supported?

  Public Forum is fully supported. Lincoln-Douglas and Policy are in beta, and custom templates let you build any column layout you need.

• How many people can be in a shared flow?

  Shared flows are built for a partnership or a small prep group — a handful of active editors works best, with commenters and viewers alongside. See the Collaboration chapter for roles.

• Where is this guide in the app?

  In the sidebar under Help → User Guide, with search and a replayable welcome tour. It's also one ⌘K away — type "guide".