CUEFLOW
Contents: Quick Start

Target version: 2026.43.1

Quick Start

Quick Start

The shortest path from a fresh install to “one song playing with a prompter.” You can begin with a local project.

The startup Welcome screen: start from New / Open / Cloud / Sample, or from your recent files.
The startup Welcome screen: start from New / Open / Cloud / Sample, or from your recent files.
  1. Download and launch Get the macOS / Windows installer from the official download page and install it. The app runs as Free even without a registered license (standalone use is limited to 2 audio tracks, without multichannel, AI, cloud, or timecode sync; see Organizations & Plans for invited-member entitlements). To use a paid plan, open Settings (gear icon) → “License & Usage” and enter your activation key. One license activates on up to 2 machines by default. If you do not have the key at hand, reissue it on the web License Recovery page. See Organizations & Plans for details.
  2. Create a new project Open the new-project screen from “New” on the welcome screen, or File → New Project (⌘N / Ctrl+N). Set the session name, save location (default Documents/CueFlow Projects/), and organization. Organization choices depend on sign-in and entitlement. Choose local-only or an eligible organization. For an organization, “Enable cloud project” defaults on. Turn it off to create an organization-owned local project: AI usage and billing are attributed to that organization, but the project does not sync or join cloud co-editing. Projects are saved as .cueflow, with audio and prompter images managed inside the project folder under Audio/ and Assets/.
  3. Add a song and drop audio In the setlist panel, click “+ → Add Song” to open the Song Importer and drop your audio files (WAV / MP3 / M4A, etc.). The song title and artist are pre-filled from the file name and the duration is detected automatically. Pick performers here, or add them later in the song inspector.
  4. Define sections Double-click the section band at the top of the timeline to create sections such as Verse, Chorus, and Bridge. Drag the start marker to adjust its position, and set the name and color in the inspector. Its end follows the next section’s start, or the song end for the last section. Sections also drive prompter and Memory Locations navigation.
  5. Add prompt blocks Double-click the prompter lane in the timeline to create a prompt block and type the lyrics in the inspector. Each text line becomes one prompter line, and every line can be assigned an attribute (lyric / guide / direction / image) and performers. Select the block, place the edit cursor in the timeline, and press ⌘B / Ctrl+B to split it.
  6. Open the prompter window The Prompter View at the top of the inspector previews the show display. From Prompter Views in the header, choose “pop out” to open a standalone prompter window you can move to a second display and make full screen — without sharing it on the network.
  7. Save the project Save with ⌘S / Ctrl+S. To carry the project to another computer, use File → “Save Project with Assets...”, which bundles the .cueflow file together with Audio/, Assets/, and Waveforms/ into a single folder. If you use video, also copy the Videos/ folder and check for missing media on the receiving computer.
  8. (Optional) Save to the cloud and co-edit If you belong to an organization on the Team (or Enterprise) plan, leave “Enable cloud project” on when creating the project, or enable it later from the cloud button in the header. Edits are shared automatically while connected. ⌘S / Ctrl+S saves on this machine and records a checkpoint you can return to later. If the cloud save cannot complete, CueFlow keeps the local save and shows that the project is not yet synced to the cloud. Members with access can open the synchronized project and co-edit. Before closing, check the bottom-right cloud status for unsynced changes; if reconnecting presents a recovery notice, review History & Recovery. Change your display name and avatar in Settings (gear icon) → “Basic settings → Cloud Collaboration.” See the Cloud Collaboration and Organizations & Plans pages for details.

If you cannot find your key

If you lost your license key, or need to free the activation slot on a PC you no longer have, you can reissue the key and deactivate devices yourself on the web License Recovery page. It emails a recovery link to your registered address, so it works even when you cannot activate the app. Open License Recovery →

Tip

To spin up a song from lyrics or audio in one go, open AI Importer from the setlist panel’s + menu. Feed it lyric text, images, PDFs, or audio to generate candidate metadata, lyrics, tempo, and performer assignments. Review timing and lyrics marked Needs Review before use. Entering the artist name and BPM by hand where known improves accuracy.

Reviewing an AI import

  1. Enter the title, artist, and released/unreleased status, then add audio and lyric materials. For released songs without supplied lyrics, Web Research may search for lyrics. Unreleased songs are not searched on the web.
  2. Check the analysis mode and estimated Credits for this import: Fast, Local, Hybrid, Cloud Analysis, or Custom. Local mode still uses the data-processing AI, with separate network use and cost. Check local ML installation in Settings → AI Importer. Without usable models or a lyric sheet, timing may be an AI estimate; read the displayed accuracy description.
  3. Review lyrics, BPM, sources, confidence, and Needs Review counts in the results. Performer assignments cannot be established from sources that do not contain them. Check the imported timeline, then use Mark Reviewed in the inspector.
  4. Review audio-track assignments. Use Change to select an existing track, a new track, or Do Not Import. Resolve any assignments needing review and explicitly confirm an existing audio destination before overwriting.

Next steps

See “Interface Overview” for the names of every part of the main window, and “Timeline Editing” for clip editing in depth. Before a show, we also recommend skimming the keyboard shortcut list.