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First steps and navigation

Opening ROBIN

Paste the address you were given into your browser’s address bar. It usually looks like http://127.0.0.1:8081 or http://localhost:8081. If ROBIN runs on another machine, use the address your administrator provided (it may use a host name and port).

If nothing loads, see Troubleshooting — I can’t open the page.

Signing in

If your team enabled password protection, you’ll see a Sign in page with the ROBIN name and a short message: Enter password to continue. The screen includes the green header (R.O.B.I.N, menu, logo), the Sign in card with a lock icon, the Password field, the green Log in button, and the footer (Links, info, copyright).

ROBIN web sign-in: header, Sign in card with password field and Log in button, footer

  • Type the password your team uses for the web interface (often the same one set when ROBIN first asked for a GUI password in the terminal).
  • Press Log in or Enter.

After a successful sign-in, ROBIN takes you to the page you originally tried to open, or to the Welcome home page.

What’s at the top of every screen

  • Menu (☰) on the left — opens the main navigation (see below).
  • Title — the full ROBIN name on large screens, or R.O.B.I.N on a phone.
  • Viewing: … — shows which computer the browser is talking to.
  • CPU and RAM — small gauges for a quick sense of load (they are not a full system monitor).
  • Logo — ROBIN branding on the right.

Use these entries to jump around the app:

What you want to do Choose
Go back to the home page Home
See all samples in a table View Samples
Build a new library ID from a test ID and optional details Generate Sample ID
Add or remove folders that ROBIN should watch for new BAM files Watched Folders (may require your pipeline to be running in a specific mode—see the tour page)
See whether the workflow is running and how jobs are progressing Activity Monitor
Open published documentation in a new tab Documentation
Make the whole app easier on the eyes at night Dark Mode (toggle)
Allow remote access (advanced; your admin may use this) Allow Remote Access
Leave the web session LOG OUT
Fully quit ROBIN on this machine (only on some setups) Quit — read the warning first; closing the browser tab often leaves analysis running, while Quit can stop it.

Which “workflow” button?

Some menus list Workflow as a separate item. In the standard setup started from robin workflow, use Activity Monitor to see pipeline status and progress. If Workflow does nothing or shows an error, stick with Activity Monitor.

Close simply closes the menu.

At the bottom you’ll find Links — a panel with shortcuts to GitHub, key papers, the lab protocol, Oxford Nanopore, and related sites. Use Info if your build shows extra footer help.

Quit vs closing the browser

If you see Quit R.O.B.I.N?, read the text carefully:

  • Cancel — closes the dialog; analysis may continue.
  • Really quit — can stop analysis on that machine.
  • You can often close the browser tab and leave ROBIN running in the background—when in doubt, ask whoever operates the sequencer or server.

Next

Tour of the screens walks through each page and what the buttons do.