What everything on screen means during the call

The window that sits on top of the meeting is an instrument panel, not a chat: you glance at it, read the top card and go back to the conversation. It lives on your monitor and stays out of your screen share — that keeps your screen clean, it isn't a way to hide the tool: tell the other side the call is transcribed (and recorded, when recording is on). From top to bottom, here's what's in it:

1. The top bar: status, recording and End call

The dot and the word next to it say what Hades is doing right now. The normal ones are listening (all good), thinking (writing a card) and reconnecting (your internet wobbled; it comes back on its own). The red ones need something from you:

• failed — the transcript dropped and didn't come back. End the call and start it again.
• no audio — check the device on the setup screen — your microphone or the call audio delivered no sound. End the call, check both on the home screen and start again.
• session expired — sign in again — your sign-in ran out. End the call, sign in again on the home screen and start. If you see couldn't verify your sign-in, the server didn't answer when it checked your account: wait a minute and start again.
• your account is open on another computer — the account is active on one computer at a time. Close Hades on the other one (or wait for the call there to end) and start again here.
• your plan's hours ran out this month, you're out of hours this month — talk to your account manager or invoice past due — only 2h of calls until it’s paid — that's the plan limit, not a fault. Each phrase has a different person to talk to; see how the hours in my plan work.
• today's audio limit reached — your account hit the daily safety ceiling. If it was a normal day of meetings, message us on the chat.
• too many requests — guidance paused — Hades is still listening, but it stopped writing cards for a moment. The last card stays on screen, so don't read it as if it were new.

If you turned recording on, ● Recording shows at the top; if something goes wrong midway, the badge turns into Partial recording or Recording failed. On a call in English, an Ask before recording strip shows the sentence for asking the client's OK, and the badge stays on Awaiting OK until they say yes. Details in recording the meeting. The End call button turns red and asks you to Confirm — on purpose, so nobody ends a call by accident while dragging the window around.

2. You're talking too much

Just below the top there's a thin bar that is normally empty. When you hold the floor for too long, it changes color and writes you're talking X% of the time — hand it over. It goes away on its own when the client starts talking again.

3. The stage bar

Six stages, in the order of a sales call: Opening, Discovery, Diagnosis, Presentation, Objection and Closing. The lit stage is where Hades understands the conversation to be, and its name shows big under the bar. On its own it only moves forward — it doesn't go back to Discovery because the client asked one more question. An objection can show up at any point in the meeting and, when it does, it becomes a card.

You can correct the stage. Click the big stage name and pick one of the six, or click the bar itself, near the stage you want. You can go back or forward. The stage you pick becomes the new starting point: Hades coaches from there and only moves forward again from that point.

4. The checklist

These are the chips with what a good discovery has to surface. Each one gets a ✓ when the subject comes up in the conversation, and once ticked it stays ticked. Today they are:

• Pain — the client said what the problem is, in his own words.
• Number — the pain became a quantity, an amount, a percentage or a frequency.
• Cost of not solving — it became clear what he loses by staying as he is.
• Previous attempt — what he already tried and why it didn't work.
• Decision maker — who decides, and whether that person is in the conversation. This one can untick: if the client says he has to talk to his partner or his spouse, the decision maker isn't in the room.
• Decision maker checked — you asked whether someone else decides along with him, before presenting.
• Budget — how much he invests today or can invest.
• Urgency — a deadline, an event or a reason for it to be now.
• Price isolated — you set the money aside before the value ("setting the investment aside, does this solve it for you?").
• Next step — you asked for the decision: payment on the call, a deposit with a short deadline, or a date on the calendar.

5. The script (only if you turned AI guides the call on)

A Script panel shows up with the current phase, the next question worth asking, a short tip and the list of what's already been covered. Once pain, number and decision maker are covered, the panel switches to Close — and shows the closing ladder, one rung at a time. If you left it on No on the home screen, this block simply doesn't exist.

6. The transcript

The last three turns, with who said what (You or Client). It's there so you can check Hades is hearing both sides — not for you to read. The whole transcript lands on the dashboard after the meeting. If Listening for the conversation… stays up for a long time, see Hades isn't hearing the meeting.

7. The guidance: the card

This is the one thing in the window you can't get any other way. The top card, the big one, is the one that's open — the most recent, unless you went back; the two below it stay as a reminder, title only. Every card has one line of title (what Hades understood) and one short command (what to do or ask right now). It's a command, not a report: read it and use it in your next sentence. The card shows up as soon as the command is ready, without waiting for the rest of the analysis.

• Amber card — the client raised an objection or a risk to the sale showed up. Read that one first. If the objection is in your Business DNA, the command comes with your own way through it. (Red in the window only shows up for errors.)
• Normal card — a buying signal, an opportunity or the next step in the conversation.
• A card went by and you missed it — from the second card on, the ‹ 4 of 5 › arrows show up next to Guidance. The left one goes back in time, through the last 10 pieces of guidance of the call, with the whole question; the number counts in call order. Clicking the title of a lower card opens it too. When new guidance arrives, the window jumps back to it.
• No new card for a while — normal. Hades only speaks when it has something to say; silence isn't a failure. The previous card stays on screen. It also won't show the same question again as a new card within 3 minutes of showing it — it stays one click away on the arrows.

Keyboard shortcuts

• Ctrl + Shift + Space — ask for a card right now, without waiting for the client to finish talking. A hint with this shortcut shows next to Guidance, with a ?.
• Ctrl + Shift + C — "I'm stuck, take the wheel": Hades answers with what to do at this exact point of the meeting.
• Ctrl + Shift + H — hide and show the window.
• Ctrl + Shift + E — end the call (same as the End call button).