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Relay has a small set of building blocks that appear throughout the app and these docs. Understanding them first makes everything else easier to follow.
A dashboard is the top-level Relay document. It contains all of your tabs, tiles, modules, and automation configuration. Dashboards are typically saved as .relay files and can be opened, backed up, or shared like other files on your Mac or iPad.
A tab is a page inside a dashboard. Each tab has its own canvas and tile arrangement. Tabs are useful for separating different roles, different production moments, or different event segments inside one dashboard file.
The canvas is the workspace inside a tab where you place and arrange tiles. Canvas View is the editing mode you use before and between events. It supports moving, resizing, aligning, and grouping content visually.
A tile is a movable, resizable container on the canvas. Every piece of dashboard content lives inside a tile. A tile can hold one module or multiple modules depending on how you want the layout grouped.
A module is the actual content inside a tile. Examples include Planning Center, Person, ProPresenter, Shure, SPL Meter, Live Transcription, Text, Document, Webpage, Time, and Button.
Live Mode is the focused operating mode designed for real use during a show or service. It reduces editing controls and is where many live-updating workflows are expected to run.
Automation View is the node-based editor where you connect triggers, actions, utilities, and destinations. It lets Relay respond to incoming events and control connected systems without requiring code.
Relay Pro is the paid tier that unlocks advanced modules, integrations, and workflows. If a feature appears locked, check your status under Relay > Settings → Subscription and refresh your license if needed.

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Finding your way around

Two parts of the interface come up constantly in these docs, so it’s worth knowing them before you start:
  • Settings (Relay > Settings, or Cmd-,) opens a window with a sidebar of icon-labeled sections — things like External Devices, External Control, and Access. Throughout these docs, a reference like “Relay > Settings → Sync & Mirror” means: open Settings, then click the section with that icon and label in the sidebar.
  • The toolbar at the top of the dashboard window has several icon-only buttons for quick actions — Tab Settings, Rosters, and switching between Canvas View and Automation View among them. Docs call these out by icon and label rather than a menu path, since there isn’t one — they only exist as toolbar buttons.

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Dashboard files

Relay dashboards are normally saved as .relay files. Older .pld files may still be supported for opening existing work. If a dashboard already has a file location, Relay can also autosave changes back to it when autosave is enabled in settings.