Dashboard Walkthrough

1. Behind the scenes

Two quiet maintenance checks run in the background before the dashboard finishes loading — you won't normally see either one:

• If your account has been around long enough to still have some older content on the previous encryption scheme, you may briefly see a one-time prompt to re-enter your password right after signing in. It finishes moving that content over to Killswitch's current encryption and only appears once — new accounts never see it.
• If any of your active switches are missing a beneficiary's secure sharing link — for example, right after you attach a new item to a switch — the dashboard quietly recreates it in the background so nothing is left unprotected.

2. Reminders and nudges

Up to three dismissible banners can appear at the top of the dashboard, each one triggered by something specific about your account. All of them have an X to dismiss:

3. Welcome header

Just a heading — "Welcome back!" and a one-line summary. Nothing to click here.

4. Quick Actions

A row of tiles for starting something new without leaving the dashboard. If your subscription has lapsed, creation tiles show disabled with a "Resubscribe to…" tooltip — checking in still works either way:

• Upload — opens the Library uploader for a new document.
• Note — opens the Library editor for a new rich-text note.
• Record — opens the recorder for a new video or audio message.
• Notebook — opens a picker listing your existing notebooks, with a one-click "New entry" and a link to create a brand-new notebook from the Library.
• Folder — the same picker, listing your folders, with an "Add items" shortcut and a link to create a new folder.
• Switch — opens the same switch-creation wizard covered step by step on the Deadman Switches guide . If you type a beneficiary's email mid-wizard and they're not already saved, a quick-add popup lets you save them without leaving the wizard.
• Claude — only shown if the Claude connector is enabled for your account and your subscription is active. One tap starts a one-hour session where Claude can read and work with your content, prompting for your password first if needed. See the Claude connector guide for exactly what that session can and can't do.

5. Continue where you left off

If you've stored anything yet, a strip shows your four most recently touched items — documents, notes, recordings, or journal entries — each with an icon, type, and how long ago you touched it. Click one to open it directly, or click Open Library to see everything. This strip is empty and hidden until you add your first item.

6. Stat cards

A row of counters, each one a link that jumps straight to your Library filtered to that type:

• Documents — always shown.
• Notes — always shown.
• Recordings — shown if video & audio messages are enabled for your account.
• Notebooks — shown if notebooks are enabled for your account.
• Folders — always shown.

7. Switch status

One card summarizing your deadman switches. The ring on the left shows a "% safe" — how much of your check-in window is left before the most urgent switch is due — and its color tracks urgency: green with plenty of time, yellow as it gets closer, red (with a pulsing ring) when time is short or a switch has entered its grace period.

Below the ring, one of two countdown timers appears: a grace period countdown if a switch has missed its check-in and is running out its grace window before firing, or a plain next check-in countdown otherwise. If you have no active switches at all, this area instead shows a link to create your first one. See Check-ins for the full reminder ladder that leads up to these countdowns.

To the right: your active switch count (against your plan's limit, if it has one), total recipients across all active switches, a Manage link to your full Switches page, and — if you have at least one active switch of any kind — a Check-In Now button. It resets every active check-in-schedule switch at once; fixed-date switches don't have a check-in countdown, so the button has nothing to do for those. If your plan caps the number of switches you can have, an Upgrade for more switches link to Settings appears here too.

8. Storage

A slim bar showing how much of your storage quota is used, with the exact amount and percentage next to it. Past 75% used, an Upgrade button appears; a Manage link is always there, both pointing to Settings → Storage for the full breakdown.