Session log — Session, 20 May 2026, Live participant-count dashboard

20 May 2026, evening · Zoom Companion · Hasmukh with Claude · auto-published from the local journal entry. A polished narrative version can be requested in any future Claude session.

(Work began 20 May and continued into 21 May, ending with the v0.12.0 release.)

Summary

User asked for an HTML dashboard that shows how many participants are in a meeting, in the spirit of the Camera Monitor app, with an incremental number display to create excitement amongst the members.
Built a new broadcast page that piggybacks on the existing v0.11.0 stats HTTP server (port 8766) and consumes the same SSE stream the cameras-off overlay uses. No new IPC, no renderer changes.
Wired it into the existing HTTP server in main.js at /counter (alias /participants).
Made the broadcast server reachable from other machines on the LAN (the user runs H2R Graphics on a separate appliance) by changing the bind from loopback to all interfaces.
Released as v0.12.0 across both tenants (Mobilearn and Medilearn): version bumps, operator guide updates, DEVLOG entries, both DMGs rebuilt.
Diagnosed and resolved a notifications problem on a second test Mac (Do Not Disturb was the culprit), then added a pre-flight check to the operator guides so it does not catch operators out again.

Decisions

Reuse the existing /events SSE payload ({ live, total, off, offNames }) rather than push a new shape from the renderer. Lower risk, no renderer changes, ships immediately.
Acknowledged the data limitation, offNames is the only attribution we have, so named pills only appear for off-camera joiners or leavers. Everyone else surfaces as an anonymous "+1 participant" pill. Acceptable for v1.
Changed the stats HTTP server bind from 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0 so the overlay URLs work from a separate machine on the same LAN. Accepted the trade-off, anyone on the same LAN can now read the overlay pages. Fine for a production studio LAN, documented as a caution for untrusted networks.
Did not split the port between the two tenants. Both still share 8766, so the two builds cannot run simultaneously. Left as-is, documented in the Medilearn operator guide.
Bot self-filter for the counter (whether to exclude the Camera Monitor bot from the total) deferred until the user has eyeballed it with a real team.

Changes made

New file: renderer/participant-counter.html (both tenants)
Rolling-digit odometer counter, one reel of 0 to 9 per digit position, 700ms ease translate on change.
Green border glow plus confetti burst (22 particles, radial spread, random rotation) on every increment.
"+name" and "-name" pills under the counter, pop-in animation, auto-fade after ~4.5s.
Transparent background, blurred panel matching stats-overlay.html styling, designed for H2R Graphics or OBS Browser Source.
Connection dot top-right, green when SSE is live, red when disconnected.
Empty states for "Not in a meeting" and "Waiting for Camera Monitor".
main.js (both tenants):
Added GET /counter and GET /participants routes to startStatsServer, both serve participant-counter.html with no-store caching.
Updated the route comment block at the top of the stats server section.
Changed server.listen for the stats server from 127.0.0.1 to 0.0.0.0, startup log now says "LAN-reachable".
package.json (both tenants): version 0.11.0 to 0.12.0.
OPERATOR-GUIDE.md and OPERATOR-GUIDE.html (both tenants):
Version references bumped to 0.12.0.
New "Live broadcast overlays" section explaining both overlay URLs, same-Mac versus LAN setup, the firewall prompt, a DHCP reservation tip, and a LAN-exposure caution. Medilearn guide additionally notes the port 8766 conflict between the two builds.
New first bullet in "Start of session", a pre-flight reminder to check Focus / Do Not Disturb is off.
DEVLOG.md (both tenants): new 2026-05-21 v0.12.0 entry.
Rebuilt both DMGs: Camera Monitor-0.12.0-arm64.dmg and Camera Monitor (Medilearn)-0.12.0-arm64.dmg.

Testing and verification

Counter rendered correctly at /counter on the dev app, empty state on launch, counted to 1 in a one-person meeting.
LAN access confirmed, the counter loaded from a separate appliance machine on the same LAN ("It worked").
Notifications failed on a second test Mac despite the app being allowed in System Settings. Walked through a prioritised checklist, the cause was Do Not Disturb, which silently drops banners. Fixed by turning DND off.
During the parallel DMG build, the Medilearn build packaged before participant-counter.html had been copied into its renderer folder. Caught it by inspecting the asar, copied the file, rebuilt the Medilearn DMG, and re-verified the file was inside.

Follow-ups

Live-test the counter with several people joining in quick succession to confirm the rolling animation, confetti, and "+name" pills behave under bursts. Single-person test only exercised the static render.
Decide whether to exclude the Camera Monitor bot from the participant total (one-line change in renderer.js where stats:update is fired).
Optional enhancement, push the full live names list (not just offNames) through the SSE payload so the "+name" pills can attribute every joiner, not just off-camera ones.
If both tenants ever need to run simultaneously on one Mac, give the Medilearn build its own stats port (currently both use 8766).
Re-share the updated operator guide files when distributing v0.12.0, the guide is distributed separately and is not bundled inside the DMG.