Overlay: showing what the AI is doing

The Overlay is the visual layer that Daimon draws on top of the screen so that the person in front of the machine can see where the AI is looking and acting: frame, spotlight, cursor, banner. It is purely presentational.

All five tools have the same properties:

• they have no authorization level and are not subject to the ceiling;
• they never block and never fail;
• they always return {"ok": true}, even if no overlay window is running: the order is then simply dropped. An ok therefore does not prove that the mark is visible;
• the "Présence à l'écran" (Presence on screen) setting in the panel enables the overlay.
• by default (anti_feedback is true in the configuration), Overlay marks are invisible to any screen capture, including vue_snapshot: the AI never sees its own marks. You see them on the screen, but they do not appear in a capture; this is why this documentation shows none. On macOS, the overlay is a non-interactive window covering the main display.

Coordinate unit

Here, coordinates are raw global pixels, already resolved by you. There is no space, no display, no region (unlike Mains, which speaks in points). Do not pass image pixels: convert them first with vue_resolve.

The Overlay helper

The marks are drawn by a separate process, the helper (Daimon overlay). It exits on its own: 60 seconds after launch if it has had no client, and 3 seconds after its last client leaves.

The client relaunches the helper when a send fails for lack of a helper, provided that "Présence à l'écran" is enabled, and at most once every 5 seconds. Enabling "Présence à l'écran" in the panel also launches the helper; disabling it neither stops it nor relaunches it.

To know whether the helper is alive, call daimon_doctor and read the overlay key. The overlay.log log, in Daimon's data folder, records overlay: bound, then overlay: start enabled=<true|false> at startup, and overlay: exit reason=<idle|startup> on exit, each line preceded by a UTC timestamp.

Tool	Role	Level
overlay_highlight	Rounded frame around a region, with a label	none
overlay_spotlight	Darkens the screen except for a region	none
overlay_cursor	Synthetic cursor halo	none
overlay_banner	Banner colored according to a level	none
overlay_clear	Clears all marks	none

overlay_highlight

Draws a styled rounded rectangle, with an optional label, around a region.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Role
x	integer	none	yes	Left edge
y	integer	none	yes	Top edge
width	integer	none	yes	Width
height	integer	none	yes	Height
label	string	""	no	Label displayed with the frame

Example call

{ "x": 400, "y": 300, "width": 220, "height": 60, "label": "Bouton Envoyer" }

Returns: {"ok": true}.

overlay_spotlight

Darkens the screen except for a cleared hole over the region.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Role
x, y	integer	none	yes	Top-left corner of the region
width, height	integer	none	yes	Dimensions of the region

Example call: { "x": 400, "y": 300, "width": 220, "height": 60 }

Returns: {"ok": true}.

overlay_cursor

Places the synthetic cursor halo on a global point.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Role
x, y	integer	none	yes	Point

Example call: { "x": 510, "y": 330 }

Returns: {"ok": true}.

overlay_banner

Displays a banner colored according to a level, with some text.

Parameter	Type	Default	Required	Role
text	string	none	yes	Banner text
level	string	"L1"	no	Color: default, L1, L2, L3, L4 or gate

Example call

{ "text": "Daimon remplit le formulaire", "level": "L2" }

Returns: {"ok": true}.

Pitfalls: an unknown level falls back to default, without error.

overlay_clear

Clears all overlay marks currently on the screen.

Parameters: none. Returns: {"ok": true}.