Roast Studio
Roast Studio is where you record a Batch in real time. It opens as a separate window and moves through three steps, shown at the top of the window: Plan → BBP → Roast.
You open Roast Studio from a Plan detail page by clicking Open in Roast Studio, from Home by clicking Open Roast Studio, or from anywhere in the main window with the keyboard sequence G then R.
The Plan step. The sidebar holds the Plan, Machine, and weight fields; the main area previews the Curve.
Step 1 — Plan
Section titled “Step 1 — Plan”Before the Batch starts, confirm or adjust the setup in the sidebar:
- Roast Plan — the Plan for this Batch, pre-filled if you opened Roast Studio from one. You can change it or roast without a Plan.
- Machine — the Machine for this Batch, the connected one unless the Plan names another. A roast needs one: while the field is empty it reads “Select a machine to roast on.” and you cannot go on. If you have no Machines yet, add one on the Machines page. When the Plan names one Machine while a different one is connected, Rostoc asks whether to roast on the connected Machine or switch to the Plan’s; a checkbox saves the connected Machine on the Plan.
- Charge weight — the green coffee weight going in. Rostoc uses it for stock validation and consumption tracking; you can also continue without it.
- Weight loss % — the expected loss, used to estimate the output weight.
- Blend — the green Lots this Batch consumes. For a blend, each Coffee Line and its share is listed. If a linked Lot is running low, a stock warning appears here.
The main area shows the Curve preview with the Plan’s Reference Curve and milestone targets. To adjust how the Machine’s channels are drawn, open the ⋯ menu in the chart’s corner and choose Chart style — it opens the Machine’s Style & Colors settings, and the menu stays available in every step, including mid-roast. The same menu holds the Show BBP switch, which controls whether the pre-charge window stays visible on the chart.
Choose the probes you see
Section titled “Choose the probes you see”Each Machine decides which of its channels Roast Studio draws. In the Machine’s Style & Colors settings, every channel has Show in with two boxes: Roast Studio and Batch chart. Roast Studio draws the channels ticked for it, and the chart of a saved Batch, like a comparison, draws the ones ticked for Batch chart. A channel that is not ticked is not drawn and not listed in the legend. When ET is not shown, its Rate of Rise and its reference line go with it. BT is always shown in both.
To hide a line for a moment, click it in the chart legend; click again to bring it back. A legend click is for that chart only: it stays while the chart is open and does not change the Machine’s settings. BT’s entry cannot be unticked.
Readouts
Section titled “Readouts”The large values in the sidebar are your Readouts: BT and ET until you
change them. To choose others, open the ⋯ menu in the chart’s corner and
choose Readouts. Up to four values sit in a square: positions 1 and 2 on
top, 3 and 4 under them, and the dialog is laid out the same way, with one
menu per position. Every probe and reading the Machine has is offered, even
one hidden from the chart. Picking a value that already has a position swaps
the two; None leaves a position empty.
Gas, airflow and drum readings show their unit, such as mbar, RPM or %.
Click Save to keep your choice, or Cancel to leave things as they
were. Reset puts BT and ET back in positions 1 and 2 once you save.
Readouts are kept for each Machine, with your account.
When everything looks right, click Next. The button reads Continue when there is a warning to read first, such as a missing charge weight, and Fix issues while something has to be fixed before you can go on.
Step 2 — BBP
Section titled “Step 2 — BBP”The BBP step covers the time between batches, while the Machine heats or recovers and no Batch is recording yet. You can see live readings before any beans go in:
- Live BT and ET values and their Rate of Rise.
- A summary of the selected Plan: coffee, batch size, drop target, duration.
- Machine state — whether the Machine is connected and telemetry is flowing. Connection reads No machine when no Machine is in use.
If a reading stalls — the Machine stops sending fresh values — its readout drains to gray. The last known number stays legible, but you can tell at a glance it is no longer live. Color returns as soon as fresh data arrives.
Hit your target charge temperature
Section titled “Hit your target charge temperature”The Between Batch Protocol (BBP) exists to get the Machine into the right thermal state before the beans go in. During this step the pre-roast Curve is drawn live, and it is stored with the Batch so you can review the lead-up later.
When the Plan has a Reference Curve, its charge temperatures appear as horizontal guide lines on the Curve, with a gap indicator between the current Machine temperature and the target — the arrow grows with the gap and shrinks as you close it. Charge when the gap reaches zero, and back-to-back Batches start from the same thermal state.
Click Start when you charge the beans — or, with Auto Charge on, click Start first and let Rostoc detect the charge and start the roast timer for you. Rostoc watches for the charge for up to 30 seconds; the roast continues in this step until Charge is marked.
Start waits for a connected Machine. Until the Machine is connected, the sidebar says why, for example “Connecting to …” or ”… is not connected.”, with Open Machines to sort it out on the Machines page. If Rostoc refuses to start the roast, a Roast not started message gives the reason.
Step 3 — Roast
Section titled “Step 3 — Roast”The Roast step is where the Curve is recorded. The header shows the roast timer and live temperatures; the sidebar holds the event buttons.
How the chart draws each channel
Section titled “How the chart draws each channel”The chart places every channel by what it measures:
- Temperatures — Bean and Exhaust Temperature, extra probes, and their Rate of Rise draw on the temperature Curve.
- Temperature targets — a setpoint or limit the Machine reports also belongs to the temperature Curve, drawn as a dashed, stepped line so a thermostat mark never reads as a measurement.
- Machine actions — gas, airflow, drum speed, and other machine-side changes draw in their own chart area below the Curve. Each control is one line: when the Machine echoes your own change back, Rostoc keeps a single history instead of drawing it twice.
The temperature axis follows your measurements, with a tick every 10 °C, or every 20 °F if you work in Fahrenheit. A target beyond that scale — a high safety limit, say — pins to the chart’s edge under a small marker that carries the real value (for example Limit: 600 ▲); the tooltip always has the exact numbers, and near the chart’s edges it flips and slides to stay in view.
Rostoc assigns every channel’s color from its own palette — including Machines set up from an imported settings file — and a saved Batch is drawn with the same colors you saw live. To restyle a channel, open the chart’s ⋯ menu and choose Chart style: temperature channels are listed under Measurements, and the lower chart’s channels under Actions.
The live chart opens on eight minutes, or on the length of the Plan’s Reference Curve, and widens as the roast runs past it. A saved Batch fits its own Curve. The live chart keeps at least the last thirty minutes on screen. The recording itself is never trimmed — however long the roast, the full Curve is saved with the Batch.
The live chart also zooms: pinch on a trackpad, or hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and scroll, and the view keeps up with the roast as it records. See Zoom the Roast Chart.
Rate of Rise
Section titled “Rate of Rise”Rate of Rise (RoR) is how fast bean and environment temperature are climbing. Rostoc shows it in two places, from the moment telemetry starts flowing during BBP:
- Δ BT and Δ ET readouts under the BT and ET values.
- BT RoR and ET RoR curves on the Curve chart.
Both are read per minute unless you change it. See Rate of Rise Settings to read it over a shorter interval, or to set the scale the curves are drawn against.
Both are on by default and appear once enough readings have arrived to measure a slope. To hide or show either one, click its Δ BT or Δ ET readout, or its entry in the chart legend. Rostoc remembers the choice for your next roast.
Mark roast events
Section titled “Mark roast events”Mark milestones as they happen, with the buttons or their keyboard shortcuts:
| Event | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Charge | C |
| Dry End | Y |
| First Crack | F |
| First Crack End | Shift + F |
| Second Crack | S |
| Second Crack End | Shift + S |
| Drop | D |
Events follow the roast order, and the next expected event is highlighted. Clicking a completed event removes it again, so a mis-click is fixed with a second click.
First Crack End and Second Crack End appear beside the crack they close, as soon as you mark that crack. Both are optional, as is Second Crack itself — you can go straight from First Crack to Drop, as in a lighter roast.
Rostoc can also mark events for you: with Roast automation, Charge, Turning Point, Dry End, First Crack, Second Crack, and Drop can be detected and marked automatically. Turning Point follows Charge, marked by you or by Rostoc, with nothing to switch on. The crack ends are always marked by hand. Auto Drop only places the Drop mark; you still stop the recording manually. A Drop you mark yourself finishes the roast — see Stop or abort.
Log Machine changes
Section titled “Log Machine changes”Log a Machine change on the Curve timeline — these record what you changed on the Machine; they do not send anything to it:
| Change to log | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Gas | B |
| Airflow | A |
| Drum Speed | R |
Pressing one opens a prompt for the new value, in percent. A value above 100 % is asked about before it is recorded — “Gas 156 % is above 100 %. Record it anyway?” — and Enter alone does not record it; the Record 156 % button does.
To correct a value you typed, hover its line in the lower chart and click the handle on the value. Change value records the right one, and Remove takes it out, so the saved Batch carries the correction. This works while the roast is recording, and after Stop once the Batch has reached your account. A change the Machine reported, or one Rostoc sent to it, cannot be changed this way. See Batch details for the same on a saved Batch.
Machine controls
Section titled “Machine controls”When the selected Machine and connection support direct control, Roast Studio shows live controls — such as gas, airflow, or drum speed — that send real commands to the Machine. Read Machine controls before using them for the first time, including the compatibility requirements and safety guidance. A few Machines, such as the HB PEAK, also get a command when you start and stop a recording; see Commands at roast start and end.
Press G to show a letter on each available control, then press that letter to jump to it. See Keyboard shortcuts for the full control-editing workflow.
Stop or abort
Section titled “Stop or abort”Click Stop when the roast is finished. A confirmation appears for a few seconds so an accidental click doesn’t end the Batch.
After you confirm, the Batch is saved to your account and a Batch created message appears. Click Review batch to open it in the main window, where you add the drop weight, color readings, and notes — see Batch details.
If no Drop is marked when you stop, Rostoc sets Drop at the last reading. It is an ordinary Drop: click the chart where Drop belongs to move it. A roast’s duration runs from Charge to Drop, on the Batch, in the Batches list, and on Home. A Batch with no Charge shows ”—” for its duration until you mark Charge on its chart.
Marking Drop yourself — with the button, the D key, or the chart’s menu — also finishes the roast. Drop marked counts down five seconds, then saves the roast exactly as Stop does. To keep recording, for example through cooling, click Keep recording: Drop stays marked, and you click Stop when you are done. Save now saves without waiting. A Drop that Rostoc marks automatically never starts the countdown.
If Rostoc cannot reach the cloud when you stop, the roast is kept on this computer. A message reads Roast saved on this computer — “Cloud upload pending. Retrying won’t create a duplicate batch.” — with a Retry upload button. You do not have to do anything. The roast uploads by itself when the connection returns, and the message clears. Retry upload never makes a duplicate. Each roast keeps its own message, and you can start the next roast right away. Until it uploads, the roast is not in Batches or the web app.
When the desktop app cannot reach the cloud, a banner reads “Connection issue — some actions may be temporarily limited. If this continues, contact support.” From Rostoc 0.4.5 it shows in the Roast Studio window too, not only in the main window, so you know before you stop.
Messages appear at the bottom of the window. Each one leads with what happened, with the details and any action, such as Retry upload or Force charge, underneath. Close a message with its own close button; clicking the message itself does not close it.
Click Abort to end the roast without keeping it. Aborting discards the recording — no Batch and no inventory consumption is recorded.
Closing the main window or quitting Rostoc while a roast is recording asks first. Quit loses the roast; Keep recording keeps it going. With Roast Studio open, Roast Studio asks instead, once.