This page describes Calíope 1.5, the version we are building right now. 1.4 is finished and in App Review, and the store serves 1.3 on the Mac and 1.2 on iPad. The changelog says which version each feature landed in.
Adds an “Open in Calíope” button to every topic. It only works with the app installed.
Click Dashboard in the workspace navigation bar. The Dashboard shows server metrics that refresh automatically: active connections, threads, uptime and transfer rates.
Cadence: the picker in the header sets how often the server status is polled (1, 2, 5, 10 or 30 seconds), and next to it you can see when the last sample arrived. Database sizes and the process list are more expensive to compute and refresh every 100 seconds regardless of that choice.
Per-second figures are computed from the actual time between samples, so changing the cadence does not change their scale.
Keywords: dashboard, monitor, real time, metrics, status, server stats
The Dashboard includes line charts for Bytes sent/received per second and Queries per second (QPS). The charts update in real time with a history of the most recently measured data points.
Keywords: qps, traffic, bytes, network, queries per second
Pie charts for connections, cache memory, and disk usage per database.
Where it is: Workspace › Tools › Dashboard
The Dashboard's pie charts show the distribution of connections by user, the size of each database, cache memory usage (buffer pool, log buffer, etc.) on servers that publish that breakdown, and thread distribution (running/sleeping/waiting).
Keywords: pie chart, cache, innodb, memory, distribution, threads
The layout button in the Dashboard header toggles between a 2-column layout (wider) and a 3-column layout (more compact). Useful for adapting the view to the window size.
Additional cards: slow queries, aborted connections, data cache, and locks.
Where it is: Workspace › Tools › Dashboard
In addition to the traffic and QPS charts, the Dashboard includes line cards for:
- Slow queries/sec — rate of queries that exceeded the long_query_time threshold
- Aborted connections/sec — connections that were rejected or abnormally interrupted
- Data cache (%) — percentage of reads served from the server's cache without touching disk. It is not how full the cache is
- Table locks — number of times a query had to wait for a table lock
These metrics update at the same rate as the rest of the Dashboard.
The Dashboard generates warnings when aborted connections or locks exceed thresholds.
Where it is: Workspace › Tools › Dashboard
Calíope evaluates the aborted connections and table locks metrics on every Dashboard refresh. If either exceeds the configured threshold, an alert banner appears in the Dashboard header indicating which metric is out of range.
Alerts are purely informational and require no manual action; they disappear automatically when the value returns to normal.
Click on any Dashboard card to expand it in zoom mode. The card is displayed full-screen within the Dashboard with an extended data history. Click again or press Esc to return to the normal view showing all cards.
Reorder or hide cards on the Dashboard; the layout syncs via iCloud.
Where it is: Dashboard › Customize button (sliders)
The Dashboard lets you customise both the order and the visibility of its cards. Turn on customisation mode with the ☰ (sliders) button in the Dashboard header.
Reorder by dragging: drag a card and drop it onto another; the dragged card takes the second one's position and the rest shift along. While you drag, the destination card is highlighted. On macOS use the mouse; on iPad press and hold the card, then drag.
Reorder without dragging: each card shows two arrows in its bottom-left corner that move it one position left or right. This is the route to use with a keyboard or with VoiceOver, where dragging is not available.
Hide: in customisation mode, each card shows an eye-slash button in its top-right corner. Tapping it moves the card to the Hidden cards panel below the grid. Tap any hidden card to bring it back.
Reset: the circular arrow button restores the default order and shows every card again. It asks for confirmation first.
Sync: the layout is stored per iCloud account. If you turn on iCloud sync in Preferences, the order and the hidden cards replicate automatically across your Mac, iPad and iPhone. Without iCloud it is stored only on the current device.
While customisation mode is on, double-click to zoom is disabled; leave the mode (same button, now a check mark) to use zoom again.
Charts full screen, no bars or menus, for leaving the Dashboard up on a screen.
Where it is: Dashboard › TV mode button (television)
The television button in the Dashboard header gives the charts the whole screen: the tool header, the sidebar, the tab bar and the status bar are all withdrawn. It is meant for leaving the Dashboard up on a display and reading it from a distance, so the number of columns is derived from the available width and the charts grow to fill it.
Leaving: on macOS, press Esc. On iPad, tap anywhere and a top bar with a close button appears; the Esc key of an external keyboard works too. A tap does not exit directly so that wiping or brushing the screen cannot interrupt the mode.
The top bar hides itself after a few seconds and shows the server name and when the last sample arrived.
Screen stays on: while TV mode is active the screen will not sleep from inactivity. This is independent of the «Keep awake» button in the toolbar: entering and leaving TV mode does not change that preference.
TV mode does not combine with single-card zoom or with customisation mode; entering it closes both.
Keywords: tv mode, full screen, kiosk, distraction free, esc, exit, screen on
Receive system notifications when the server exceeds configurable thresholds for connections, cache hit rate, or replication lag.
Where it is: Dashboard › Alerts (bell)
Calíope can send you system notifications when it detects critical conditions on the connected MySQL server.
To configure alerts:
1. Open the Dashboard from the Tools sidebar.
2. Tap the bell icon in the top bar of the Dashboard.
3. Enable the Enable system alerts toggle. If this is your first time, the system will request permission to send notifications — accept it.
4. Adjust the thresholds to match your environment:
- Max connections (%) — percentage of connection usage relative to the total configured on the server. Default: 80%. Useful for detecting connection spikes before the server becomes saturated.
- Minimum cache hit rate (%) — alerts when the percentage of reads served from cache drops below this value. Default: 95%. A low value indicates the buffer pool is insufficient for the current workload.
- Replication lag (sec) — maximum tolerated replication delay in seconds. Default: 30 s. Only applies if the server is configured as a replica.
Notification behavior:
- Notifications are sent as system notifications.
- There is a 5-minute cooldown between notifications of the same type to avoid spam when a condition persists.
- Alerts are evaluated on each Dashboard refresh cycle while the Dashboard is open.
Permissions:
If you denied notification permission, you can restore it in:
- macOS: System Settings › Notifications & Focus › Calíope.
- iPad: Settings › Notifications › Calíope.
Keywords: alerts, notifications, connections, cache, innodb, hit rate, replica, replication, lag, thresholds, bell, buffer pool, cooldown, 5 minutes