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Interface Overview

The Necron Vault Manager desktop app features a clean, modern interface designed for efficient vault-based file encryption workflows. This page gives you a complete tour of every area of the interface.

Application Window

The main application window is 1200 × 800 pixels by default and divided into three main regions:

┌──────────┬───────────────────────────┬───────────────┐
│          │                           │               │
│ Sidebar  │   Central Content Area    │   Inspector   │
│          │                           │   Panel       │
│ Vaults   │   Vault Browser           │               │
│          │   (tree view with         │   Selection   │
│          │    search & sort)         │   Details     │
│          │                           │               │
│ Dongle   │   ┌─ Toolbar ──────────┐  │   Locations   │
│ Status   │   │ ADD FILES │ ADD    │  │               │
│ Card     │   │ DECRYPT FILES      │  │   Actions     │
│          │   └────────────────────┘  │   (footer)    │
│          │                           │               │
└──────────┴───────────────────────────┴───────────────┘

The left sidebar is your main navigation hub. It is organized top to bottom:

Vault List

At the top of the sidebar, your vaults are listed:

  • Vault entries — each vault shows its name. Click to open the vault browser in the central area.
  • Create / Import Vault button — at the bottom of the vault list. Opens the vault creation wizard (or import wizard if a SLAVE dongle is connected).

Note

When a SLAVE dongle is connected (instead of a MASTER), the "Create / Import Vault" button opens the Import Vault modal — SLAVE keys can import vault snapshots but cannot create new vaults.

Dongle Status Card

At the bottom of the sidebar, a clickable dongle status card shows:

  • Dongle key name — the name of the connected key
  • Status tag — CONNECTED (green) or DISCONNECTED (red)
  • Capacity bar — a visual progress bar showing pad usage
  • Capacity text — numeric remaining/total capacity

Click the dongle status card to trigger a manual rescan of all connected USB volumes.

Tip

The dongle status card is always visible in the sidebar, giving you a constant awareness of your connection state and remaining key material capacity.

Toolbar

The toolbar sits at the top of the central content area and provides quick access to vault file operations:

Button Description
ADD FILES Select files to import (encrypt) into the currently open vault
ADD FOLDER Select a folder to import into the currently open vault
DECRYPT FILES Decrypt selected files from the vault browser

Note

The toolbar buttons are disabled until a vault is open and a MASTER dongle is connected. The ADD FILES and ADD FOLDER buttons add files into the currently open vault. The DECRYPT FILES button operates on whatever is selected in the vault browser tree.

Central Content Area

The large central area displays the Vault Browser when a vault is open.

Vault Browser

The vault browser is a file/folder tree with a column layout:

Column Description
Name File or folder name (decrypted from encrypted headers)
Last encrypted Timestamp of when the file was last encrypted
Size Original file size

Above the tree, a toolbar provides:

  • Search — a text input to filter files by name
  • Sort — a dropdown with options: Name A–Z, Name Z–A, Newest first, Oldest first

The tree supports:

  • Expand/collapse folders
  • Single and multi-select
  • Right-click context menu — with actions including "Open for edit", rename, delete, and more
  • Double-click on a file to open it for editing (creates a working copy and opens in your default editor)
  • Drag-and-drop — drag files from your desktop into the vault browser to import them

The vault browser is built entirely from encrypted metadata — no plaintext file content ever touches the disk in this view.

Inspector Panel

The right-hand panel provides context-sensitive information and actions. It has a collapsible toggle handle (chevron icon) to show/hide the panel.

Selection Card

The top section shows details about the currently selected vault:

Field Description
Total files Number of files in the vault
Size Total size of vault contents
Authentication Whether 2FA (PIN + TOTP) is enabled
Last modified Most recent modification timestamp

Below the details are two action buttons:

  • Check vault — runs a full integrity check across all vault locations (see Vault Integrity Check)
  • Delete vault — opens a confirmation modal to delete the vault

The vault name can be edited by clicking the rename action in the card header.

Vault Locations

Below the selection card, a Vault Locations section lists all storage locations for the open vault, showing:

  • Provider type and path for each location
  • Status of each location (online/offline)

At the very bottom of the inspector, three action tile buttons provide quick access to core functions:

Tile Icon Description
Encrypt Lock icon Open the quick encrypt workflow in the inspector
Decrypt Unlock icon Open the quick decrypt workflow in the inspector
Settings Gear icon Open the Settings modal (see Settings & Preferences)

Gatekeeper Screen

Before reaching the main interface, users pass through the Gatekeeper — a login/activation screen that appears at startup:

  • Scanning — initial state while the app checks for connected dongles
  • Dongle detected — if a physical dongle is found, the app verifies it with the server and proceeds to the main interface
  • No dongle detected — presents options:

Note

The Gatekeeper only appears at startup. Once you're in the app, inserting or removing a dongle updates the sidebar dynamically without returning to the Gatekeeper.

Dark Mode

Necron Vault Manager supports both light and dark color themes. The default is Light mode. You can switch to Dark mode in Settings → Appearance. The preference is saved locally and persists across sessions. See Settings & Preferences for details.