darktable EDGE Companion

Install in three steps

This page covers the companion. The DarktableEdge widget itself is installed in iCUE (Home, then XENEON EDGE, then Widgets). It is not on the Elgato Marketplace yet. Give it a page of its own at Extra Large: the strip, the sliders and the keys want the whole panel. It works with darktable 5.6 on Windows, in any interface language.

1. Add DarktableEdge to a XENEON EDGE page in iCUE

   In iCUE choose Home, then the XENEON EDGE, then Widgets, and drop DarktableEdge on a page of its own at Extra Large. Until the companion answers, the panel shows a setup screen that points here.

2. Download the companion and double-click it once

   That double-click is the whole install. DarktableEdgeCompanion.exe copies itself into your local app folder, registers a task that starts it with every sign-in, lists itself under Settings, then Apps, and starts. It puts its small darktable script in place, then checks its own list (iCUE, darktable, the script, the widget, the two XENEON EDGE page keys) and shows you what, if anything, is still missing.

   The program is not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may show "Windows protected your PC" on that first run. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Compare the SHA-256 above if you want to be sure of the file. If darktable is open, close it and start it once more so it loads the companion's script.

3. Allow localhost once when iCUE asks

   The first time the widget reaches the companion, iCUE shows a permission request for a localhost address. That address is the companion on your own PC. Allow it; iCUE asks only once. The setup screen closes by itself and the panel follows whatever darktable shows.

Turn the XENEON EDGE's pages from the panel

iCUE turns the XENEON EDGE's pages with two keystrokes you record once in iCUE: hover the XENEON EDGE, open Screen Setup, set Previous Display Screen to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+PageUp and Next Display Screen to Ctrl+Alt+Shift+PageDown. The companion reads what you recorded, so other keys work too.

With those recorded, the chevrons in the widget's header turn the pages, and the companion brings the DarktableEdge page up whenever darktable comes to the front while the XENEON EDGE shows another page. The keys fire only while darktable is the active window, so a chevron tap from another app brings darktable forward first.

What the companion does, and does not do

• Places one small Lua script in darktable's own configuration folder (edge-bridge\bridge.lua) and one marked block in darktable's luarc that loads it. darktable runs the script; nothing else in darktable is changed.
• Through that script, reads darktable's view, the current image and the module values for the strip, the sliders and the lit keys, and moves a slider or presses a key through darktable's own actions, so darktable records every change in its history.
• Asks darktable to render each frame on the strip through its own export pipeline into the companion's data folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\DarktableEdge). It never writes to your image files.
• Listens on your PC's loopback address only (127.0.0.1, port 47630). No internet, no account, no telemetry.
• Uses about 200 MB of memory and under one percent of a core while idle.
• Removal: Settings, then Apps, then darktable EDGE Companion, or Uninstall.cmd in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\DarktableEdge. That ends the task, removes it, takes its script and its luarc block out of darktable's configuration, and deletes that program folder. Its frames and log stay in %LOCALAPPDATA%\DarktableEdge; delete that folder to remove them.

If the panel keeps showing the setup screen

• The task named darktable EDGE Companion must be running. It starts at sign-in; after the first install, signing out and back in, or running the task from Task Scheduler, starts it. The panel reconnects by itself within a few seconds.
• If the panel says "Restart darktable to load the companion", darktable started before the script was in place: close darktable and start it again.
• Check the port: the widget's "Companion port" setting in iCUE must say 47630 unless you changed what the companion listens on.
• If you missed the localhost prompt, it waits in iCUE's notification centre (the bell, top right): find the request for localhost:47630 and choose Allow.
• The sliders work in darktable's darkroom. In the lighttable the strip and the keys work and the sliders wait.
• If a finger press on the panel lands on another screen, Windows has the touch digitiser mapped to the wrong monitor: close iCUE, run "Calibrate the screen for pen or touch input", choose Setup, Touch input, and tap the XENEON EDGE when it asks.
• The companion writes a log at %LOCALAPPDATA%\DarktableEdge\logs\helper.log. Attach it when you write.

Still stuck? Email [email protected] with the widget version from iCUE and the companion version from Settings, then Apps.