What is The Helm?
The Helm is your personalized dashboard that adapts to your role. Rather than showing the same interface to everyone, The Helm presents information in a way that matches your mental model:
- Submissives see their tasks, training progress, earned praise, and what's expected of them
- Dominants see an overview of their submissives, pending approvals, household activity, and management tools
✓ Role Detection
The Helm automatically detects your role based on your relationship to tasks in the hierarchy. If you're primarily assigned tasks, you see the submissive view. If you primarily assign tasks, you see the dominant view.
Submissive Dashboard
The submissive view focuses on what you need to do and how you're progressing.
Personalized Greeting
The Helm greets you with a time-appropriate message and may include motivational context based on your recent activity.
Quick Wins Section
Shows small, achievable tasks you can complete quickly. These are designed to build momentum and help you start your day with accomplishments.
Your Tasks
A clear view of tasks assigned to you, organized by:
- Due Today - Tasks that need attention now
- Upcoming - Tasks due soon
- Overdue - Tasks past their due date (highlighted)
Rituals Section
Daily rituals and recurring tasks are shown separately with streak tracking. You'll see:
- Ritual name and current streak
- Flame badge for active streaks
- Quick-complete buttons for today's rituals
Training Progress
If you're enrolled in training programs, you'll see:
- Current training phase and progress
- Today's training tasks
- Lambda badge indicating training-related tasks
- Milestones achieved and upcoming
Progress Rings
Visual rings showing your progress in different areas:
- Tasks completed this week
- Training progress
- Ritual streak maintenance
- Points earned
Habit Tracker Calendar
A visual calendar showing your consistency over time. Days with completed tasks are highlighted, helping you see patterns in your progress.
Praise Wall
Recent praise and recognition you've received from your dominant(s). This positive reinforcement is prominently displayed to motivate you.
Reward Proximity
Shows how close you are to earning available rewards, with a points-to-go indicator for each reward you're working toward.
Focus Mode
A distraction-free view that shows only your current task, helping you concentrate on what matters right now.
Dominant Dashboard
The dominant view provides oversight and management tools for your hierarchy.
Household Overview
At a glance, see:
- Number of active submissives
- Tasks pending completion
- Recent activity summary
- Items requiring your attention
Pending Approvals
Actions waiting for your decision:
- Task Completions - Review and approve completed tasks
- Help Requests - Submissives asking for assistance
- Join Requests - People wanting to join your hierarchy
- Contract Signatures - Contracts awaiting your signature
- Chastity Requests - Unlock requests from locked submissives
Submissive Cards
Each submissive in your hierarchy has a card showing:
- Their display name and avatar
- Current task count and completion rate
- Active training program progress
- Recent activity status
- Quick actions (assign task, send message, view profile)
Activity Feed
A chronological feed of hierarchy activity:
- Tasks completed
- Training milestones achieved
- Check-ins submitted
- Media uploaded
- Safewords used (highlighted for attention)
Contract Status
Overview of active contracts with:
- Signature status
- Upcoming renewals
- Suspended contracts (premium feature)
Chastity Overview
If you're a keyholder, see:
- Currently locked submissives
- Lock duration for each
- Pending unlock requests
- Check-in compliance
Quick Actions
Fast access to common management tasks:
- Create new task
- Start training program
- Send praise
- Schedule check-in
Switching Views
If you have both submissive and dominant roles (e.g., in different hierarchies, or self-lock scenarios), you can switch between views using the role toggle in the top navigation.
✓ Self-Lock Mode
If you're using chastity self-lock (where you're both wearer and keyholder), the role toggle appears automatically so you can manage your own lock from the dominant view.
Notifications & Badges
The Helm shows notification badges for items requiring attention:
- Red badge - Urgent items (overdue tasks, safeword triggers)
- Yellow badge - Pending approvals
- Blue badge - Unread messages or activity
Mobile Experience
The Helm is fully responsive and works great on mobile devices. On smaller screens:
- Sections stack vertically for easy scrolling
- Quick actions remain accessible at the top
- Swipe gestures work for task completion (if enabled)
- Focus mode is especially useful on mobile
Safety Hub Widget
The Safety Hub widget provides quick access to your safety tools directly from The Helm dashboard:
- Safeword status — See active safeword state at a glance
- Quick trigger — One-tap safeword activation without leaving the dashboard
- Recent safety events — View your recent safeword history
- Safety resources — Links to safety guides and emergency contacts
The Safety Hub widget is always available on the dashboard regardless of subscription tier.
Cross-Pillar Search
Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) from anywhere in Helm to open the universal search. Search across all pillars at once:
- Tasks, training programs, and rituals
- Community posts and channels
- Members and matches
- Journal entries and scene logs
- Navigation shortcuts (jump to any page)
Results are grouped by pillar and type, with keyboard navigation for fast access.
Customization
While The Helm's layout is designed for optimal workflow, you can customize some aspects:
- Theme - Light or dark mode (persists across sessions)
- Tab order - Drag and drop to reorder navigation tabs to match your workflow (see Account Settings)
- Terminology - Rename section labels to match your dynamic's language. Some labels are role-aware — for example, the economy section defaults to "Economy" for Dominants and "Earnings" for submissives (see Organization Settings)
- Collapsed sections - Collapse sections you use less frequently
- Notification preferences - Control which badges appear
Feature Flags
Some Helm features may be controlled by your hierarchy's settings or subscription tier:
- helm_consolidated_inbox - Unified notification center
- helm_role_dashboard - Role-based view switching
- helm_read_status - Read/unread tracking for items
Discovery Widget
If you have Discovery enabled, the Helm dashboard includes a Discovery widget showing:
- Match count — how many active matches you have
- Unread messages — new messages from matches (shown as a badge)
- Recent matches — your most recent matches with photos and names
Click on a match to view their profile, or use the "View Matches" and "View Messages" links to go directly to your conversations.
Getting Started with Discovery
If you haven't set up Discovery yet, the widget shows an "Enable Discovery to start matching" prompt. Click "Get Started" to create your Discovery profile.
Four Pillars Navigation
When the pillarNav feature is enabled, The Helm serves as a hub for four pillars of the platform:
- Cultivate — Matching and discovery, building new connections
- Connect — Communities and group interaction
- Command — Task management, training, and dynamic oversight
- Chronicle — Journals, reflections, and personal records
The pillar navigation bar appears at the top of The Helm, giving you quick access to each area. Your current pillar is highlighted, and notification badges appear on pillars that have items requiring your attention.