Built-In Help and Ask

ARMOR carries its own documentation. The help inside the app is generated from the pages of this site, so it says the same thing, and you can read it without leaving the editor. The text is bundled with the app and works offline. Images and videos load from the web when you open them.

Opening Help

Help opens as a window on macOS and as a sheet on iPhone and iPad. You can reach it from several places:

On iPhone, a page opened from a ? button is shown inside the same navigation, so Back returns you to the editor you were in.

The Three Tabs

Help has three tabs: Browse, Ask, and Videos.

ARMOR's Help sheet on iPhone, showing the page list grouped into Tutorials and Sidebar sections, with Browse, Ask, and Videos tabs and a search button at the bottom

The Browse tab on iPhone, with the Feedback button at the top right and the Search button beside the tab bar. On Mac and iPad the page list stays visible as a sidebar beside the page you are reading.

Browse

Browse is the list of every documentation page, grouped into the same sections as the sidebar of this site. On Mac and iPad the list is a sidebar that stays on screen across all tabs. On iPhone, Browse shows the list, and search is a separate Search tab. Tapping a page opens it on the current tab, so Back returns you to where you were, even in the middle of a chat.

Search ranks the pages for you:

Ask

Ask is a chat with an assistant that runs on your device using Apple’s Foundation Models. It needs iOS or macOS 26 or later. On earlier systems the Ask tab does not appear.

Ask a question in your own words, such as “How do I export an MJCF?” or “How are the shoulder joints connected?”. There are two kinds of question, and ARMOR handles them differently.

Questions about ARMOR

For a question about the app, Ask first finds the most relevant sections of these docs. It combines keyword search with an on-device understanding of meaning, so a question does not need to use the same words as the page. The on-device model then writes a short answer from those sections. A status line such as “Reading ARMOR docs…” shows progress.

Under the answer, Read more links open the pages the answer came from, ranked by how much each page is about your question. Links in those pages that lead outside the docs, such as to a GitHub repository, are offered as links that open in your browser.

Ask is built to keep working when the model cannot:

Questions about your robot

Ask can also answer questions about the robot you have loaded, such as what a joint connects, which way it moves, its range, where it is mounted, and what comes before and after it in the chain. These answers do not come from the model’s general knowledge. ARMOR works out the facts from your robot’s own data, and the model only puts them into words.

  1. Finding the joints. ARMOR matches the words in your question against joint names and the names of the links they move, so “left shoulder” finds the left shoulder joints. Words like “joint”, “robot”, or “connected” are ignored because they do not say which joint you mean.
  2. Computing the facts. For each joint it works out the parent and child link, the joint type, the axis in plain terms (for example “+Y, pitch, canted 16°”, expressed in the parent link’s frame), the range in radians and degrees, where the joint sits relative to its parent, and the joints before and after it. A left and right pair is described once, and the other side is only named. Up to six joints are described in detail for one question.
  3. Writing the answer. The on-device model drafts an answer from those facts, then rewrites it as flowing prose. ARMOR uses the rewrite only if it still names every joint, so the second pass can improve the wording but never remove content.
  4. Showing the numbers. Under the answer, a collapsed Joint details section lists the exact values: what each joint Connects, its Axis, Range, where it is Mounted, and the joints Before and After it, plus any mirrored joints. ARMOR builds this section from the robot data, not from the model.

ARMOR's Ask tab with the question Describe the active robot and an answer giving the robot's name, link and joint count, declared mass, and likely type

Ask describing the loaded robot. A question that names particular joints also gets the collapsed Joint details section described above.

For other questions about the loaded robot, such as its overall structure, problems found when it is validated, or missing mass data, Ask can look those up in the robot’s data instead of guessing.

A small on-device model can still get a minor detail wrong, or add a sentence about a neighboring joint. Treat the written answer as an explanation, and check the exact numbers in Joint details, which come straight from your robot.

When the model is not available

If a question needs the model and it cannot run, Ask tells you why instead of failing silently:

In every case the Browse tab and search still work.

Videos

Videos lists workflow guides from the DC-Engineer YouTube channel. A link to a video inside a documentation page appears as a thumbnail card, and opens in the YouTube app or your browser.

Languages

Help is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. ARMOR shows the language that matches your device, and uses English when your language is not one of these. Ask searches in that language and replies in it.

Feedback

A Feedback button is always available in Help. It opens a pre-filled email to ARMOR support. Use it when Ask cannot find an answer, or when a page is wrong or unclear.

Next Steps