Your first session
Installed and logged in? Good. This is a low-stakes walkthrough of how a session actually feels — open a practice session and follow along. When you've got the rhythm, run the pre-flight check before anything real.
The interface
Cowinx has just two surfaces: a floating control barthat's always there, and a workspace that appears only during a live session.
Control bar
Floats above every window and reshapes when a session is active. Hide or show it with ⌥H, and reposition it with ⌘⇧ + arrow keys.
Workspace
Opens below the control bar during a live session, with two panels — Transcript and Q&A. Toggle each with ⌥[ and ⌥]; at least one stays visible.
Getting an answer
Cowinx transcribes audio live, but it never answers on its own — you trigger every answer by clicking Solve or pressing ⌥⏎. That is deliberate: nothing happens until you ask, so the assistant never races ahead of the conversation. There are two ways to ask.
From the transcript
During a live session, press ⌥⏎to answer the latest question from the transcript. Cowinx won't auto-solve as the conversation moves on — the latest question is always yours to send.
From a screenshot
For anything visual — take-homes, coding or system-design on a screen share, written tests — press ⌥S to capture (repeat to queue several), then ⌥⏎ to solve the batch. Screenshots work with or without a session; on their own they use no session time.
Before a real interview
Once the rhythm feels natural, don't walk into a real interview cold. Run the pre-flight check — five minutes that confirm the overlay is invisible in a screen share, that Cowinx can hear the interviewer, and that your language and hotkeys are set. For every shortcut and setting, see Hotkeys & settings.