User guide

Documents and papers

On this page: What a document is · Adding a document · Attaching · The boat's papers · A document's page · Open · Files and sync · Photos as documents · Documents in the export · Documents and assistants · Checklists

A document is anything you keep with the boat's record: a manual, a receipt, a survey, the insurance certificate, a photo of a serial plate, a link to a supplier's page. This chapter covers what a document holds, how it is attached to the records it concerns, how the boat's papers are shown, and what happens to a file between your phone and the server. Checklists, which sit beside documents in the Boat area, close the chapter.

What a document is

A document is a record with a title and a type. It holds one of three things:

• A file uploaded from the device: a PDF, a photo, a spreadsheet, anything up to 25 MB.
• A link to something kept elsewhere, an http or https address.
• Nothing yet, only its details. A file can be added later.

A document never holds a file and a link at once. When the add form is given both, the file is kept and the link dropped. The edit form offers Link only while the document has no file.

A document also has an optional date it was captured or issued, an optional expiry (reported on Today as it approaches, see Expiry on Today), tags typed comma separated, a description, and the records it is attached to (see Attaching). The Documents search looks at the title, the type, the tags, the description and the names of what it is attached to.

The types

Photo, Manual, Receipt, Warranty, Certificate, Registration, Insurance, Ownership, Licence, Survey, Inspection, Service record, Link, Note and Other. A new document is Other until you choose. Registration, Insurance, Ownership and Licence are the boat's papers; Certificate and Survey can be (see The boat's papers). The add and edit forms' Type list spells the first one "Photograph"; every other screen says "Photo".

Adding a document

Three ways in, one form, Add document:

• The Documents page in the Boat area: Add document beside the title, or the empty page's button.
• The Record menu in the top bar: Add a document. The search box has the same action under the same name.
• A record's Documents section: Attach a document. The new document is already attached to that record.

The form asks Title, Type and Upload file first, because that is what a capture at the boat needs. More details holds Attach to, Captured / issued, Expires, Link, Tags and Description, and stays open for the rest of the session once opened. The button says "Save & upload" with a file and "Add document" without one. Offline, the form says the file is kept on the device until it can upload.

Size and photos

A photo is made smaller on the device before it is saved. A phone camera's picture is often over 25 MB, so the app redraws it as a JPEG with its longer side at most 2,560 px, still readable for a receipt or a manual page. A photo already that small, or one that would not get smaller, is kept as it is.

• A HEIC photo (an iPhone's own format) is always made a JPEG, because most browsers cannot show one. Chrome and Firefox need a decoder, which the app downloads the first time you add one.
• A large photo or a HEIC shows "Preparing the photo…" while it is redrawn, which can take several seconds.
• A GIF and an SVG are never redrawn.
• A photo the browser cannot read (a RAW .dng) is kept as it is; over 25 MB, the save is refused with a message naming the kind of file and saying to save it as a JPEG, and the form stays open.
• Any other file over 25 MB is refused: "That file is larger than 25 MB. Choose a smaller one."

Attaching

One document can be attached to many records, and a record can have many documents. The engine manual is attached to the engine; the invoice for an impeller change to the job, the engine and the expense.

A document attaches to the boat, equipment, an item, a plan, a job, a trip, a problem, a project, an expense or a person.

A document attached to nothing is one of the boat's own documents. Its row on the Documents page names no record, and its page says "Nothing: it is one of the boat's own documents." Attaching it to the boat means the same.

• In the document's form, Attach to (inside More details when adding) shows each attached record as a chip naming its kind and name; the chip's × removes it. The search field below finds any active record by name.
• On a record's page, the Documents section offers Attach a document (a new one) and Attach existing…, a search over the documents not attached yet, by title or type.
• Detach is in each document row's More menu in a record's Documents section, and in the document page's Attached to list. It removes the link; the document stays.

A record can be attached to a document only once. A newly attached record must be active; one archived after it was attached stays attached, marked archived.

An attached document keeps its record from being deleted. Deleting equipment that a manual is attached to is refused until the manual is detached. Archiving is not affected.

The boat's papers

Boat details (opened from the boat's name at the top of the sidebar or the phone's header) has a Papers section. It is a view of your documents: a paper is a document.

• Four fixed slots, Registration, Insurance, Ownership and Licence. Every active document of one of those types fills its slot, whatever it is attached to. An empty slot says "Not added" with Add, which opens Add document with that type chosen.
• Other papers: every certificate and survey attached to nothing but the boat. A certificate attached to the life raft is the life raft's and is not listed.
• Add a paper opens Add document with Registration chosen.
• Each row shows the type and the expiry ("Expires 3 May 2027", or "Expired …" in the attention colour), sorted soonest first, and opens the document's page.

Expiry on Today

Today reports any active document with an expiry, a paper or not.

An expiry date is stored as 09:00 on that day, and the document counts as expired from that moment. The row opens the document's page.

A document's page

Every way to a document opens its page: the Documents list, a Documents section, Papers, Today, the search and the activity list.

• The header: "Document · <type>", the title and one line ("Expires 3 May 2027 · Dated 1 May 2025"). Open is the main action when there is a file, Add a file when there is none. The pencil edits the details. More holds Replace file and Remove file while there is a file, then Archive or Delete.
• File: an image is shown; any other file is named with its size. Link takes its place for a web address, with its own Open.
• Details: the type, the tags and the description.
• Attached to: one row per record, opening it, with Detach in More. With nothing attached, Attach opens the edit form.

The edit form changes the details only; the file is changed from the page. Replace file removes the current file and uploads the new one in one change. Remove file asks first, then removes the file and keeps the document, its details and its attachments; the page then says "The file was removed." and offers Add a file.

Open

Open fetches the file from the server and then shows it or saves it:

The browser has nothing to show a Word file or a spreadsheet with, so those are saved and opened from the device's files. A web page or an SVG is saved on purpose: shown inside LazyJack it could run as part of the app. A phone behaves the same way.

Open needs a connection: the file is fetched each time and not kept for offline use. A link's Open goes to the address in a new tab.

Files and sync

A file travels apart from its document. The document syncs like any change; the file waits on the device until it is uploaded.

• Captured files survive closing the app. They stay in the browser's storage until the upload succeeds. A browser that cannot keep them says to keep the app open until they upload.
• Uploads retry by themselves, on reconnecting and every 30 seconds while files wait.
• Files belong to the signed-in person. Another account on the same browser has its own queue.
• Files waiting are listed on the Account page, under the Sync card. A file the server refused shows its reason and Try again. Discard is in each row's More menu.
• Today's Syncing line counts them ("3 changes and 2 files waiting to sync").

Discarding a queued file removes it from the device. The document stays, marked as a failed upload, so Today reports it until the document has a file again or is archived.

Photos as documents

Photos taken elsewhere in the app are documents too:

• The boat's photo: Add a photo on Boat details; Change photo and Remove photo in the photo's More menu. It is a Photo document titled with the boat's name. Changing it keeps the previous photo in Documents; Remove photo keeps the document; archiving the document hides the photo and restoring it brings it back. It is not kept for offline use.
• An item's photo: the item form's "Attach a document". It becomes a document attached to the item, and to its equipment when the item fits exactly one piece, saved as a Photo whatever the file is.
• A receipt on Received: "Attach a receipt or photo", saved as a Receipt or a Photo (Save it as) and attached to the item.
• A job's photo: Did the job's "Attach a photo", saved as a Service record, a Receipt or a Photo, attached to the job and its equipment and titled with the job and the day.

Documents in the export

Download a copy on the Account page puts every document in data.json, with what it is attached to, and every active file under files/ in the zip. The readable index.html links the files it can show safely (PDF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, plain text) and names the others. "Records only" leaves the files out; a file that could not be read is listed in MISSING_FILES.txt.

Documents and assistants

A connected assistant can add a document (document_create, a link or a file), upload a file (asset_upload, asset_import_from_url, or an upload link you open on your phone, asset_upload_link_create), attach a document to any record (document_attach) and read one with the names of what it is attached to (document_get, document_list). Detaching, archiving and removing a file need the archive permission and your approval each time; attaching does not. See Assistants.

Rules for assistants

1. Attach, do not duplicate. document_list or search finds a document that exists; document_attach links it to another record. A document_create that looks like one already there answers with warnings: read them to the owner before going on.
2. Attach on create. document_create takes attachedTo ({ type, id } pairs); a document for the engine's manual is attached to the engine in the same call, not created loose and attached later.
3. A document attached to nothing is the boat's own. Do not attach a paper to the boat record to "file" it; Registration, Insurance, Ownership and Licence are papers by their kind, wherever they are attached.
4. An expiry is a plain day (2027-05-03): send it so, and Today reports it from 30 days before.
5. A file on the owner's phone reaches the server through asset_upload_link_create: send the owner the link to open on the phone; never ask them to paste a file into the chat. A file at a web address goes through asset_import_from_url.
6. Detaching, archiving and removing a file need approval. Attaching does not. Do not ask for approval unprompted.
7. Checklists: an outline is plain lines, a line ending in ":" or a Markdown heading opens a section, and items is the structured form. Never complete or cancel a run (checklist_run_complete, checklist_run_abandon) unless the owner asks for exactly that; ticking items the owner reports done (checklist_run_update_item) is fine.

Checklists

A checklist is a list of items to go through: an engine start routine, a departure list, a winter lay-up. Checklists are a view in the Boat area.

Add checklist asks a title, When is it used? and an Outline, previewed as you type.

The outline is plain text, one item per line. A line ending in ":" opens a section, and the lines under it belong to it until the next section at the same or a shallower indent. A Markdown heading ("# Winter lay-up", "## Engine") opens a section too, "##" inside the "#" above it. A leading "-", "*", "1." or "[ ]" is stripped, so a pasted list works as it is. A checklist needs at least one item.

The Checklists page lists checklists by title, each row ending with when it is used (nothing for Other). The row opens the checklist's form; Start is its button.

Running one

Start begins a run, a copy of the checklist to work through.

• Each item is ticked, marked N/A or left, and can carry a note.
• Complete checklist finishes the run. With items still open it asks first; they stay marked "Not reviewed".
• Cancel checklist (in the run's More menu and at its foot, and in an In progress row's More menu) ends it without completing. What was ticked is kept; a new run can be started.
• A run keeps its own copy of the list. Editing the checklist never changes a run in progress or one done. A run started before 2026-10-10, when runs began keeping their copy, may say that some items from the earlier version can no longer be shown.

The page shows In progress runs first and Recently done last. A run left in progress for two days is reported in Do first on Today until it is completed or cancelled. Checklists also appear on a plan (What each job needs) and its job's page, where a run is started for that job, and in a trip's Prepare section.

Not in this chapter

Records, Archive and Delete: How LazyJack thinks. What an assistant may do: Assistants. Boat details: Setting up the boat and engine. Prepare and the trip's checklists: A trip. Documents on jobs and problems: Work. Receipts on Received: Inventory and To buy. Invoices on expenses: Budget and projects. Files in a backup and restoring them: Backup, restore and moving devices. Refused changes: Troubleshooting sync.

This chapter as Markdown · llms.txt