How to Use WarScope
A field guide to the WarScope globe, theaters, modes, alerts, and intelligence tools. Start here if you want the shortest path from landing page to useful monitoring workflow.
GUIDE COVERAGE
10 sections / live operator workflows
Globe controls, theaters, alerts, sharing, and plan tiers.
Quick Jump
Contents
Use anchors to move between operating instructions, shortcut tables, and account-level features.
SECTION 01
Getting Started
WarScope is easiest to learn from the globe outward. Treat the map as your primary viewport, then use keyboard shortcuts and side panels to move faster.
QUICK START
Open the globe
Start at /globe. That is the primary WarScope command surface for live event monitoring, timeline playback, and theater switching.
QUICK START
Move the camera
Use mouse or touch to rotate, zoom, and click pins. Desktop operators usually treat the globe as the main viewport and the right-side panels as context.
QUICK START
Learn the fast keys
Core shortcut set: C for cinema, M for minimalist, I for infra, Space for play or pause, arrows for stepping time, F for fullscreen, / for search, and 1-6 for quick theater jumps.
If you learn only one thing on day one, learn the keyboard. Cinema, minimalist, infra, search, and timeline stepping all become much faster once you stop hunting for buttons.
SECTION 02
The Globe
The globe is designed to compress multiple signals into each pin, so the legend matters. Read color, size, and confidence together instead of in isolation.
PIN COLOR
Event type
Red marks battles, orange marks explosions or remote violence, magenta marks violence against civilians, cyan marks strategic developments, and yellow marks protests.
PIN SIZE
Severity proxy
Larger pins generally mean higher reported fatalities or a more intense event footprint.
PIN OPACITY
Confidence
Higher-confidence events render more solidly; lower-confidence events fade back so verified items read first.
CONFIDENCE RINGS
High / Medium / Low
Green means high confidence, yellow means medium, and red means low confidence.
EVENT DETAILS
Click any event pin to open the detail panel. The panel exposes the event type, country, date, fatalities, confidence percentage when available, and source attribution. If a source URL exists, WarScope gives you a direct outbound source link from that panel.
DEMO DATA
The DEMO DATA badge means the live feed has not connected and WarScope is rendering its fallback dataset. You can still explore the interface, but treat the map as a product demo rather than a live operating picture until the badge clears.
SECTION 03
Theaters
Switch theaters from the theater switcher/sidebar rail or by keyboard. Theater presets change the camera, focus area, and the operator context for scanning events.
Use the number keys for fast desktop switching and the theater switcher for the full preset list. Quick-access keys cover the most common presets first; the switcher always exposes the complete theater set.
GLOBAL
Global
Global default view across all supported regions and feeds. Use this to scan for fresh hotspots before narrowing down.
UKRAINE
Ukraine
Front-line war in Ukraine, including battles, missile strikes, and strategic developments across the main combat corridor.
IRAN
Iran
Iran-centered strategic monitoring for state infrastructure, signaling, and adjacent Middle East pressure points.
GAZA
Gaza
Gaza and the immediate Israel-Palestine battle space, optimized for dense urban conflict and humanitarian pressure.
SUDAN
Sudan
Sudan civil war coverage with emphasis on Khartoum, Darfur, and major displacement or civilian-harm reporting.
MYANMAR
Myanmar
Myanmar insurgency and junta-resistance activity, including airstrikes, territorial changes, and protest spillover.
SAHEL
Sahel
Regional insurgency belt across Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and surrounding cross-border violence patterns.
CONGO
Congo
Eastern DR Congo and surrounding militia activity, with focus on armed-group escalation and displacement corridors.
SYRIA
Syria
Fragmented Syria theater spanning militia activity, external strikes, and post-regime-transition volatility.
YEMEN
Yemen
Yemen civil-war and Red Sea spillover context, including cross-border strikes and maritime relevance.
SECTION 04
Modes
Modes are not cosmetic. They change how WarScope prioritizes the visual field and how much context stays on screen.
Cinema Mode
CAuto-flythrough of top-severity events. Use it when you want WarScope to guide the camera through the most important current hotspots.
Minimalist Mode
MStrips the interface down to the globe and core visual layers so you can present or scan without HUD clutter.
Infrastructure Mode
IHighlights cables, bases, energy nodes, and other infrastructure layers while dimming conflict intensity so strategic assets stand out.
War Tape
UICompressed replay of recent events. Pins reveal progressively over time so you can study escalation sequences instead of a static snapshot.
Light / Dark Map
UISwitch between darker satellite imagery and a lighter labeled map style depending on whether you want mood, labels, or presentation clarity.
SECTION 05
Intelligence Tools
Once the globe has oriented you, the adjacent tools help you summarize, query, and share what the live feeds are showing.
/chat
AI Chat
Ask natural-language questions against the current live conflict data. Answers return with citations and a visible confidence readout.
/sitrep
SitRep
Daily automated intelligence briefing with executive summary, top active theaters, and data-confidence notes.
/conflicts
Conflict Pages
Fifteen dedicated theater pages for specific wars, maritime corridors, information blackouts, and protest patterns.
/osint
OSINT Feed
Social intelligence stream built from Reddit and X/Twitter-style posts alongside the wider OSINT feed.
SECTION 06
Alerts & Watches
WarScope currently has two watch concepts: a browser watchlist for fast country monitoring, and rule-based alert watches behind the watches API.
UI WATCHLIST
Country-first workflow
Use /watchlist or add countries directly from the globe and country panels when you want a lightweight shortlist stored in your browser. This is the fastest path for country monitoring today.
RULE-BASED ALERTS
API-driven watch rules
For more structured watches, post definitions to /api/watches. Those watches support country or theater scopes, thresholds, cooldown windows, and delivery channels. If you need keyword or actor organization today, use the watch name and tags as your operator labels around the underlying scope.
DELIVERY
Telegram delivery works when the deployment has Telegram bot credentials configured. Without them, alert attempts stay stubbed instead of silently pretending to send.
COOLDOWNS
Each alert rule has a cooldown window. Once it fires, WarScope suppresses repeats until that cooldown expires, which keeps noisy spikes from spamming the same channel.
SECTION 07
Data Sources
WarScope is only as strong as the feeds behind it. Use the source pages when you need transparency on cadence, coverage, and limitations.
GDELT Project
Primary global event stream from international news coverage. This is the backbone for conflict-event pins and many of the live summaries.
NASA FIRMS
Thermal hotspot feed used to surface fires, heat signatures, and possible strike-related burn activity.
ADS-B Exchange
Flight overlay source for military, government, and notable aviation movement when flight layers are enabled.
USGS
Earthquake feed for geophysical context and seismic overlays that may matter for regional instability monitoring.
SECTION 08
Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard control is the fastest way to operate the globe. Memorize the mode toggles first, then the timeline and theater keys.
| Key | Action | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1-9 | Switch preset theaters | Maps to Global, Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar, Sahel, Congo, and Syria. Use the theater switcher for Yemen and any preset not mapped to a number. |
| C | Toggle cinema mode | Starts or exits the automated flythrough of priority events. |
| M | Toggle minimalist mode | Hides most interface chrome and leaves the globe as the primary canvas. |
| I | Toggle infrastructure mode | Dims conflict emphasis and prioritizes infrastructure overlays. |
| Space | Play or pause timeline | Controls timeline playback for recent-event review. |
| Arrow Left | Step backward in time | Moves the timeline back by one day. |
| Arrow Right | Step forward in time | Moves the timeline forward by one day. |
| F | Toggle fullscreen | Switches the experience into fullscreen command-center mode. |
| / | Focus search | Moves focus into the globe search input without using the mouse. |
| Esc | Close panels | Dismisses open panels or focused overlays. |
| 0 or Home | Reset globe view | Returns the camera to the default overview. |
SECTION 10
Pro Features
Free is enough to learn the system and monitor core theaters. Pro is for operators who need faster alerting, cleaner exports, and deeper historical access.
FREE
Base operator access
- Globe access
- 15 conflict pages
- Daily SitRep with 24-hour delay
- 1 watch
- Watermarked embed
PRO
Faster and deeper workflows
- Real-time alerts
- Unlimited watches
- ACLED data access
- Historical scrubbing
- Clean embed
- Exports
- Priority API