Help

Install

Windows

Prefer no warning? Get the same app from the Microsoft Store: signed, and the Store keeps it up to date. Or:

1. Download the installer, a file ending in .exe.
2. Run it. If Windows says Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway. The installer is not code-signed yet, so Microsoft Defender SmartScreen stops it the first time.
3. Choose the language, English or Português (Brasil). The app opens in the same one.
4. On the last page, choose whether Sensei Top starts when Windows starts. Leave it on if you can: the app records only the games it is running for.

It installs for your Windows user only and never asks for administrator rights. Closing the window keeps the app running in the system tray, still recording; to quit, use the tray icon's menu.

Linux and the Steam Deck

1. Download the AppImage, a file ending in .AppImage, and move it to a folder of your own, such as Applications in your home folder. It updates itself by replacing this file, so keep it somewhere you can write to.
2. Open the file's properties, allow it to run as a program, then double-click it. On the Steam Deck, do this in desktop mode.

If the AppImage will not run on your system, there is also a .tar.gz: unpack it and run sensei-top from the folder. It never updates itself and cannot start when you log in; the install guide has the steps.

On Linux, closing the window quits the app, and games you play afterwards are not recorded. To keep it running, turn on Keep running when the window is closed in Settings, under General. If the app does not start, the install guide has the fix for each system.

The first run

The first time it opens, the app walks you through setup, one short step at a time:

1. Welcome to Sensei Top: choose the Language, English or Portuguese. What leaves this computer opens the list of everything the app downloads. If you used Sensei Top before, Sign in with Google or Sign in with Discord brings back the matches backed up to your account, and Restore from a backup file brings back a backup file instead.
2. Which do you play?: Arena, Magic Online or Both. The next steps set up only what you pick.
3. Arena: the app looks for Arena's log and checks that Detailed Logs are on. If they are not, the step shows where to turn them on: in Arena, open Options, then Account, tick Detailed Logs (Plugin Support), close Arena and start it again, then press Check again. Without Detailed Logs, no Arena match is recorded.
4. Magic Online: see below.
5. Ready: play a match. It appears on Home when it ends. Where the app can update itself, this step has Check for a new version once a day; with the Linux AppImage, it also offers Start Sensei Top when you log in. It also asks whether to help build the stats, below.

Card data, about 80 MB, downloads on its own the first time the app opens, and Ready shows how far it has got. The deck guides need it. After that, the app downloads it again on its own once a day, and a few minutes after an Arena update that brings new cards. If the download fails, press Try again there, or Download card data in Settings, under Sources.

If you play Arena, Home shows Turn on Detailed Logs in Arena until Arena's log says they are on, with the same steps and Check again. Arena writes that line only when it starts, so start Arena again before you check.

To go through the steps again, open Settings, then General, and press Go through them again.

Keep the app running while you play. Arena empties its log every time it starts, and keeps the session before only until it starts again. A session played with Sensei Top closed is gone after two Arena launches. Start when Windows starts, or Start when you log in with the Linux AppImage, under General in Settings, takes care of it.

Magic Online

Magic Online's log never says which player is you, or which deck you played, so the app needs two things from you, in its welcome step or later in Settings, under Sources:

• Your name on Magic Online, so it can tell your games from your opponents'.
• The Folder of game logs, where Magic Online writes files named Match_GameLog. On Windows, when the app finds the folder Magic Online is writing, it fills it in for you to save. Otherwise it is under AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\Data; under Wine or Proton, inside that prefix's drive_c folder.
• Optionally, the Folder of decks, where you export decks from Magic Online as .dek files. The app already reads the decks Magic Online keeps beside its game logs; this folder adds the ones you export.

Each game is read once it ends. Magic Online moves this folder when it updates, so if new games stop appearing, choose the folder again in Settings, under Sources.

A Magic Online match counts toward one of your decks once you pick the deck. Open the match and answer Which deck was this?; with many matches waiting, use the Needs a deck card on Home instead. It groups the matches by the deck saved in Magic Online that holds the most cards you played, and one confirmation picks that deck for a whole group. Magic Online matches never appear on Live, which follows Arena only.

Account

An account is free and optional, and Sensei Top works the same without one. With one, you can back up your match history, move it to another computer, and choose whether to send error reports. Each is a yes of its own, and nothing is chosen for you.

Signing in

Open Settings, then Account, and press Sign in with Google or Sign in with Discord. Signing in finishes in your browser, not in the app, which waits up to 5 minutes. There is no Sensei Top password.

The first time, a few short steps ask you to confirm your age (13 or older and, if you are under 18, with a parent's or guardian's permission) and then ask three questions: whether to back up your match history, whether to send error reports, and whether to keep your history with the rules coach, which comes in a later version. Nothing is ticked for you, and you can change each answer later in Settings: the backup under Backup, the other two under Account. If you would rather not have an account, Skip and don't create an account skips all three, deletes the account just made and signs you out.

Backing up, and moving to another computer

With Back up my match history on, a summary of each match is uploaded: when it was played, the format, your deck, the result and the opponent's cards you saw. Your Arena and Magic Online logs, names and chat are never uploaded. A Magic Online match is backed up once you pick its deck. The database on your computer stays the original; the cloud copy is a backup. The switch is in Settings, under Backup, in Cloud copy.

To move your history to another computer, install Sensei Top there and sign in with the same account. Your answers come with the account, so backup is on there too, and the matches backed up from your other computers are downloaded to it. On Matches, a match that came from the cloud, and that this computer has no log of, is marked Restored. It has no report or turn-by-turn replay, since those are read from the game's log, which stays on the computer that played it.

Export and delete

In Settings, under Account:

• Export my cloud data saves everything in your account as one JSON file, wherever you choose.
• Delete cloud history turns backup off, then deletes the matches backed up to your account. If you turn backup on again, every match on this computer is uploaded again.
• Delete account deletes your account and everything in it, and signs you out on this computer.
• Sign out stops backup on this computer until you sign in again.

Each delete asks first, and neither can be undone. Neither touches the matches on your computer, and neither reaches the games sent to help build the stats, since nothing in them says they are yours.

Signing in on Linux

The app keeps your sign-in encrypted by your system. A Linux desktop with no keyring set up, such as GNOME Keyring or KWallet, has nothing to encrypt it with, so the app does not keep it: you sign in each time you open the app, and backup runs only while you are signed in. Settings, under Account, says when this is the case.

What is stored, where and for how long is in the privacy policy.

Help build the stats

Help build the stats sends your games to a private pool that Sensei Top's own stats are built from: which decks are doing well, how matchups go, how cards perform. It needs no account, and your answer stays on this computer.

Before a game leaves your computer, everything that names you or your opponent is removed, and it is sent without your sign-in. A yes sends the games already in your history as well as the ones you play from then on. Nothing in a sent game says who sent it, so once it is sent it cannot be shown to you or deleted, not even by deleting your account.

The app asks once: on the last welcome step or, if you set the app up before this question existed, on a page of its own the first time you open this version, where Decide later sends nothing. If you create an account without having said yes, the first sign-in asks again, apart from the account's questions. Until you answer, no game is sent. A yes asks you to confirm your age: 13 or older and, if you are under 18, with a parent's or guardian's permission.

To turn it on or off, open Settings, then Account, under Help build the stats. Turning it off stops it at once: no more games are sent, not even one still waiting to go. Games already sent stay in the pool.

What a game's record holds, and what it never holds, is in the privacy policy.

Something looks wrong

No Arena matches at all

Check that Detailed Logs (Plugin Support) is ticked in Arena, and that Arena was restarted after you ticked it. Then open Settings, under Sources: it says whether the app found Arena's log. If yours isn't found, set the Log file there; the install guide says where it is.

Matches from an earlier session are missing

Arena empties its log every time it starts. A session played with Sensei Top closed is still in the log until Arena's next launch, and gone after that. Keep the app running whenever you play.

The app says Watcher stopped or Tracker not running

Quit Sensei Top and open it again. On Windows, quit from the tray icon's menu: closing the window leaves it running. If it happens again, send a problem report: the reason is in the app's log.

The app does not start

Its window says where its log file is. Send that file with a few lines about what happened, as below.

Dates or times look wrong

In Settings, under Sources, set the Date order to Day first or Month first instead of Read it from the log.

A Magic Online match is missing

Check Your name there and the Folder of game logs in Settings, under Sources. After a Magic Online update the folder has usually moved. A game appears only once it has ended.

The opponent's deck is wrong or unnamed

The app names the opponent's deck from the cards they revealed, so a game where they showed few cards can be named wrong or not at all. On the match's page, press Correct the deck and pick the right one. The app keeps your pick.

Send a problem report

Report a problem

Report a problem sends us a few lines about what went wrong, straight from the app. It is in the tray icon's menu, in Settings under About, on an error message, and on the screen shown when a page stops working.

1. Write what you were doing and what happened instead. Opened from an error, the error's message is shown apart and sent after your text.
2. If you like, tick Attach the last 500 lines of the app's log. It is Sensei Top's own log, never Arena's or Magic Online's, and names and keys are removed from it before it is sent.
3. Agree to the report being sent to Sentry, in the United States. With error reports on, that yes is already given and the dialog says so; otherwise it asks each time, and nothing is sent until you agree and press Send report.

It works with or without an account, and whether or not error reports are on: each press sends one report. With an account, Send error reports in Settings, under Account, is a separate yes that sends a report on its own when something goes wrong. What a report holds, and how long it is kept, is in the privacy policy. To get an answer, open an issue or write to us, as below.

A diagnostics export

For a problem that needs a closer look, a diagnostics export shows what the app saw. It takes a minute.

1. Open Settings, then About, and press Export diagnostics. The tray icon's menu has the same entry.
2. A window lists what goes in. Leave Include Player.log unticked unless you are asked for it: Arena's log names your opponents and your decks.
3. Press Save as… and choose where to save the zip.
4. Send the zip with a few lines: what you did, what you expected, what the app showed, and what the game showed.

What is in the zip

• The app's own log files.
• The app's settings, with every key and your Magic Online name removed.
• What the app can find on your computer: Arena's log, Magic Online's folder, the card data and the database.
• How many rows each table of the database holds. The counts only, never the rows.

Never in it: your database, so none of your matches, and no key. Arena's Player.log goes in only when you tick the box.

A problem that comes and goes

Turn on Diagnostic mode in Settings, under About. The app then writes much more detail to its log; turning it on or off restarts the tracker for a moment. Use the app until the problem shows up again, export, then turn it off.

Where to send it

Open an issue with the bug form and attach the zip. Issues are public, so never attach Player.log to one. If something stopped appearing after Arena or Magic Online updated, the log change form is the better one. To send a report privately, e-mail it to contact@senseitop.com. A question rather than a problem goes to Discussions.