Something went wrong

Every failure in the console says three things: what happened, in a sentence; what to do, when there is something to do; and a reference, eight letters and digits you can read to whoever runs your server. It never shows a code word, a setting name from the server, or a wall of technical text. Your positions and the Executor are unaffected by anything on this page: an error in the console is a problem with a screen or a request, never with the orders already at the broker.

The shapes you will see

A screen that could not load

The screen's name, "didn't load" or "is not available to you here", one sentence why, the reference, and Try again when trying again can help

A button that was refused

A red notice at the bottom right: "Approve refused" (or the verb you pressed) with the server's reason and the reference

A dropped connection

"Network hiccup": nothing reached Bellwether and nothing changed; check the connection and press again

"Updated to the latest version"

Bellwether was updated while your page was open; the page reloaded itself once, where you were

Try again appears only when the same action may work a moment later: a brief outage, a busy server, a dropped connection. A refusal (you are not allowed, the thing no longer exists, something changed since the page loaded) does not offer it, because the answer will be the same. Refresh the page or change what you asked for instead.

What the reference is for

The reference is the tail of an id the server stamped on the failure the moment it happened. The same id is on the server's log line, together with the screen you were on, the book, and the build of the console you were running, so "I got reference 5N7B1C0X on Risk around ten" is enough for whoever runs the server to find exactly what happened without asking you to reproduce it. A failure that never reached the server (the connection dropped, or something in the page itself broke) gets a reference too, and the console reports it on your behalf the moment it can.

What Bellwether already knows

You do not need to send a screenshot. When a screen fails to load, a button is refused, the page itself breaks, or an update moves the page's files, the console files a short report automatically: the reference, the screen, the book, the console build, and the one-line reason. Nothing you typed and nothing about your account travels with it. Activity › Alerts is still where trading problems (a halt, a broker outage, a session that failed) appear; console errors go to the server log, not to your alerts.

Updates never break an open page

Bellwether ships often. A page you opened this morning keeps working after an update: the files it may still ask for stay available for weeks after they were replaced, and when the page notices a newer version (you come back to the tab, or it reaches for something that moved) it reloads itself once, at the same address, and says "Updated to the latest version". If you were typing, it waits for your next click instead. If a page ever says it "needs the latest version", press Reload; that is the same thing by hand.

When to tell someone

• The same reference keeps coming back after a reload and a minute's wait.
• A screen says it is not available to you and you think it should be: the book's owner sets your role.
• You pressed Halt and saw an error: use Halt from another device or tab that loads, then report the reference. The kill switch also lives at the broker; see Broker disconnected.

Consult can read this article back to you ("what does reference mean?"), but it cannot look up a specific reference yet; whoever runs the server can.