The footer says Sentinel not running. What should I do?

Sentinel starts at login, and Navigator tries to start it again when it finds it stopped. Premiere asks you to allow that, so choose Allow. If nothing happens, log out and back in.

Tiles are empty and nothing is building. What should I do?

Look for the card under the toolbar saying folders need permission, and click Allow. If ffmpeg is still downloading, the footer shows its progress.

Why does a clip show an amber state?

Navigator could not read that file, usually because ffmpeg cannot decode the format. That clip costs its own tile and nothing else.

The ffmpeg download keeps restarting. Why?

A dropped connection starts the download again from the beginning. On a slow or metered connection, let it finish once. It is never downloaded again.

Getting Started

Navigator is a footage browser that docks inside Premiere Pro. This page gets you from download to your first scrubbed thumbnail in about ten minutes, most of which is one download.

Quick install

Close Premiere Pro. The installer adds a panel to it, which it can only do while Premiere is shut.
Run the installer. Navigator-Setup.exe on Windows or Navigator.pkg on a Mac. It installs two things: the panel, and a small background app, Sentinel for Narrative Node, that makes your thumbnails.
Open Premiere and your project. Then choose Window › UXP Plugins › Navigator by Narrative Node and dock the panel wherever you like. Premiere keeps it at least 480 pixels wide.

Your first run

The ffmpeg download

Navigator reads your footage with ffmpeg, which it downloads the first time it runs, about 170 MB. The footer shows the progress. Every download is checked against its published SHA-256 checksum before it's used.

Offline? The panel says so and keeps trying. Your bins, names and durations all show up in the meantime. Only the pictures wait.

Letting Sentinel read your footage

Sentinel only reads folders you have allowed. If your project uses media from somewhere new, like a card copy on a second drive, a card appears under the toolbar saying how many folders need permission. Click Allow and the thumbnails start building within a second or two. No restart.

On a big project the first pass takes a while. Previews for the whole project are built in the background at low priority, so you can keep working while they arrive.

Where to get help

Email [email protected]. It goes to the person who wrote the plugin. If something looks broken, attach the panel log: Settings › Save log. It records what Sentinel was doing and which step failed, which usually saves a round of questions.

Installation

Windows

The installer is per-user, so there's no admin prompt. Sentinel goes into your own programs folder and starts when you log in:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Narrative Node

The panel is added to Premiere through Adobe's plugin installer, which may ask you to confirm a plugin that isn't from Adobe Exchange. If Creative Cloud isn't available, the installer tells you to double-click the .ccx file instead.

A new certificate can still trigger a "Windows protected your PC" screen for the first few hundred installs. Choose More info › Run anyway. The installer is signed.

macOS

The package is signed and notarised by Apple. Sentinel lives here and starts at login:

/Library/Application Support/Narrative Node

Uninstalling

On Windows, use Settings › Apps. Uninstalling stops Sentinel, removes the panel, and deletes the downloaded ffmpeg and the preview cache. Your projects and footage are never touched.

Licensing & Activation

The free trial

Every feature works for seven days from the first time you open Navigator. No card, no account. The panel's footer tells you how many days are left.

Buying and activating

Pick a plan on the pricing page. Checkout is handled by Lemon Squeezy. The refund policy explains how cancellations and refunds work.
Your license key arrives by email, and it's always on your Lemon Squeezy orders page.
When the trial ends, or sooner if you like, paste the key into the panel and it activates.

Two computers, and working offline

One license covers two computers, say an edit workstation and a laptop. A licensed computer keeps working offline for 7 days and checks in again the next time it's connected.

If your computer's clock is set backwards, the trial can't be measured and the panel asks you to fix the time. That's deliberate.

Features

Navigator uses Premiere's own shortcuts wherever Premiere has one, so there's little new to learn.

Key	What it does
`I` `O`	Mark in and out on the frame under the pointer
`F`	Mark the range as a favourite
`R`	Mark the range as a reject
`U`	Take the rating off
`,` `.`	Insert or overwrite into the open sequence
`Ctrl` `V`	Paste a copied image into the open bin

Bin tree. Click a bin to open it, click again to fold. Drag folders to reorder them. Only your view changes, never the project.
Search. Type in the search box and the matching clips fill the grid. Premiere's own Project panel returns the folders that hold a match, so you open each one to find the clip.
Hover-scrub. Move across any thumbnail. Use the slider in the toolbar to change thumbnail size.
Export In to Out. Right-click a marked clip. Choose ProRes, DNxHR or a straight copy. H.264 and HEVC appear when your graphics card can encode them.
Asset folders. Link Video Assets, Music and SFX folders in Settings. Click to listen, double-click to import.
Gather outside files. The blue Export icon in the footer copies files from outside the project folder into Assets/Assets from Narrative Node.

Troubleshooting

The footer says "Sentinel not running": Sentinel starts at login, and Navigator tries to start it again when it finds it stopped. Premiere asks you to allow that, so choose Allow. If nothing happens, log out and back in. The panel still shows your bins without Sentinel, just no pictures.
Tiles are empty and nothing is building: Look for the card under the toolbar saying folders need permission, and click Allow. If ffmpeg is still downloading, the footer shows its progress.
A clip shows an amber state: Sentinel couldn't read that file. It's usually a format ffmpeg can't decode. That clip costs its own tile and nothing else.
The ffmpeg download keeps restarting: A dropped connection starts it again from the beginning. On a slow or metered connection, let it finish once; it's never downloaded again.

Still stuck? Save the log from Settings › Save log and email it to [email protected].

Release Notes

1.0.0

First release

Bin tree, hover-scrub thumbnails, favourites and rejects on ranges, Export In to Out, paste from the web, linked asset folders, and gathering outside files into the project.