Upon startup, Stacy will be in editor mode. In that mode, you will see the component grid on the left (B1:I8) with each lit-up buttons representing a component. The right-hand controller will show the instance grid (K1:R8) which will be at first empty.

To create an instance of a component, press and hold that component on the left, then press in succession the buttons on the right where you want to place first the inputs and then the output of your component. The inputs will be shown in orange and the output in red. Finally, release the component button on the left. If you release the component button early, the instantiation process will be canceled.

Once in place, each instance is shown as a green button on the instance grid. If you press that button, the corresponding component will be shown in orange on the component grid and the input locations of that instance will be shown in orange on the instance grid. This allows you to read the graph of most circuits by "chasing the inputs".

The instance grid is 8x8 in size, but there are eight "pages" that provide a working area of 8x64 cells. Of all cells, the top-right corner of the first page (R1) is special: it represents the output of the circuit. The signal sent to that cell will be sent back to the user as audio and visual feedbacks. The output signal has type (Audio,(UI,UI)) and can be constructed with two multiplexers.

The buttons around the edges of the two grids have various functions:

• The button at A1 allows you to delete instances.
• The button at B0 switches between editor mode and user mode.
• The five buttons shown in green on the diagram (C0:F0 and I0) control the utility functions (save, load and dumps).
• The eight buttons above the right grid (K0:R0) are the user controls.
• The eight buttons to the side of the right grid (S1:S8) are the instance grid page selector.

The four utility functions are, in order:

• Save the content of the instance grid to the save file (Data/stacy.save)
• Load the state file in the instance grid
• Load the state file and start a dump (until next load)
• Start the playback of a dump