The timer time-boxes an activity for the whole room. Set it going and the Timer button in the bottom bar shows the clock for every participant, ticking in sync. It comes in two flavours: a countdown for "you have five minutes", and a stopwatch for "let us see how long this takes".
Setting it up
Press the Timer button in the bottom bar (in Facilitate and Plan mode, and on an Event Storming board) to open the set-up above it. You need edit access to run it, and while someone is the facilitator it is theirs to run.
You can also put the timer on the canvas: a session button set to Timer counts down where it sits, carrying its own pause, resume and reset. It is the same timer as the Timer button's, not a second one, which is what lets a template ship its own running order.
Choose Countdown or Stopwatch. For a countdown, set the length by dragging the handle round the dial (the coloured wedge is the time; one lap is an hour), tapping a preset (1, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes), or using the − and + buttons for a minute at a time, from one minute up to two hours (past an hour, the dial shows an extra ring). The dial also takes the arrow keys, with Home for one minute and End for an hour.
Press the start button, which names what it will do (Start 5 min countdown, or Start stopwatch). While it runs the dial becomes the clock, the wedge shrinking as time goes, with a Running, Paused or Time's up label above it. Underneath you can Pause and Resume, Reset back to the start, or End the timer altogether. A countdown also offers +30s, +1 min, and +5 min to give the room a little longer without starting over, and Again once it reaches zero.
While it runs, the wedge turns amber in the last minute and red at zero, so the dial reads at a glance. A tab runs one timer at a time: while one exists the panel shows it rather than the set-up, and you end it to start a different kind. The timer is scoped to the tab, so each tab can have its own. Because it syncs like everything else, anyone who joins late or reloads sees the current time straight away rather than a fresh clock.
What everyone sees
The live clock shows on the Timer button in the bottom bar, right after Undo and Redo, ticking smoothly while it runs. A countdown also drains: the button starts fully tinted and empties from left to right as the time goes, so someone across the room can read how long is left without parsing the digits. It turns red and flashes when it reaches 0:00 so the room knows time is up. A stopwatch has no end to work towards, so it gets no fill. There is no sound.
Press the button to open the timer above it. People with edit access get the dial with +30s, +1 min and +5 min, plus Reset, Pause or Resume, and End; view-only visitors get the same dial to read. While no timer runs, the button shows just its icon, and pressing it opens the set-up, so you can start one from there too.
How it stays in sync
Rather than sending a tick across the network every second, each participant's clock works out the time locally from a shared anchor point: the moment a countdown will end, or the instant a stopwatch started. Everyone computes the same value from that anchor, so the clock stays in step without constant network chatter. Pausing freezes the value, and resuming re-anchors it.
The clock is shared but not second-perfect across machines: tiny differences in device clocks are fine for a workshop timer. It is there to keep the room roughly together, not to referee a stopwatch race.
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