SENTINEL uses a 5-to-1 descending scale modeled on DEFCON and the NIMS EOC Activation Framework (IS-700.b). Level 5 is normal baseline. Level 1 is immediate action โ A Failure of Civility. Each level has a color code, threat picture, and posture statement. Edit these fields to match your specific AO. Doctrinal basis: NIMS IS-700.b, CPG 101 V2, A Failure of Civility (Lawson), SHTF Intelligence (Culper), Survival Theory II (Hollerman).
Trigger events are observable, specific, confirmable conditions โ not feelings. "Civil unrest spreading to neighboring county" is a trigger. "Things feel tense" is not. Each trigger is tied to a specific OPSCON level change. Doctrinal basis: SHTF Intelligence indicator framework (Culper), Survival Theory II threat timeline (Hollerman), CPG 101 V2 threshold events, A Failure of Civility alert criteria (Lawson).
Actions are what make SENTINEL operationally relevant. Without defined actions, a level change is just a number. For each level: what systems activate, what gear is staged, what personnel posture changes, which WATCHMAN modules to reference, and what comms are initiated. Doctrinal basis: AFOC Low/Mid/High Alert procedures (Lawson Ch. 6), NIMS EOC activation protocol (IS-700.b), Retreat Security (Kobler/Goodwin), Contact! stand-to protocol (Max Velocity).
The status log creates accountability and a record for after-action review. When you look back at a crisis, you need to know what you knew, when you knew it, and what decisions were made. Log every level change โ including routine returns to baseline. This data feeds the Status Log Report output. Doctrinal basis: TC 25-20 AAR doctrine; NIMS documentation standards (IS-700.b).
Every group member carries a laminated OPSCON reference card โ wallet-sized, with the five levels, their plain-language meaning, key trigger summary, and 2โ3 immediate actions for each. This card is the entire operational point of the module. Enter your condensed language here and generate from the Outputs panel. Doctrinal basis: A Failure of Civility level dress/posture codes (Lawson); NIMS simplified activation language (IS-700.b).
Wallet-sized card with all 5 levels, trigger summaries, and immediate actions. One per group member. Print, laminate, distribute.
Full action checklist for each OPSCON level. Post in your operations center or watch station.
Printed record of all level changes with timestamps, callers, reasons, and triggers. For AAR and documentation.
Complete readiness condition framework โ all levels, triggers, and actions in one reference document.
This manual assumes you have never opened SENTINEL before and explains everything from zero. Every screen is drawn out and labeled. Work through it in order the first time. After that, use the table of contents to jump to what you need.
SENTINEL is a tool for setting your group's alert level, the same idea as DEFCON in the movies. There are five levels. Level 5 means everything is normal. Level 1 means the worst case. As things get worse, you move down the numbers. As things calm down, you move back up.
The program does four jobs for you:
Everything in SENTINEL hangs off these five levels. The names and colors below are the defaults that ship with the program. You can rename and recolor them later, but the structure stays the same: 5 is calm, 1 is crisis.
Open SENTINEL and you see three areas. The diagram labels each one. You will use these same three areas the entire time.
Do this once, in order. You do not need a crisis to set it up, that is the whole point. Setup happens during calm.
What it does: lets you write, in your own words, what each of the five levels means and how your group should act. This is the foundation. Everything else points back to these five levels.
You see five cards stacked top to bottom, one per level, each in its own color. Here is one card, labeled:
To use it: click into any field and type. There is no separate "edit" button, you just type over what is there. When done, tap โ SAVE LEVELS at the bottom.
What it does: stores the specific warning signs that tell you to change levels. A good trigger is something you can see or confirm, not a feeling. "Civil unrest spreading to the next county" is a trigger. "Things feel tense" is not.
Tap + ADD TRIGGER (top right) and a pop-up form appears. Fill it in and save:
The other boxes (category, source type, notes) are optional detail. Tap โ SAVE TRIGGER when done. Your trigger appears as a card in the list. The filter buttons (ALL, LEVEL 5 ... LEVEL 1) at the top just narrow the list so you can see triggers for one level at a time.
What it does: stores the to-do list for each level, so when you change levels nobody has to figure out what happens next. It works exactly like Module 02, but instead of warning signs you are recording tasks.
Tap + ADD ACTION, fill the form, save. The fields:
Same as Module 02, the filter buttons let you view one level's actions at a time, and CLEAR ALL empties the list (it asks first).
What it does: this is the one you use during an event. It shows the level you are at right now, and it keeps a dated log of every change. Logging a change is what actually sets your current level.
What it does: holds the short, pocket-sized version of each level for the printed card every member carries. Module 01 is the full detail; Module 05 is the wallet-card summary.
You see five small cards, one per level. Each has a few short boxes:
Defaults are already filled in. Shorten the wording so it fits on a card people can read at a glance, then tap โ SAVE CARD DATA. You print the actual card from the Outputs panel (next section).
What it does: receives infrastructure alerts sent over from the Area Intel Map module, things like a nuclear plant alert or a power-grid event near you. You review each one and decide what to do with it.
When an alert arrives, the orange badge appears on the Module 06 menu item. Open it and each alert is a card with two buttons:
You do not have to do anything here for SENTINEL to work. This module is a convenience that connects the map to your alert system. If you never use the Area Intel Map, this inbox simply stays empty.
This panel turns everything you typed into printable paper. Click any GENERATE & PRINT button and your computer's print window opens. Pick your printer, or choose "Save as PDF" to keep a digital copy.
SENTINEL saves everything on this device, in this browser, automatically as you work. Nothing is sent anywhere. It works with no internet. That also means your data is tied to this computer, which is why the Export backup matters.
Top right, next to the gear. It takes you back to the WATCHMAN home menu where all the other modules live. SENTINEL keeps your data safe while you are away.
SENTINEL is full of short military and emergency-management abbreviations. You never have to memorize them. Any acronym on screen has a faint dotted underline. Rest your mouse on it and a small box pops up with the plain-English meaning.
It works on every screen, including the help text and the cards you create. There is nothing to turn on. The full list is in the glossary below if you would rather read it on paper. (You can try it right now: hover AO or OSINT.)
Every acronym SENTINEL uses, in plain language.
| AAR | After Action Review. A structured debrief comparing what was planned against what happened, to capture lessons learned. |
| AFOC | A Failure of Civility. A community-defense reference by Garand and Lawson used for the alert-posture wording. |
| AO | Area of Operations. The area you are responsible for watching and defending. |
| CPG | Comprehensive Preparedness Guide. FEMA planning guidance, such as CPG 101. |
| DEFCON | Defense Readiness Condition. The US military 5-to-1 alert scale this level model is patterned after. |
| EBS | Emergency Broadcast System. Government alert system over radio and TV. |
| EECP | Entry/Exit Control Point. The single guarded way in and out of a secured perimeter. |
| EIA | US Energy Information Administration. Federal source for energy and nuclear facility data. |
| EMS | Emergency Medical Services. Ambulance and paramedic response. |
| EOC | Emergency Operations Center. The hub where leadership coordinates during an incident. |
| EPZ | Emergency Planning Zone. The pre-designated area around a nuclear plant for protective action. |
| ETA | Estimated Time of Arrival. |
| FEMA | Federal Emergency Management Agency. |
| HGL | Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids. Pipeline products such as propane and butane. |
| HUMINT | Human Intelligence. Information from people: conversations, observation, direct contact. |
| IS-700 | The FEMA self-study course introducing the National Incident Management System. |
| LE | Law Enforcement. |
| LEO | Law Enforcement Officer. |
| NIMS | National Incident Management System. FEMA framework for coordinating agencies during incidents. |
| NPP | Neighborhood Protection Plan. The organized local defense plan from A Failure of Civility, used in the Level 1 posture. |
| NRC | Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Regulates nuclear power and declares plant emergencies. |
| OPSCON | Operational Condition. Your group readiness level, the core idea of this module. |
| OSINT | Open Source Intelligence. Information from public sources: news, social media, scanners, records. |
| OSM | OpenStreetMap. The open mapping data behind several infrastructure layers. |
| PSAP | Public Safety Answering Point. The 911 dispatch center that receives emergency calls. |
| SHTF | Preparedness shorthand for a major societal breakdown event. |
| SIGINT | Signals Intelligence. Intelligence from intercepting radio and electronic transmissions. |
| TC | Training Circular. A US Army doctrinal publication, such as TC 25-20. |
| WROL | Without Rule of Law. A scenario where normal legal authority and policing have collapsed. |
No. SENTINEL runs entirely on your device and works fully offline.
There usually is not one. You click straight into a field and type over what is there. On trigger and action cards, an EDIT button reopens the form. Always finish with the green Save button.
No. Your work is saved automatically and is still there when you reopen SENTINEL in the same browser on the same device. For real safety, use Export now and then to keep a backup file.
That is expected. Your data stays on the device where you entered it. To move it, Export on the first device and Import on the second.
Module 01 is the full, detailed definition of each level. Module 05 is the short pocket-card version of the same levels. Fill out 01 first, then boil it down in 05.
No. It only fills up if you use the Area Intel Map and send alerts to SENTINEL. Otherwise leave it alone.
Hover any dotted-underlined acronym on screen, or check the glossary in Section 14.
SENTINEL ships with a demo sandbox — a separate copy of this module pre-loaded with a complete worked example: five defined levels, sample trigger events, actions matched to each level, and a status log covering a full escalation from Level 5 down to Level 2.
In the live module, click DEMO in the sidebar, just under this manual. Inside the demo, that same sidebar slot reads RETURN TO LIVE and takes you back. An amber banner across the top of the demo tells you which copy you are in at all times.
The demo keeps its data in a completely separate storage slot. Nothing you do in the demo — adding, editing, deleting, even clearing everything — can touch your real SENTINEL data. Experiment freely.
The RESET DEMO button (top bar and amber banner) wipes any changes you made in the demo and restores the original sample scenario.
Read a trigger card, then find the action card for the same level and see how they pair. Open Module 04 and study how the log records each level change with its sources. Then open Generate Docs and print the sample — that is exactly what your own finished SENTINEL will produce.
This manual assumes you have never opened SENTINEL before and explains everything from zero. Every screen is drawn out and labeled. Work through it in order the first time. After that, use the table of contents to jump to what you need.
SENTINEL is a tool for setting your group's alert level, the same idea as DEFCON in the movies. There are five levels. Level 5 means everything is normal. Level 1 means the worst case. As things get worse, you move down the numbers. As things calm down, you move back up.
The program does four jobs for you:
Everything in SENTINEL hangs off these five levels. The names and colors below are the defaults that ship with the program. You can rename and recolor them later, but the structure stays the same: 5 is calm, 1 is crisis.
Open SENTINEL and you see three areas. The diagram labels each one. You will use these same three areas the entire time.
Do this once, in order. You do not need a crisis to set it up, that is the whole point. Setup happens during calm.
What it does: lets you write, in your own words, what each of the five levels means and how your group should act. This is the foundation. Everything else points back to these five levels.
You see five cards stacked top to bottom, one per level, each in its own color. Here is one card, labeled:
To use it: click into any field and type. There is no separate "edit" button, you just type over what is there. When done, tap โ SAVE LEVELS at the bottom.
What it does: stores the specific warning signs that tell you to change levels. A good trigger is something you can see or confirm, not a feeling. "Civil unrest spreading to the next county" is a trigger. "Things feel tense" is not.
Tap + ADD TRIGGER (top right) and a pop-up form appears. Fill it in and save:
The other boxes (category, source type, notes) are optional detail. Tap โ SAVE TRIGGER when done. Your trigger appears as a card in the list. The filter buttons (ALL, LEVEL 5 ... LEVEL 1) at the top just narrow the list so you can see triggers for one level at a time.
What it does: stores the to-do list for each level, so when you change levels nobody has to figure out what happens next. It works exactly like Module 02, but instead of warning signs you are recording tasks.
Tap + ADD ACTION, fill the form, save. The fields:
Same as Module 02, the filter buttons let you view one level's actions at a time, and CLEAR ALL empties the list (it asks first).
What it does: this is the one you use during an event. It shows the level you are at right now, and it keeps a dated log of every change. Logging a change is what actually sets your current level.
What it does: holds the short, pocket-sized version of each level for the printed card every member carries. Module 01 is the full detail; Module 05 is the wallet-card summary.
You see five small cards, one per level. Each has a few short boxes:
Defaults are already filled in. Shorten the wording so it fits on a card people can read at a glance, then tap โ SAVE CARD DATA. You print the actual card from the Outputs panel (next section).
What it does: receives infrastructure alerts sent over from the Area Intel Map module, things like a nuclear plant alert or a power-grid event near you. You review each one and decide what to do with it.
When an alert arrives, the orange badge appears on the Module 06 menu item. Open it and each alert is a card with two buttons:
You do not have to do anything here for SENTINEL to work. This module is a convenience that connects the map to your alert system. If you never use the Area Intel Map, this inbox simply stays empty.
This panel turns everything you typed into printable paper. Click any GENERATE & PRINT button and your computer's print window opens. Pick your printer, or choose "Save as PDF" to keep a digital copy.
SENTINEL saves everything on this device, in this browser, automatically as you work. Nothing is sent anywhere. It works with no internet. That also means your data is tied to this computer, which is why the Export backup matters.
Top right, next to the gear. It takes you back to the WATCHMAN home menu where all the other modules live. SENTINEL keeps your data safe while you are away.
SENTINEL is full of short military and emergency-management abbreviations. You never have to memorize them. Any acronym on screen has a faint dotted underline. Rest your mouse on it and a small box pops up with the plain-English meaning.
It works on every screen, including the help text and the cards you create. There is nothing to turn on. The full list is in the glossary below if you would rather read it on paper. (You can try it right now: hover AO or OSINT.)
Every acronym SENTINEL uses, in plain language.
| AAR | After Action Review. A structured debrief comparing what was planned against what happened, to capture lessons learned. |
| AFOC | A Failure of Civility. A community-defense reference by Garand and Lawson used for the alert-posture wording. |
| AO | Area of Operations. The area you are responsible for watching and defending. |
| CPG | Comprehensive Preparedness Guide. FEMA planning guidance, such as CPG 101. |
| DEFCON | Defense Readiness Condition. The US military 5-to-1 alert scale this level model is patterned after. |
| EBS | Emergency Broadcast System. Government alert system over radio and TV. |
| EECP | Entry/Exit Control Point. The single guarded way in and out of a secured perimeter. |
| EIA | US Energy Information Administration. Federal source for energy and nuclear facility data. |
| EMS | Emergency Medical Services. Ambulance and paramedic response. |
| EOC | Emergency Operations Center. The hub where leadership coordinates during an incident. |
| EPZ | Emergency Planning Zone. The pre-designated area around a nuclear plant for protective action. |
| ETA | Estimated Time of Arrival. |
| FEMA | Federal Emergency Management Agency. |
| HGL | Hydrocarbon Gas Liquids. Pipeline products such as propane and butane. |
| HUMINT | Human Intelligence. Information from people: conversations, observation, direct contact. |
| IS-700 | The FEMA self-study course introducing the National Incident Management System. |
| LE | Law Enforcement. |
| LEO | Law Enforcement Officer. |
| NIMS | National Incident Management System. FEMA framework for coordinating agencies during incidents. |
| NPP | Neighborhood Protection Plan. The organized local defense plan from A Failure of Civility, used in the Level 1 posture. |
| NRC | Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Regulates nuclear power and declares plant emergencies. |
| OPSCON | Operational Condition. Your group readiness level, the core idea of this module. |
| OSINT | Open Source Intelligence. Information from public sources: news, social media, scanners, records. |
| OSM | OpenStreetMap. The open mapping data behind several infrastructure layers. |
| PSAP | Public Safety Answering Point. The 911 dispatch center that receives emergency calls. |
| SHTF | Preparedness shorthand for a major societal breakdown event. |
| SIGINT | Signals Intelligence. Intelligence from intercepting radio and electronic transmissions. |
| TC | Training Circular. A US Army doctrinal publication, such as TC 25-20. |
| WROL | Without Rule of Law. A scenario where normal legal authority and policing have collapsed. |
No. SENTINEL runs entirely on your device and works fully offline.
There usually is not one. You click straight into a field and type over what is there. On trigger and action cards, an EDIT button reopens the form. Always finish with the green Save button.
No. Your work is saved automatically and is still there when you reopen SENTINEL in the same browser on the same device. For real safety, use Export now and then to keep a backup file.
That is expected. Your data stays on the device where you entered it. To move it, Export on the first device and Import on the second.
Module 01 is the full, detailed definition of each level. Module 05 is the short pocket-card version of the same levels. Fill out 01 first, then boil it down in 05.
No. It only fills up if you use the Area Intel Map and send alerts to SENTINEL. Otherwise leave it alone.
Hover any dotted-underlined acronym on screen, or check the glossary in Section 14.
SENTINEL ships with a demo sandbox — a separate copy of this module pre-loaded with a complete worked example: five defined levels, sample trigger events, actions matched to each level, and a status log covering a full escalation from Level 5 down to Level 2.
In the live module, click DEMO in the sidebar, just under this manual. Inside the demo, that same sidebar slot reads RETURN TO LIVE and takes you back. An amber banner across the top of the demo tells you which copy you are in at all times.
The demo keeps its data in a completely separate storage slot. Nothing you do in the demo — adding, editing, deleting, even clearing everything — can touch your real SENTINEL data. Experiment freely.
The RESET DEMO button (top bar and amber banner) wipes any changes you made in the demo and restores the original sample scenario.
Read a trigger card, then find the action card for the same level and see how they pair. Open Module 04 and study how the log records each level change with its sources. Then open Generate Docs and print the sample — that is exactly what your own finished SENTINEL will produce.