Bin catalog

Catalog loose shop stock by photo. Scan a bin tag, put the parts under a camera and take a photo: Claude reads it and lists every item, and the items go into stock in that bin. Later, search for anything ("4 in box cover") and see which bin it's in.

It needs Advanced Inventory and bins (see Bins and scanning).

1. Start
   Open Inventory → Bin catalog and click Open station
2. 1
   Scan the bin's tag: the bin code shows large at the top
3. 2
   Put the parts under the camera and press Space, the pedal or Take photo
4. Tip
   Keep going: photos upload in the background
5. 3
   Claude lists the items in each photo
6. ?

   Is Claude sure?
   Yes

   1. The items go into stock in that bin

   No

   1. They wait on Review for you to check
7. Done
   Search finds them by name, spec or part number, with the bin

Set up the station

• Camera: a USB webcam on a laptop, or a phone or tablet. Open the station in Chrome or Safari and click Start camera (a phone asks for permission the first time). Pick another camera from the Camera list.
• Scanner: a USB barcode scanner that types like a keyboard works anywhere on the page.
• Foot pedal: program it to send F13, F14 or F15 and choose that key under Settings on the Bin catalog page. Space works too.
• Light: even light from above, a plain mat that contrasts with the parts, and labels facing up give the best results. Several separate items in one photo is fine.

Catalog a bin

1. Scan the bin's tag (or click Scan bin and use the phone's camera). The top bar turns green with the bin code. Red means no bin is chosen and photos are refused.
2. Put items under the camera and take a photo. Take as many as you like; each one shows on the right with a spinner until Claude has read it.
3. Each item shows its name, quantity, unit and category. Change any of them in place.
   • In stock: Claude was sure enough, and it's already in the bin.
   • Check: click ✓ to put it into stock, or ✕ if it's wrong.
4. Scan a product barcode to add one of it to the bin. A barcode Kaniva doesn't know yet is added for review as Unknown UPC.

Keys: Ctrl+Z removes the last photo and anything it added to stock. R opens review for the bin.

Coiled wire and tubing are counted in feet and marked as estimates. Stock is kept in whole units, so "about 20.4 ft" is 20.

Review

Review lists everything Claude wasn't sure of, with the photo and a box around the item. Enter confirms it into stock, E edits the name, D deletes it, and the ↓ ↑ keys move between items.

When a confirmed item matches a product by UPC or part number, it goes on that product's inventory item. A store-bought product whose UPC was cataloged before goes on the same item, whichever bin it's in. The same name already in the bin adds to that item. If the units differ (feet in the photo, each on the shelf), it waits for review with a note.

Find something

The Bin catalog page searches names, specs, brands, part numbers and UPCs across everything in your bins, with the bin code in large type. Narrow it by category, by bin or shelf (everything under a shelf counts), or to items waiting for review.

By barcode: scan a store-bought product's barcode on this page (or type its UPC) and it shows which bins it's in. A 12-digit UPC and the 13-digit EAN of the same product both work. It finds the UPC on the product in your catalog, or one read off the packaging in a photo or scanned at the station.

When an item with a UPC is confirmed, the UPC is kept on the inventory item, so the Scan box anywhere in Kaniva finds that item by its barcode too.

Barcodes Kaniva doesn't know

When you scan a store-bought product's barcode that matches nothing in Kaniva, or Claude reads one off packaging, Kaniva can look it up on UPCitemdb, a public product database:

• A scanned barcode gets the product's name, brand, model number and description in place of Unknown UPC.
• A photo keeps Claude's name; the brand and model number are filled in if they were empty, and the database's name is added as a note.

Either way the item waits on Review, marked From UPCitemdb, because the database can be wrong. Each barcode is looked up once. If a lookup can't be made (the day's limit is used up), the item says so and you name it yourself.

To turn it on, add a key from a UPCitemdb plan under Settings on the Bin catalog page (Barcode lookups).

A bin's page

Click a bin code to see what's in it, its photos and when it was last cataloged.

• Move: tick items, scan or type the other bin's code and click Move. Each move is a stock movement.
• Print contents sheet opens a sheet to print and tape to the bin.
• Re-catalog bin clears what's waiting for review there and opens the station on it. Stock already confirmed stays until you count the bin (see Count and adjust stock).

Settings

Owners and admins can change these under Settings on the Bin catalog page:

• Add to stock without asking when Claude is at least … sure (default 0.75). Set 1 to review everything.
• Photo key, Largest photo size, Photos per minute.
• Keep the full photos: off keeps only small photos once read.
• Categories Claude chooses from.
• The month's photos, tokens and failed photos, with Read failed photos again.

Photos are read with your own Anthropic key from Settings → AI when you've saved one. Without one, Kaniva's key reads a free number of photos each month: 25 on Pay As You Go, 100 on Solo and 200 on Shop.