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Document arm manual mode and GetProperties in arm guides - #5409

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Eliza Farley (elizafarley) merged 2 commits into
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claude/docs-4938-plan-5af51d
Oct 13, 2026
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Eliza Farley (elizafarley) merged 2 commits into
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claude/docs-4938-plan-5af51d

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@elizafarley Eliza Farley (elizafarley) commented Oct 13, 2026 •

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Refs DOCS-4938 (epic RSDK-14445)

The API reference for SetManualMode, GetManualMode and GetProperties landed in #5360. This PR updates the prose pages that still described the old workaround or didn't mention the new API.

Changes

  • Pick-and-place tutorial, Phase 3 (03-static-positions.md): replaces the {"enter_manual_mode": true} DoCommand workaround with the Control card's ManualMode row: Enter/Exit, the Enable after countdown and the Enabled for limit. Labels and defaults come from viamrobotics/test-widgets (arm/manual-mode.svelte). Also adds a warning to support the arm, since some arms release their joints entirely in manual mode. The tutorial's viam:ufactory:xArm6 supports the new API (RSDK-14460). Phase 6 explains do_command on its own, so removing the DoCommand explanation here leaves nothing dangling.
  • Add an arm (add-an-arm.md): adds manual mode to Concepts, notes that manual mode and direct end-effector commands vary by model (check with GetProperties), and adds a test step for the ManualMode row.
  • Move an arm overview (move-an-arm/overview.md): notes that arms reporting support_cartesian_commands: false don't implement MoveToPosition and must be moved through the motion service, and that the Control card locks to Motion service mode for them (RSDK-14472).

Not in this PR

  • Guidance for module authors: the Go arm.Arm interface (RDK v1.7.0+) and the Python Arm class (SDK v0.82.0+) now require the three new methods. This is deferred to a follow-up.
  • A how-to for manual mode from code: waiting on wider module support. Universal Robots, Fairino and SO-101 are in progress; Franka and Dobot are in the backlog.

Checks

  • prettier 3.2.5, markdownlint and vale 3.12.0: clean on all changed files.
  • scripts/frontmatter_rules.py passes.
  • make build-prod passes, and the #getproperties links resolve in the built site.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Replace the pick-and-place tutorial's enter_manual_mode DoCommand
workaround with the Control card's ManualMode controls, add manual mode
and per-model feature support to the add-an-arm guide, and note on the
move-an-arm overview that arms without Cartesian support must be moved
through the motion service.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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@viambot viambot added the safe to build This pull request is marked safe to build from a trusted zone label Oct 13, 2026
@jeremyrose-viam

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Suggestion on the manual mode caution: in 03-static-positions.md it's the last sentence of a long bullet, and in add-an-arm.md it's folded into a test-step bullet. An arm that releases its joints can drop, so it would be more visible as an {{% alert %}} warning than as inline prose. The PR description calls it a warning, but it isn't formatted as one. Not blocking.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@elizafarley
Eliza Farley (elizafarley) merged commit 06a4933 into main Oct 13, 2026
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@elizafarley
Eliza Farley (elizafarley) deleted the claude/docs-4938-plan-5af51d branch October 13, 2026 18:23
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3 participants