Development

How to create and modify aircraft deck configurations.

Project structure

cockpitdecks-configs/
├── decks/                      # Aircraft configurations
│   └── cirrus-sr22/
│       ├── README.md           # Aircraft-specific notes
│       └── deckconfig/         # Symlinked into X-Plane aircraft folder
│           ├── config.yaml     # Aircraft-level config
│           └── loupedecklive1/ # Layout for a specific deck
│               ├── config.yaml # Layout defaults (fonts, colours, home page)
│               ├── index.yaml  # Home page
│               ├── engine.yaml # Functional pages
│               └── encoders/   # Encoder sub-pages
├── scripts/                    # Repo support scripts
└── mkdocs.yml

Config hierarchy

Configs follow a hierarchy: Aircraft → Layout → Page → Button.

Aircraft config

The top-level config.yaml in each deckconfig/ folder defines the aircraft and which decks it supports:

aircraft: Cirrus SR22
icao: SR22
decks:
  loupedeck1:
    type: LoupedeckLive
    layout: loupedecklive1
    brightness: 80

It can also include global dataref rounding settings to reduce WebSocket churn.

Layout config

Each layout folder (e.g. loupedecklive1/) contains its own config.yaml with display defaults:

default-label-font: DIN Condensed
default-label-size: 14
default-label-color: white
default-label-position: ct
default-home-page-name: index

Page files

Each .yaml file in the layout folder defines a page of buttons. Pages can include shared fragments and encoder sub-pages:

name: switches
includes: pager, encoders/encoders_fcu
buttons:
  - index: 0
    type: push
    command: sim/electrical/battery_1_toggle
    label: "BAT"
    formula: ${sim/cockpit2/electrical/battery_on[0]}

Button types

Type Description
page Navigates to another page
push Single command on press
begin-end-command Command on press and release (for multi-position switches)
none Display only, no interaction

Buttons use formula with ${dataref} syntax to read live state from X-Plane.

Adding a new aircraft

  1. Create a folder under decks/ matching the X-Plane aircraft directory name
  2. Add a deckconfig/ folder with a config.yaml
  3. Create a layout folder for your deck (e.g. loupedecklive1/)
  4. Add a layout config.yaml with display defaults
  5. Add page .yaml files for each cockpit function
  6. Symlink deckconfig/ into the X-Plane aircraft folder

Tip: Start by copying an existing aircraft config with a similar cockpit. The Cessna 172 SP is a good starting point for GA aircraft.

Aircraft documentation

Aircraft-specific documentation should live in each aircraft folder as README.md.

Prefer maintaining:

  • install notes
  • supported layouts
  • page summaries
  • aircraft-specific dependencies

Avoid rebuilding a separate generated docs layer unless there is a clear need for it again.

To preview the docs site locally:

mkdocs serve

VS Code YAML support

For YAML validation in VS Code, add the following to your workspace settings:

{
  "yaml.schemas": {
    "https://json.schemastore.org/mkdocs-1.0.json": "mkdocs.yml"
  }
}