Quick-Start Guide

Watch out! If you read through the topics on the left you will have a very good idea of how Artisan works. This Quick-Start-Guide is not intended to answer all technical questions.

Artisan Quick-Start Guide is maintained by Michael Herbert of CarefreeBuzzBuzz. If you have suggestions for improving the content of the Quick-Start-Guide or technical questions, please use the Artisan discussion forum (GitHub registration required). When clicking links in this Quick-Start-Guide, we suggest you open links in a new window. You can also find a great deal of more advanced information at the Artisan Blog. Use the search bar in the upper left.

artisan.plus

Introduced as part of Artisan v2, artisan.plus is an inventory management system which is not covered in the Quick Start Guide. Artisan v2 connects to the inventory management service. This service manages your stock of beans and automatically subtracts batches as you roast them. Beans can be specified to every detail and only essential meta data of roasts is stored online in the cloud. All roast profiles stay local just with you and are not shared with the platform. You can read the Artisan Plus Quick Start Guide. Signing up for this service is a great way to support Artisan.

Additional popup menus in the Roast Properties dialog (menu Roast » Properties) allow you to choose from your stock and have beans information filled in automatically.

The artisan.plus service features support for

multiple users, machines and stores
blends & certifications
charts, tax reports & predictions
Support for offline roasting which Cropster doesn’t. Your roasts and profiles are uploaded when you reconnect to Plus.

Learn what Artisan can do and Your First Roast

Best Practices - Learn to save your settings. Go to Help » Save Settings
Maybe the most important step. Save your settings and make a habit of it before every upgrade and when you change settings. Also after installing a new version do two things; read the release notes so you can spot anything relevant to your roasting, and look over the shortcuts as new ones are often being added.

Skim the pages of this Quick Start Guide, learn what Artisan RoasterScope can do, and then go back and read the pages of interest in detail. For each roast, an Artisan “profile” will be created and can be saved in various formats and can be exported for sharing under File>Save Graph (be sure to review these). For most of the topics below, you will find a page in this Quick Start Guide, and some are linked.

New as of 2026 are User Interface Modes: Standard, Expert, and Production. Artisan 4 starts in Standard mode, which restricts menus and dialogs to basic configurations and functionalities. By using the Mode menu, Artisan can be switched to Expert mode, which restores full functionality, similar to previous versions. Additionally, there’s a Production mode that hides all configuration options and features only the UI elements and functions necessary for production.

Standard Mode Choices

Config » Temperature
Pick ˚F or ˚C.
Run Config » Machine and make sure the LCDs show your temps. Some of these configurations will change the sampling rate of the temperature readings, and that’s ok. If your LCD’s don’t show your temperatures, make sure your devices are connected correctly and that you have chosen the correct machine configuration.
Config» Events and Config » Alarms
This is where you will focus your most time in setting things up the first time. Config » Events and Config » Alarms
These are critical, but they also take some work. Although if your temps are being read, you can start with the defaults,it’s really critical that you read the QSG in detail so that you get the broad perspective of possiblities. Decide which boxes you want to check, including Auto DROP and Auto CHARGE. I use Auto DROP and Auto CHARGE. If you use Auto CHARGE, make sure you hit Start at least 10 seconds before you drop your beans. I mark TP, MET and I show the Time Guide. For both Buttons and Alarms, there are additional settings in Expert Mode. If you want to configure buttons or sliders to record gas changes you will need to be in Expert mode.
Config » Axes
See if the defaults are what you might expect and make adjustments if you think you need them.
Config » Batch
Choose a prefix name and turn on the counter.
Config » Autosave
Check autosave and add to recent. Choose a location and set the path. If you use cloud storage, you can access your profiles from any device anywhere. Choose a file name prefix. Check the Help screen to decide what to include. See the Quick Start Guide for examples. If you don’t use Autosave, then use File » Report, or File » Save Graph to export reports on your roasts and graphs to post. You can use “;” to take a screenshot. Use File » Save To for the profile itself.
Config » Phases
For Phases LCD mode, choose time for Drying, Temp for Maillard, and check the box Phases LCD All in the Finishing Line. Other choices are yours.
Roast » Properties
Fill in the information and start saving the various roast profiles that you may use again as described in Step 6. You can click on the Roast Title line on top of the graph to open the Roast Properties dialog.
Tools Menu
Once you have roasted a few batches, go back and read the documentation on the items in the Tools menu: Comparator and Designer. In Expert mode you will also have Analyzer,Simulator, Wheel Graph, Transposer and Calculator.
Shortcuts
Go to Help » Shortcuts to see what keyboard shortcuts are available.
Standard Mode personalization
Config » Themes to explore the options.

Expert Mode Choices

Config » Sampling
Leave at 3 for now. After you have done 25-30 roasts and know the program better you can reduce it if your devices support that. Under Curves your Delta Span should be at least twice your sampling rate.
Config » Curves
Check the boxes needed on the RoR tab and set the values on the Filters page. Suggest you start with zero for all smoothing and check the Drop Spikes and Smooth Spikes choices. Set Delta Span at twice your sampling rate (3 by default) so 6. If you find zero smoothing give you too many spikes, slowing increase the numbers. Once you have an Artisan profile, you can change the numbers and see the results on screen. Also in theConfig » Curves dialog, last tab, UI, you can pick a font and background image, IF you wish to personalize your screen.
Config » Statistics
Check all the boxes on the top row.
Roast » Background
See the documentation on how to load a profile into the background to follow during roasting.
Expert Mode Events Buttons and Alarms
In Expert Mode, you can have the Default Buttons run an Alarm and you have access to custom Buttons and Annotations under Config » Events. For Buttons in Expert Mode choosing the Label of the Button and the Description are important. The Description will show your graph, using the Event Annotations - last tab. Make sure you complete the Event Annotations tab so you can see your gas and air changes on your profile. Design Alarms as you need them. I love talking Alarms to remind me of temps and return my air to the starting point. I also use Alarms to mark my initial settings. There are a few additional Alarm settings in Expert mode in the bottom row including Load From Profile and Load from Background.
Tools Menu In Expert Mode you will also have Analyzer,Simulator, Wheel Graph, Transposer and Calculator. After you have completed some roasting, please watch the video Getting the Most from Artisan’s Tools to learn more about how to improve your roasting.
Expert Mode Personalization includes Colors Config » Colors. For some graph configuations, they are accessed with the last icon in the set on the left on the Roast graph (the one with jagged up arrow).

The main controls look like this:

Artisan’s standard event buttons are as follows: Artisan buttons

In the upper right of your screen, ON starts reading the Devices. START will begin a roast profile recording the time and temps. After you hit START, wait at least 15 seconds, before you drop your beans into the roaster and hit CHARGE (or use Auto CHARGE) to get a ∆BT graph. Without a CHARGE event there is no ∆BT graph. Using the trier, when you determine you are at Dry End, hit the DRY END button, and do the same for FC START, and DROP. After the roast completes, hit the off button. Congratulations on your first roast. At the end of the roast you hit OFF to stop the recording. When you hit RESET, the current profile and background profile are removed and Artisan is reset to be ready for a new roast. You don’t have to RESET after every roast.

NOTE: Unplug Your Laptop Before You Roast

For some people, unless you have a USB isolator, you need to unplug your computer when using Artisan or you may get feedback loops that may create unwanted spikes in the graph. If you are using a desktop, you may need an isolator if you are seeing the spikes.

Before or after your first roast, look at the Setup page to see how to adjust your bean temp readings and your sampling rates.

You can save your graphs under File » Save Graph to various size formats or PDF. You can also convert your data to other formats and export it under the File » Convert and File » Export commands. You can import another roaster’s file under File » Import.

To review your own files you can use File » Open and search for a file or use the list under File » Open Recent. When starting a roast you can choose File » New and pick one of the previous Roast Profiles you may have saved.

Quick-Start Guide

Michael Herbert