Use record (auto-keyframe) mode

Auto-keyframe as you work, without touching a single ◆ diamond.

Turn it on

Click ● in the timeline's transport bar (next to play/pause), or use the Record button in the inspector's Anim tab, under "Or record as you work". It's also available through CtrlK as "Toggle auto-keyframe (record mode)". While it's on, the status strip shows a recording indicator so it's obvious the editor is watching for changes.

What counts as "a change"

Any edit to an animatable property on an existing object:

• Typing or dragging a value in an inspector field (position, rotation, scale, opacity, fill/stroke, geometry fields like radius or a function graph's tangentX).
• Dragging the object directly on the canvas.

Both routes go through the same store logic, so there's no difference in the resulting event between "typed a number" and "dragged a handle."

Newly created objects don't get a keyframe for simply existing — the object has to already have existed before the change for record mode to compare a before/after value.

One drag, one keyframe

A single drag gesture — press, move, release — is one keyframe, not one per intermediate frame. The comparison happens between the value before the gesture started and the value after it ended, at the moment you release. Dragging back and forth a dozen times before letting go still produces exactly one event.

Where the keyframe lands

• If the playhead is inside an existing event's time range for that property, the edit retargets that event's end value.
• Otherwise a new event is created running from the property's last keyframe (or scene start) to the current playhead.
• Right at the very start of the scene (under ~0.05s) there's nothing to animate from, so the edit just changes the base value with no animation.

Turning it off

Click ● again (or the same command palette entry). Edits go back to changing the value directly with no animation created. If you want a deliberate, hand-placed keyframe instead, use the ◆ diamond; if you just want one number to travel from A to B, the Animate a value panel at the top of the Anim tab does it in one click. Both are covered in Keyframe any property.