Hardware

Keel connects your flows to printers and barcode scanners. Print labels after picking, scan items during receiving, or capture barcodes for inventory counts.

What's supported

Label printers — ZPL-compatible thermal printers (Zebra, Honeywell, SATO). Print shipping labels, bin labels, product tags. Map logical printer names to different physical printers per workstation.

Barcode scanners — USB, Bluetooth, or mobile handhelds. Most scanners work out of the box via keyboard emulation. Serial scanners work through QZ Tray.

Setup

Install QZ Tray on workstations that need to print or use serial scanners: qz.io/download (opens in a new tab)
Connect your devices (USB, network, Bluetooth)
Configure in Console: Settings > Devices

Device settings are stored locally, so different workstations can use different hardware.

Using hardware in flows

Scanning

ctx.ui.inputs.scan("barcode", {
  title: "Scan item barcode",
});

Printing

ctx.ui.interactive.print({
  jobs: [
    {
      type: "zpl",
      data: zplLabelContent,
      printer: "Shipping Label Printer",
    },
  ],
});

Next steps

Printing — Set up printers and print from flows
Scanning — Set up scanners and capture barcodes

Members & Access Printing