Up and running in 15 minutes

1Install the app

1. Download NorthKeep for Mac (Apple Silicon, macOS 13.5 or newer).
2. Open the downloaded file and drag NorthKeep onto the Applications folder.
3. Open NorthKeep from Applications. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens like any other Mac app.

If macOS ever hesitates on first open: right-click the app, choose Open, then Open again.

2Create your vault

The first run walks you through it:

1. Choose a passphrase. This encrypts everything. Pick something long you will remember.
2. The app creates a device secret file on your Mac. Back it up somewhere safe (a password manager note or a printed copy works).

3Connect a model

NorthKeep talks to AI models you choose. The easiest path:

1. Open the Converse tab and click Connect a model.
2. Pick your provider: Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Grok, or OpenRouter. The wizard links you to the provider's key page, and shows relative cost up front.
3. Paste your API key. It is stored in your Mac's Keychain, never in a file, and never sent to us.

Want fully local instead? Install Ollama and NorthKeep will detect it and offer a one-click model install. Local chats never leave your machine at all.

4Have your first conversation

1. In Converse, type a message and hit Send.
2. Watch the badge next to the toolbar: PRIVATE means the model runs on your machine and nothing leaves it. BOUNDED means your text goes to a cloud model, but only after masking.
3. Each reply shows which model answered and roughly what the turn cost.

NorthKeep remembers useful facts from your chats automatically. Every new memory appears with an Undo button, and you can browse and edit them all in the Memories tab.

5See the privacy working

This is the part worth two minutes of your time:

1. Set the tier picker to Tier 3 (the maximum: names, dates, addresses, record numbers).
2. Send a message containing something sensitive, or attach a document with the paperclip.
3. On the reply, open "What left this machine". You will see every masked item, real value to placeholder, plus the exact text that was sent. Shown on your screen only, never stored.

Tier 1 masks secrets like emails, phones, and account numbers. Tier 2 also pseudonymizes names. Tier 3 adds dates, addresses, and record numbers, built for working with sensitive documents.

6Give your AI apps your memory

This is what makes NorthKeep different: the AI apps you already pay for get your memory, on your terms.

1. Open the Connect tab.
2. Click Connect next to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or ChatGPT. Pick which scope of memories the app may see.
3. Restart that app. Ask it "what do you know about me?" and watch it answer from your vault.

7Optional: your phone and other devices

The Sync + Cloud Connect subscription ($10/month) adds the two hosted pieces:

• Sync moves your encrypted vault between machines. Our server holds ciphertext it cannot read.
• Cloud Connect (Beta) shares chosen scopes to Claude and ChatGPT wherever you use them, including your phone. Open the Cloud Connect tab, share a scope (you confirm exactly what leaves), then pair your app with the URL and one-time code shown.

Design partners: your subscription is on us during the pilot. Just tell Jay when you reach this step.

8Optional: bring your history

Already have months of ChatGPT or Claude conversations? Request your data export from the provider, then drop the export file into NorthKeep's Import wizard. Extraction runs on your machine, and you review every proposed memory before it is kept.

9Optional: let your apps keep a journal

Once Cloud Connect is paired, your AI apps can write back as well as read. That enables something no single vendor offers: a record of your conversations across every app, in a vault you own. Manus, Claude, and ChatGPT scheduled tasks can all see their own session history and push summaries automatically.

One-time setup:

1. In the Memories tab, add one memory with a new scope named journal. Something like: "This scope holds automatic chat summaries from my AI apps."
2. In the Cloud Connect tab, share the journal scope.

Then, in each app, create a daily scheduled task with a prompt like:

Prefer capture as you go instead of nightly? Put a standing line in the app's custom instructions: "At the end of any substantive conversation, store a short summary in NorthKeep (type episodic, scope journal)."

Honesty note: journal summaries live in a shared scope, so they sit on the connector encrypted at rest until they sync into your vault. After a Sync, you can unshare the journal scope any time; the server copies delete and your vault keeps everything.