Up and running in 15 minutes

No configuration files to edit. If you can install an app and paste a key, you can run the Mac app.

1Install the app

Download NorthKeep for Mac (Apple Silicon, macOS 13.5 or newer).
Open the downloaded file and drag NorthKeep onto the Applications folder.
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. Want a look first? Choose Try a demo vault to see sample memories without creating anything.

Choose a passphrase. This encrypts everything. Pick something long you will remember.
Connect an AI app you already use (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, ChatGPT or Cursor) and watch it save its first memory. No AI app yet? You can skip this and do it later.
The app created a device secret file on your Mac. Back it up somewhere safe (a password manager note or a printed copy works). Setup will not finish, and the app will not let you set up sync, until you confirm it.

There is no recovery. If you lose your passphrase or your device secret, nobody can restore your vault, including us. That is the point: no back door exists. Back up the secret when setup asks, before you add anything else.

3Optional: connect a model

You do not need a model to remember or recall. On the Mac, NorthKeep uses the models you connect to review your memories. The easiest path:

Open Settings, then Models, and click Connect a model.
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.
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 the Models page will detect it and offer a one-click model download. A review on a local model never leaves your Mac.

4Give more AI apps your memory

This is what makes NorthKeep different: the AI apps you already pay for get your memory, on your terms. Setup offers to connect the first one; add more, or one you skipped, here.

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

5Optional: 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 Connect, then Cloud, share a scope (you confirm exactly what leaves), then pair your app with the URL and one-time code shown. One exception to confirming: a new project that a paired app creates arrives on your devices already shared, so that app can keep it updated; unsharing revokes it.

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

6Optional: 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 page, under Settings. Extraction runs on your machine, and you review every proposed memory before it is kept.

7Optional: 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:

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

Pattern 1: a nightly scheduled task (works in apps whose tasks can see session history, like Manus and ChatGPT):

Review my conversations from today. For each substantive one, write a two or three sentence summary. Store each summary in NorthKeep using memory_remember with type "episodic" and scope "conversations". Skip small talk and anything already stored.

Pattern 2: a standing instruction stored in the vault itself. Send this once in any connected app, and the habit travels with your memory to every app:

Store this in NorthKeep as a procedural memory in scope "conversations": At the end of each substantive conversation, write a concise summary of it to NorthKeep as one episodic memory in scope "conversations". Do this when the conversation is winding down, or whenever I say "log this".

Honesty note: these 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 scope any time; the server copies delete and your vault keeps everything.

8Optional: track a project across agents

Projects live in your vault, so the next agent can pick up where the last one stopped.

Create a project in any connected app, or in NorthKeep.
Install the session contract from Connect, then Desktop, so agents know to read that project at the start of a session and write status when they finish.
End a session in one agent. Start cold in another. The second agent should already know the status, next actions, and log.

The contract is advisory. A session that ends abruptly keeps only what it saved with a checkpoint.

Looking for Converse?

Converse, NorthKeep's own chat that masks your message before it leaves, is a legacy feature. It wasn't getting much use, so NorthKeep now focuses on Connect, Projects and memory review. Converse still runs in the iPhone app (beta) and from a source install (pnpm northkeep converse, steps in the README), but we are not adding to it, and it will be retired over time.

Stuck?

Email [email protected] and a human answers. Design partners: text Jay directly, that is what the pilot is for.