What does "architecturally private" mean?

It means we cannot read your journal — not by policy, but by how the system is built. Your entries are encrypted on your device with a key we never have before they reach our servers. Even a full database admin, a legal subpoena, or an insider with unlimited access couldn't decrypt them. Only you, with your passphrase, can.

Why a journal passphrase? Isn't my login password enough?

They're separate on purpose. If someone got your login (a coerced share, a stolen device, a phished password), your journal would still be protected — they'd get into your account but not your journal. That's also why we never ask you to share your journal passphrase during support.

What's the recovery phrase?

When you set up your journal, we offer to generate a 12-word recovery phrase. Write it down somewhere safe — a piece of paper, a password manager, a fireproof box. Save it offline. This phrase is the only way to unlock your journal if you forget your passphrase. We never see it. We never store anything derived from it.

I forgot my passphrase. What now?

If you have your recovery phrase: go to journal recovery, enter the 12 words, set a new passphrase. Your journal is back.

If you don't have the recovery phrase either: we're truly sorry — your journal is permanently gone. This is the tradeoff of architectural privacy: we built the system sono one can read your journal, which means no one can recover it either. If this happens to you, reach out via contact — we can't get your entries back but we're genuinely sorry, and we can talk through it.

How long do entries stay saved?

As long as you have an account. If your subscription lapses, entries stay encrypted and intact — resubscribing restores access. If you delete your account, the ciphertext is erased (along with the wrapped keys).

Is there a size limit?

Each entry is capped at ~50,000 characters (about 10,000 words — a novella). If you go past it, we'll nudge you to split into multiple entries. There's no cap on how many entries you can have.

What are mood tags and reflection prompts for?

Optional. Mood tags (like "anxious", "hopeful") let you track your feelings over time — you can see patterns later without reading back through everything. Reflection prompts are counselor-written starting points for when you want to write but don't know where to begin. Both are stored separately from your encrypted entry content (they're structured metadata, not your words).

What if I write something concerning while journaling?

If our on-device checker notices language suggesting you might be in crisis, you'll see a resources card with hotlines. Importantly: only that detection happens on your device. We don't send the content to our servers — just a flag saying "something happened at this timestamp, severity level". Your counselor (if you have one) sees a gentle awareness counter ("N flags in last 14 days") butnever sees what you wrote.