Frequently asked questions

What is Lodestone?

Lodestone is a private AI journal for the Mac. Its goal is self-development through self-understanding: to help you know yourself and your life well enough to make sense of it, work through what weighs on you, and grow.

You write as you would in any journal, and as you go it remembers you: it builds an understanding of your life, the people around you, and what keeps weighing on you. When you want it, an entry can bring a reflection you can continue as a thread. And on the days nothing comes, it offers a way in: because it knows you, it knows what to ask.

What is an AI journal?

An AI journal is a journal that reads what you write and reflects it back. Beyond simply storing your entries, it looks across everything you have written to surface patterns, connect what you are feeling now to what came before, and ask the kind of questions that move your thinking forward.

On the days you do not know where to start, it can offer a prompt to get you going. That makes journaling less of a record to keep and more of a way to actually work things out.

How is Lodestone different from a regular journaling app?

The goal is the same: to help you understand yourself and grow. What is different is how Lodestone gets you there.

A plain journaling app stores your entries and leaves it there. Apps built for self-improvement reach for scores, streaks, and frameworks.

Lodestone takes a different path: it remembers everything you have written and builds an understanding of you, so it can reflect and go deeper, drawn from your own life rather than a blank page or a template. Growth here comes from seeing yourself clearly, not from being measured.

Does Lodestone have long-term memory?

Yes. In fact it is built on it. A long-term memory of everything you have written is the foundation of Lodestone, not a feature added on top: the reflections, the connections it draws, and the way it comes to understand you all rest on it, and it only deepens the longer you write.

Can Lodestone help me grow, or with self-improvement?

Yes. Lodestone's goal is self-development through self-understanding: to help you know yourself and your life well enough to make sense of it, work through what weighs on you, and grow.

It does this without turning growth into a scoreboard: no streaks, no scores, no frameworks to complete. The growth comes from writing honestly and seeing yourself more clearly over time, with a journal that gets to know you.

Does Lodestone have mood tracking, streaks, or reminders?

No, by design. No streaks, no badges, no reminders, no guilt. No mood scores or emotion percentages, no habit tracker, and no frameworks to fill in. Lodestone is a place to write and think, not a dashboard to keep up. Nothing to write means nothing to write.

Is Lodestone a chatbot?

No. Lodestone is a journal you write in, not a chat window you type prompts into. You start with a blank page and write for yourself. Every AI feature stays to the side, off the page: it is there to help you write and work through what you put down, never to write it for you.

What is an entry?

An entry is a single piece of writing, whatever you put down in one sitting: your raw thoughts, in your own words. It is plain writing, for you, with no template to fill in and no fields to complete.

Everything Lodestone does works from your entries, but nothing is ever written into them for you, so an entry stays pure and unmodified, always yours. That is the heart of the approach: a notebook first, with the AI kept to the side.

Is there anything on the page before I write?

No. You always start with a blank page. If you want a way in, there is a gentle prompt, but it is only ever an offer, never something you have to answer.

What happens after I finish an entry?

When you finish, you can ask for a reflection: your entry seen as a whole, and where it sits among the things you have written before. You can read it and leave it there, or reply and take the thread further.

What is a reflection?

A reflection is Lodestone reading an entry back to you: your writing seen as a whole, and set in the context of everything that came before. Much of what matters is hard to see from inside the moment, so a reflection can surface a pattern you keep returning to, connect today to something you wrote years ago, or ask the question you were circling but had not put into words.

It turns writing something down into a way of understanding it, and it stays a starting point you can push on, never a verdict.

How does a reflection work?

You choose when to ask for a reflection, and it opens alongside your writing in the sidebar, never on the page itself. Behind it is an agent that looks back over the relevant parts of your past, reflects on your entry in that light, and stays to answer any follow-up you reply with. It never touches the page, so your entry stays exactly as you wrote it.

Does Lodestone connect what I've written over time?

Yes. Lodestone reads across everything you have written, not just your latest entry, and builds an evolving understanding of you: your patterns, the people around you, and what keeps coming up over time.

What is 'your story'?

Your story is the understanding Lodestone builds from everything you write, drawing all your entries into one living picture rather than a pile of separate notes. It is what a reflection draws on, and it grows richer with every entry. Lodestone builds it from three angles:

• Characters: the people in your life, and anyone else you write about and feel toward, along with who they are to you
• Threads: the ongoing situations you keep coming back to, from a project or a place to a decision you are working through
• Standings: where you stand on the things that matter to you, and the reasons behind each view

What if Lodestone gets something wrong?

Your entries stay exactly as you wrote them. What Lodestone builds from them is an interpretation, and it can sometimes read something the wrong way. When it does, you can correct it. There are three kinds:

• Correct: leave a note in your own words to fix how something was understood
• Split: separate one thing into two when two different people or situations have been run together
• Merge: combine two into one when they are really the same person or situation

What is a nudge?

A nudge is a way in, drawn from your own life rather than a generic question: because Lodestone knows you, it knows what to ask. It can help you begin on the days nothing comes, take you deeper into something you have already written, or open up an angle you had not thought of.

Can I keep writing back and forth about an entry?

Yes. A reflection is the start of a thread, not the end of one. If something in it lands, you can reply and go deeper with an agent that understands your past, and the conversation stays part of the same entry.

Is my writing private?

Yes. Your writing is yours. It is never used to train an AI model, and you can delete it at any time. Read the full detail on our privacy page.

Is my journal encrypted?

Yes. Every entry, and everything derived from it, is encrypted with a key unique to your account (AES-256-GCM), and that key is protected by a master key held in secure hardware in the EU. If our database or a backup were ever stolen, it would be unreadable.

Your writing is decrypted only while the AI is producing your reflections, so it is not end-to-end encrypted. More on how your journal is protected.

Do you use my writing to train AI?

No. Your writing is never used to train any AI model, ours or anyone else's. The AI provider that Lodestone relies on keeps your content for at most 30 days to run the service, then deletes it, and never trains on it.

Where is my data stored?

Your encrypted data is stored on servers in Amsterdam, in the EU, with encrypted backups also kept in the EU. The hosting providers only ever hold it in encrypted form.

Do I need an account?

You sign in with Sign in with Apple, so there is no separate account to create and no password for anyone to store or breach.

Does Lodestone track me?

No. The app has no analytics tracker and stores nothing on your device to measure you. To improve the app we keep a small, content-free record on our servers of how it is used, for example that an entry was created, never your name, email, or anything you wrote.

Can I delete my writing?

Yes. You can delete your writing at any time, and deleting your account permanently destroys the key to your data, so nothing can be recovered afterwards. See our privacy page for the detail.

How do I report a harmful or unsafe response?

If a reflection or reply ever feels harmful, unsafe, or offensive, you can report it directly from the response. Reporting flags that exchange for a safety review, kept separate from ordinary feedback about whether a reflection felt right. It is the main way problems are caught and put right, so flagging something genuinely helps.

Is Lodestone therapy?

No. Lodestone is for journaling and self-reflection. It is not therapy, counselling, or a crisis service, and it is not a substitute for professional advice. If you need support, our resources page lists helplines by country and how to find professional help.

What if I am going through something difficult?

If you are struggling, or in crisis, you do not have to face it alone. The resources page lists free, confidential support lines by country, and how to find professional help. Visit the resources page.

How does Lodestone handle crisis or self-harm?

We take this very seriously, and treat it as our responsibility to get right. A safety check runs on every reflection, reply, and nudge, looking for signs that you might be in crisis or at risk of harm: thoughts of suicide or self-harm, and things like abuse, an eating disorder, or substance use. What happens next depends on how strong the signal is:

• A possible concern: your reflection or reply comes as normal, with support resources for your country shown quietly beneath it, easy to dismiss and never in your way, and it will not keep resurfacing the same support if the concern is ongoing
• A serious or urgent risk: Lodestone steps back from its usual response and shows those resources in its place, rather than trying to carry the moment itself

We would rather show support when it turns out you did not need it than miss a moment when you did, so sometimes you will see resources that do not apply to you.

We treat a crisis signal as sensitive health information, and handle it with the same care as everything else you write. We do not diagnose anything, and Lodestone is never a substitute for a crisis service or a professional.

And if we get this wrong, in either direction, you can report it, and we use that to make it better.

What stops Lodestone from giving a harmful response?

Before a reflection or reply reaches you, it is screened. If Lodestone's own response is judged harmful, it is discarded and never shown to you, and a safe message with support resources takes its place.

If that check cannot run for any reason, the response is held back rather than shown unchecked. And if something harmful ever does get through, you can report it, and it goes straight to a safety review.

How much does Lodestone cost?

Lodestone is a paid subscription, billed through Apple. The current price is shown on the Mac App Store.

How do the plans differ?

There are two plans, and both include everything: unlimited writing, encrypted cloud sync, and all AI features. They differ only in how much AI use is included each period, with Enthusiast including a significantly larger allowance than Standard. The current prices are shown on the Mac App Store.

What devices does Lodestone run on?

Lodestone is a native Mac app. It runs on macOS and is available on the Mac App Store.

Can I use Lodestone offline?

Yes, for writing. You can open the app and write entries with no connection, and they sync automatically when you are back online. Reflections and nudges are produced on our servers, so those need a connection.

How do I cancel my subscription?

Your subscription is managed through your Apple account, so you can change or cancel it at any time. Manage your subscription.