Installation

Download Historicle from the Mac App Store. The app requires macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later and an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later).

First Launch

When you first open Historicle, you'll be guided through a brief onboarding process:

Welcome: Introduction to Historicle's core features
AI Model Setup: Download an AI model for semantic search and Smart Search (optional but recommended)
Your Profile: Set up your profile so the app knows who "you" are in entries

Writing Your First Entry

The main journaling view is where you'll spend most of your time. Here's how to get started:

Click the date picker to select the date for your entry (defaults to today)
Start typing in the editor - it supports Markdown formatting
Your entry is automatically saved as you type

Mentioning People

Use @ to mention people in your entries. For example: "Had coffee with @Sarah today." This creates connections that help you find entries later and builds your personal network graph.

Adding Interests

Use # to tag topics and interests. For example: "Learned about #astronomy at the planetarium." Tags help organize your entries and enable powerful filtering.

Adding Photos

Drag and drop photos directly into your entry, or use the photo button in the toolbar. Tag the people in your photos with @mentions to connect them to your story.

Adding Audio

Drag an audio file into the audio attachment area, or click it to browse your files. Supported formats include MP3, WAV, M4A, Opus, WebM, and OGG. With Historicle Pro and a downloaded Whisper model, click Transcribe on the attachment in the desktop app to make its contents searchable.

Navigating Your Journal

Use the sidebar to switch between different views:

Journal: Write and read daily entries
Timeline: Browse entries chronologically with photo scrubber
History: See your journaling activity as a heatmap calendar
Smart Search: Ask questions about your journal using AI (Pro)
Goals: Review and track goals detected in your entries (Pro)
Photos: Browse your attached photos
Interests: Explore hashtag topics and related entries
People: Manage the people you mention in entries
Connections: Visualize relationships between people and topics
Insights: Track emotional patterns and writing statistics (Pro)

Searching Your Journal

Use the Timeline search bar and filters to find entries. Historicle supports:

Semantic search: Find entries by meaning, not just keywords
People filter: Find all entries mentioning a specific person
Interest filter: Find all entries with a specific tag
Date range: Filter entries by time period

Next Steps

Now that you're set up, explore these resources to get the most out of Historicle:

Feature Guide - Detailed explanations of all features
Historicle Pro - Unlock Smart Search, emotion insights, and more
MCP Setup - Connect external AI assistants to your journal
Support - Get help and find answers to common questions

Getting Started