White paper

Draft for the beta. Figures and claims here describe the current prototype, not a finished product.

The problem

Most of us don't forget people — we forget the small, specific facts that prove we remember them: a kid's name, a birthday, how two people are connected, what someone mentioned last time. Contact apps store phone numbers. Social networks store performance. Neither is built to hold the plain, ordinary details that make someone feel remembered.

The approach

Jackdaw Book is one list of names, kept in circles that mirror how you actually think about people — family, work, the neighborhood, the lake house — rather than an alphabetical address book. Every entry can link to the people already around it, so remembering one name pulls the next one with it, the way memory actually works.

Local-first by design

The names you save are stored in your device's own storage, not on a Jackdaw Book server, because there is no Jackdaw Book server holding your data. Nothing you type is transmitted anywhere to make the app work. You can export an encrypted backup file whenever you want and move it between devices yourself.

Encryption

Set a passcode and your book is encrypted with AES-256 before it touches storage. The encryption key is derived from your passcode and is never saved anywhere — which means nobody can open your book without it, including us. Backup files carry the same encryption.

Why free, and why ads

Jackdaw Book is free to use. The site is funded by Google AdSense rather than by selling access to what you save, because what you save is never ours to sell in the first place.

What's next

The current build is a web prototype. Mobile betas for iOS and Android are in progress — see mobile downloads for status. Feedback from this beta shapes what ships next; if you have thoughts, the contact page reaches a person, not a form queue.