Citenook1A model on your Mac
Apple Intelligence, or a free model you download once. Works offline. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Privacy and security
Your files stay on your Mac.
Citenook reads and searches your files on your Mac. We never receive your files, questions or answers, and the app has no analytics. With a model on your Mac, nothing leaves it at all.
Where each thing goes
| Where it goes | |
|---|---|
| Your files | Stay on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded to us. |
| What Citenook read from them | Kept in a library on your Mac, with daily backups on your Mac. No cloud sync. |
| Questions and answers | On your Mac. With an online AI you chose, they go straight from your Mac to that service. |
| Passages used for an answer | On your Mac, or to the online AI you chose, only those picked for that answer. |
| File, folder and brain names | Never sent. |
| Names, emails, phone numbers | Hidden before anything is sent to an online AI (on by default), and put back on your Mac. |
| Your AI keys | In your Mac's keychain, sent only to their own service. |
| Usage and crash data | Not collected. No analytics, no tracking, no account. |
Choose how private each chat is.
You pick what writes the answer, one chat at a time. Your files are read and searched on your Mac whichever you choose.
Your own AI key
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google or OpenRouter. File names stay on your Mac, and names, emails and ID numbers can be hidden before sending.
Ollama or LM Studio
Use the models you already run. Citenook finds them on its own.
When you use an online AI
Only what is needed
Your question, the passages picked to answer it and earlier messages in the chat. Nothing else from your library.
Straight to the service
Requests go from your Mac to the AI service under your own key. We are not in between and never see them.
Personal details hidden
Found with your Mac's own language tools. Some names can be missed, more so outside English.
Preview before sending
Turn it on in Settings → Answers to see exactly what will go before it goes.
What we do receive
- For your key: when you get a free month key or buy a plan, Dodo Payments, our merchant of record, collects your name, email and billing details. We receive your name, email, address and order details to send your key and help you.
- Key checks: the app checks your key with Dodo Payments when you enter it and about once a day after that, with the name of your Mac so your Macs can be told apart.
- Update checks: the app asks our update server whether a new version exists. This shows your IP address and the app version, nothing about you or your files.
- Support: if you email us, we keep your email to help you.
- This website: no cookies and no ads. Cloudflare Web Analytics counts visits without cookies or a profile of you.
Security
Signed and notarized
Citenook is signed with an Apple Developer ID and checked by Apple before release.
Encrypted connections
Every connection to an online service uses HTTPS.
Keys in the keychain
Your AI keys are stored in your Mac's keychain, not in plain files.
Delete everything
Delete the app, the Citenook folder in Library → Application Support, and its keychain items.
The full details are in the privacy policy. Found a security problem? Write to support@citenook.com.
Private answers from your own files.
Try every feature free for 30 days. No card needed.