This is the desktop first run, on Windows, a Mac or Linux. It takes a minute or two and you only do it once per computer. If Relic is not on the machine yet, start at Install Relic.

The welcome screen

Relic opens on the wordmark and one line: Everything you copy, on every device. Under it, Sign in to sync and back up your vault, end-to-end encrypted. Then the doors:

Continue with Google, Continue with GitHub and Continue with Apple hand you to your browser to sign in, then bring you back.
Create with email makes a new account with an address and a password.
Sign in with email is for an account you already have. Use this one on a second computer.
Just exploring? Try the demo fills the window with sample items so you can look around first. Nothing is saved and nothing syncs.
Not now closes the screen. Relic works on this computer alone, and a banner in the window offers to sign you in later.

Making an account

Create with email
The screen is headed Create your account: Start with just an email and a password. You will set your vault passphrase after you confirm your email. Fill in Email and Account password, then press Create account.
Open the link in your inbox
Relic moves to Confirm your email and waits. Open the link it sent, come back, and press I've confirmed, sign me in. If nothing arrived, Resend email sends another.
Sign in
Type the same address and account password. Relic sees that the account has no vault yet and takes you straight to the passphrase screen.

Signing in with Google, GitHub or Apple skips the first two steps. You land on the passphrase screen as soon as the browser hands you back.

Your vault passphrase

The screen is headed Set your vault passphrase, with one line under it: Signed in. Your vault passphrase seals your data. We never see it and cannot reset it.

The first field is Choose a vault passphrase. As you type, a bar under it rates what you have, from weak to excellent. A short one gets a nudge: Short passphrases are the weakest link in your vault. Try the suggestion.
Suggest a passphrase writes one for you and shows it, so you can read it and save it before you go on.
The eye at the right of the field shows or hides what you typed.
Type it again in Repeat the vault passphrase, then press Create vault.

Relic shows the kit once, right after the vault is made. The screen is titled Recovery kit and headed Save your recovery kit, with a small gold chip that reads RELIC KEEPS NO COPY · STORE IT OFFLINE. Under it: The only way back into your data if you forget your vault passphrase. We cannot recover it for you. Print it or store it in a password manager.

The recovery kit screen. A heading reading Save your recovery kit, a gold chip reading RELIC KEEPS NO COPY STORE IT OFFLINE, a short warning, then a recessed box holding the kit in mono type with a Copy button in its corner. Under the box, a Download button and the line Download the kit to continue, then a gold Continue button. The kit shown here is made up. Yours is a block of letters and numbers unique to your vault.

Two buttons sit on the kit: Copy puts it on your clipboard, and Download saves it as a file. Continue stays switched off until the download has landed, and the screen says so: Download the kit to continue. A file you can find later beats a copy you meant to paste somewhere.

Put it where you would put a house key you rarely use. A password manager, a printout in a drawer, an encrypted USB stick. Not in a note that syncs through the same account. Settings has a Security row that shows it again later (Change your vault passphrase or view your recovery kit), as long as your vault is unlocked on that computer. Your recovery kit is the longer version.

The password and the passphrase

Relic asks you for two different secrets and they do different jobs. Your account password signs you in to the service, and you can reset it by email if you forget it. Your vault passphrase unlocks the data itself. Relic never sees that one, so nobody can reset it for you, and resetting the account password does not touch it. The app says as much on the sign-in screen: This resets your account password only. Your vault passphrase is separate; if you lost that, use your recovery kit.

The four tips in the window

The first time the window opens, four short tips point at the parts you will use most. Each one dims the window and lights up the control it is about. Next moves along, Skip ends them early, and the last one says Got it. They do not come back.

Find anything, instantly: Search by keyword or by meaning. Relic reads text, screenshots and files on-device, so "that receipt" or "the api key" just finds it.
Add things yourself: Hit + for a quick note, or paste and drop in text, files and screenshots. Everything you copy is captured here automatically, too.
Tag and describe for recall: Open any item to edit its tags and description. Relic auto-tags, but a quick tweak makes it far easier to find later.
Hotkeys and settings: Set the global hotkey to summon Relic from anywhere, plus capture preferences and more, in Settings.

The Relic window goes through the same window in full.

Trying the demo instead

Just exploring? Try the demo skips all of the above and drops you into a window full of sample items, so you can search, keep and edit without making anything. A strip across the top says where you are:

This is sample data. Create your vault to keep things for real.Create vault

Press Create vault on that strip when you are ready and the welcome screen comes back, so you can pick up at the top of this page. The × at its right dismisses the strip and leaves you looking around. Demo items are samples on this computer. Nothing about them is synced.