Installing from the disk image
Relic comes as a disk image. Open it and drag Relic into your Applications folder, then open it from there. That second step is the one people miss, and it matters: a Mac throws away anything you run straight from a disk image, settings and all. The install page has the download.
If you open Relic without moving it first, it says so and offers to move itself. The screen is headed Relic runs from your Applications folder, with Install and reopen and Quit under it. Install and reopen copies Relic across, reopens from the new spot and picks up where you left off, and you can eject the disk image after that.
If your Mac refuses the copy, the screen changes to Drag Relic across yourself and opens your Applications folder in the Finder so you can drag it over by hand.
Where Relic lives
Relic has no Dock icon and no window of its own. It lives in the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click the icon for the menu, or press Ctrl + Shift + Q from any app to open the window.
It can start when you sign in, and it comes up quietly in the menu bar rather than opening a window. If you would rather not see the icon at all, turn it off and use the shortcut alone.
The window tour walks through the window itself and every line of that menu.
Letting Relic paste for you
macOS asks permission before any app can press keys for you. Relic uses that permission for two things: pasting the item you pick straight into the app you were just in, and grabbing whatever you have selected when you press the save and annotate shortcut. Everything else works without it. Picking an item still copies it, you just press ⌘V yourself.
The row sits in Settings›General›Accessibility and says where you stand: Allowed, or Not allowed yet. Allow Relic to paste asks macOS for it. Once you have given it, that button becomes Open Accessibility settings, and Re-check beside it looks again, which is what you want after changing the switch in System Settings.
The first time Relic wants to paste and cannot, it tells you once:
The keys on a Mac keyboard
Relic's global shortcuts use the Control key, not Command. The window is Ctrl + Shift + Q, the same chord as on every other computer. Command is not an option for these: Cmd+Shift+Q is how a Mac logs you out.
- On the keycaps Relic draws, the keys read Ctrl, Option and Cmd.
- Inside the Relic window it is the ordinary Mac modifier: Cmd+F jumps back to the search box, Cmd+A selects every result, Cmd+Z undoes a delete.
The shortcuts page lists every one of them, with the Mac spelling beside the Windows one.
Password managers and secrets
When a password manager copies something it marks the copy as private so clipboard tools leave it alone. Relic honours that mark, so those copies never enter your history. If an app you use does not set it, add the app to Settings › Capture › Never capture from and Relic skips it by name.
The key to your vault and your sign-in token live in your Keychain, guarded by your Mac account. They are never written into the data folder as plain text.
Updates
Relic checks for a new version two minutes after it starts and then once a day, and tells you with a notification. Clicking it downloads the new disk image, checks it is the file we published, swaps Relic in your Applications folder and reopens. You can also check yourself in Settings›About, and Updating Relic covers the rest.
Your data folder
Your vault, its search index and the copies of images and files Relic has downloaded live in ~/Library/Application Support/relic. The button that opens it is in Settings›Vault and storage.