Installing Relic
Two ways in. If you use winget, one line does it:
Otherwise take the installer from the download section of the site. Either way Relic installs into your own user account, so Windows never asks for an administrator. You get a Start menu shortcut, and uninstalling offers to remove your data folder as well. The install page has the rest.
Where Relic lives
Relic has no window of its own sitting in the taskbar. It runs in the notification area beside the clock. Left-click the icon to open the window, right-click it for the menu.
It starts with Windows and comes up hidden, so signing in never pops a window at you. Press Ctrl + Shift + Q when you want it. Turn the startup off, or hide the icon and run from the shortcut alone, here:
The window tour explains what is in the window and what each line of the tray menu does.
The keys on a Windows keyboard
Every Relic shortcut starts with Ctrl. The default for the window is Ctrl + Shift + Q. If you record a new shortcut that uses the Windows key, Relic writes that key as Win, which is what it says on the keycap. The full list is on the shortcuts page, and changing one takes a few seconds.
The relic command
The installer also puts a small relic command in a folder beside the app and adds that folder to your PATH, so a script or an AI agent working in your terminal can search and add to your vault. Open a new terminal after installing, then:
It reads and writes the same vault the app is using on this computer, so anything it adds shows up in the window straight away. The relic command covers the rest.
Password managers and secrets
When an app copies something private it can mark the copy as private, and Windows passes that mark along. Relic honours it, so copies from a password manager that sets it never enter your history at all. If yours does not set it, add the app to Settings › Capture › Never capture from and Relic will skip it by name.
Relic keeps the key to your vault and your sign-in token in Windows Credential Manager, where Windows guards them with your account. They are never written into the data folder as plain text.
Updates
Relic looks for a new version two minutes after it starts and then once a day. When one is out you get a notification with the first line of what changed:
Click it and Relic downloads the new installer, checks it is the file we published, installs it quietly and reopens itself in the tray. Nothing to click through. You can also ask at any time:
Updating Relic covers what to do when an update cannot install itself.
Your data folder and the logs
Everything Relic keeps on this computer lives in %APPDATA%\relic: your vault, its search index, and the copies of images and files it has downloaded. Settings›Vault and storage›Data folder opens it.
Relic also writes a small log at %APPDATA%\relic\logs\relic.log, which is the thing to send if you ever ask for help. The button that opens the folder is in Settings›About.