Completing onboarding
The first time you open Confidant, you'll go through a 7-step wizard. Here's what each step does and what you need to know.
1. Welcome
A short intro to what Confidant is and isn't. Click Continue to move on.
2. Whisper
Whisper is the on-device speech-to-text engine. The wizard downloads it for you (~150 MB). Once it finishes, click Continue.
If the download fails, check your internet connection and click Retry. The download is resumable.
3. AI Note Model
This is the big one — about 3 GB. The wizard shows three sub-steps:
- Downloading the inference server — the program that runs the AI model
- Downloading the model — the AI itself
- Verifying — confirming the file matches what we published (so you know nothing was tampered with)
Plan for 5–15 minutes here depending on your connection. The wizard shows progress in MB and percent. Once verification finishes, click Continue.
4. Therapy Modality
Pick the modalities you practice — CBT, DBT, ACT, psychodynamic, person-centered, EMDR, or integrative. You can pick more than one.
This sets the default clinical voice the AI uses when writing your notes (e.g. "applied Socratic questioning" for CBT, "explored the therapeutic relationship" for psychodynamic). You can change it later in Settings → Notes → Therapy Modality or override it per patient.
5. App Lock (Security)
Optional but strongly recommended. App Lock requires biometrics (Touch ID, Face ID, Windows Hello) or your system password to open Confidant after launch or screen sleep.
Even though your data is encrypted at rest, App Lock prevents someone from walking up to your unlocked computer and reading session notes.
You can change this later in Settings → Privacy & Security → App Lock.
6. Activation
Enter your license key from your purchase email. Confidant validates it once with our server, then runs offline forever (with a yearly silent re-check).
If activation fails, see Activating your license.
7. Done
You'll land on the main app with an empty patient list. From here:
- Click + New at the top of the sidebar (or press ⌘N) to create your first patient
- Then open them and click Start New Session to record
If you ever need to walk through onboarding again (rare, usually only after a clean reinstall), the wizard reappears automatically when its prerequisites aren't met.