Is my journal actually private?
It gets a second lock beyond the encryption everything else has. Entries are encrypted again at the application layer before they touch a table, with the key held in a separate vault rather than in the database schema. A leaked table dump shows ciphertext, not your words.
Does the AI read my journal?
No. The sidekick sees projects, tasks and time when you ask it to, and never the journal. Nothing you write is used to train anyone's model. If the journal is blank the AI can offer a prompt to unstick you, but it does that without reading what you wrote before.
What gets tracked alongside an entry?
Mood and energy are logged with each entry, so over weeks the writing and the state it was written in sit together. That is what turns a journal from a record into something you can actually read patterns out of — which projects drain you, which weeks were harder than they felt.
Why journal in the same place as work?
Because the two explain each other. An entry about a bad week means more next to the project that caused it and the hours it took. Keeping them apart means keeping the context apart, and the context is usually the useful part when you look back.
Who this isn't for
If you want end-to-end encryption where we hold no key at all, this isn't that — the vault key is ours, not yours, which means we could technically decrypt it and a truly zero-knowledge journal app is a better fit. And if you want a paper-replacement writing app with nothing else attached, a dedicated journal will feel lighter.
Where to go next
The whole personal notebook is free forever for one person, with no card — see what's free and what's paid. The handbook covers how any of it actually works, and how we protect your data covers the part nobody asks about until it matters.
Compared to what you might be using
- Inkwell vs Obsidian — Obsidian gives you the files and the plugins. Inkwell gives you the system already assembled.
- Inkwell vs Notion — Notion is a better wiki. Inkwell is a better week — it tracks the hours and raises the invoice.
Other ways people use Inkwell
- For freelancers — Projects, tracked hours, invoices and a portal per client — in one place instead of five.
- For indie makers — A day job, client work and the thing you build at night — side by side, in one week.
- For daily life — Habits, mood, energy and goals — the part of the week that isn't work, taken as seriously.
- For time tracking — A timer that knows which project it's for — and whose total is there when you invoice.