Settings and the sidebar

Settings holds your account, how Fennick looks, and how dates read. The sidebar and the right panel are yours to arrange.

Settings

Open Settings at the foot of the sidebar. On a computer its sections are listed on the left; on a phone your account is the card at the top, and each section opens on its own.

Account

• Your picture: click the circle at the top to upload one, or pick initials or a ready-made mark.
• Your name: the name others see on your cursor and your writing. Add or Change it.
• Email: the email you sign in with.
• Sign out: see Sign out.
• Delete my account deletes your account and everything on Fennick's servers.
• Start over… empties this notebook. Fennick asks first, and the Trash keeps nothing back.
• It says where your notes are kept. In the demo: “Demo: nothing is kept here.” In the Mac app: “A file on this Mac”. Sign in is here if you have an account. See If you already have an account.
• What this browser still keeps, each in its own row, only when there is some:
  • Another account: another account’s notebook kept in this browser, signed out. Its changes not yet sent go up when that account signs in here again.
  • From before you signed in: a notebook you wrote in this browser before signing in. It isn’t in your account. Open signs you out on this browser and opens it, and your account’s notebook stays as it is.
  • Waiting in this browser, while signed out: changes typed while signed in, saved to that account the next time it signs in here.
  • Left to delete: a signed-out notebook’s copy that couldn’t be deleted yet. Fennick deletes it the next time it opens in this browser.

Sign-in and security

• Passkeys: add one, see each with the day it was added, and remove one. See Passkeys.
• Other ways in: the Email link, a one-time link to your email, and once you are signed in, your Google, Apple, GitHub or X.
• On this device: Lock. See Lock Fennick.

Notebook

A notebook kept only on this device has this section. Copies on this device: Fennick keeps a copy of the notebook each day and keeps the newest two, plus one from before each update. Save a copy… and Export as Markdown… are here too.

What leaves your Mac

If a Fennick update ever fails on your notebook, Fennick puts your notebook back as it was and sends us a short report so we can fix the update: the update step, the kind of check that failed, whether putting it back worked and how many changes it couldn't keep, the app's build, whether it's the Mac app or the browser, and a rough size (small, medium, large or huge). It has no name, account or id on it and nothing from your notebook, and it's sent even if you have no account. Nothing else about your notebook is ever sent to us without you asking. The app also asks fennick.app and GitHub for its own updates, and those requests carry nothing from your notebook. On a Mac, Settings › About › Check for updates turns those checks off.

Appearance

The settings other than Light or dark, Theme, Text size and Snippets follow your account to every device. If your account can't be reached, Fennick says the setting is saved on this device.

Themes and snippets

A theme changes how all of Fennick looks: its colors in light and dark, its fonts, how roomy it is, and how round the corners are. Pick one in Settings › Appearance › Theme. Fennick is the look Fennick comes with; Ember has Embernote's colors, its font where your device has it, and rounder corners. A theme is set for the device you pick it on, and it never changes what other people see in a shared notebook.

A theme is a CSS file that sets Fennick's look tokens, the way an Obsidian theme does. Light values go on :root and dark ones on :root[data-mode="dark"]. A comment at the top names it:

/* @fennick-theme name: Paper  author: You  version: 1  for: 1 */
:root { --bg: #fdfcf9; --fg: #2b2a27; --accent: #b0562b; --ui: "Iowan Old Style", Georgia, serif; --corner-scale: 0.6; --density: 0.9; }
:root[data-mode="dark"] { --bg: #1b1a18; --fg: #e8e5df; }

The tokens a theme usually sets:

• Colors: --bg and --paper (the page), --side (the sidebar), --fg, --muted and --faint (words), --line, --soft, --hover, --accent and --accent-solid, --link, --danger, --dot and --halo (bullets), and each tag color (--tone-peach-ink-l, --tone-peach-chip-l, and -d for dark).
• Fonts: --ui (everything), --title (page titles) and --mono (code), and the weights --weight-regular, --weight-medium and --weight-strong. A theme can use fonts on your device only; it can't load one from the web.
• Room and shape: --density (1 is Fennick's; 0.9 is closer together, 1.1 roomier), --corner-scale (1 is Fennick's; 0 is square), the widths --page-w, --side-w and --panel-w, and the shadows --shadow-1, --shadow-2 and --shadow-3.

To add a theme, choose Add a theme…, then paste its CSS or choose its file. It's picked at once. To take it away, pick it and choose Remove with its name, such as Remove Paper.

A snippet is a little CSS of your own for one change, such as a wider page or a different heading. Add one with Add a snippet…. Each has a switch to turn it on or off, Edit and Remove. Snippets come after the theme, so a snippet always wins. They can aim at anything on the screen, but Fennick's class names can change in an update, so a snippet that sets tokens lasts longest.

A theme or snippet can't load anything from another website, and Fennick turns one off at once, and says why, if it would hide the page or make the words unreadable.

Safe mode

If a theme or snippet makes Fennick hard to use, open Fennick with ?safe at the end of its address (for example fennick.app/?safe), or choose Turn off themes and snippets in the Command menu (⌘K) or in Settings. Fennick opens with its own look, and your themes and snippets are kept. Choose Turn them back on in Settings, or Turn themes and snippets back on in the Command menu, or open Fennick without ?safe.

Sharing

A notebook that syncs with your account can be shared. Settings › Sharing, or Share… in the menu under the notebook’s name, shows the people in it, each with their access. The person who made the notebook is its Owner. Everyone else has one of four, the same four an agent can have:

• Can view: reads everything, and changes nothing. A bar at the top says so, and nothing on the page can be typed in.
• Can suggest: their changes wait for the owner, or someone at Full access, to Apply or Drop. A bar at the top says so. The changes wait under Waiting for your yes in Settings › Connections.
• Can edit: writes blocks, pages, tags and values.
• Full access: also sets up fields and views, connects agents and empties the Trash.

Only the owner invites people and changes their access:

• Invite someone: pick their access, then Copy invite link. The link works once, for 7 days. Whoever opens it signed in sees who invited them and at what access, and Join adds the notebook to their notebooks as “Shared by” your name. Not signed in, Fennick asks them to sign in first and keeps the link waiting.
• Beside each person, pick a new access, Remove (Fennick asks first) or Transfer ownership…. Someone removed keeps what they had, as a copy of their own, and their devices stop syncing it.
• Transfer ownership… makes them the owner: the notebook counts on their plan, and only they invite people. You stay in it at Full access.

Anyone else can Leave the notebook. They keep what they had as a copy of their own, and the owner can invite them again.

Every change is held to its writer’s access, on their device and on the server.

Your primary notebook

Your account’s first notebook is your Primary: a new sign-in, on a new browser or phone, opens it first. The menu under the notebook’s name lists your notebooks, with Primary beside that one and Shared by beside one someone shares with you. Make Primary there makes the notebook open here your primary, if it is yours. If you transfer your primary notebook, your next one becomes your primary.

In the Mac app, Open a Notebook Shared with You… in that menu lists the notebooks shared with your account. Pick one, and the Mac asks where to keep it as a notebook file of its own, which then fills from the server.

Sync

Settings › Sync is where a notebook starts syncing, and where you see every notebook that syncs with your account.

• Sync this notebook, in the Mac app: a switch, with how it stands under it, such as “Synced with your account.”, “Paused. Sign in to sync.” or “On this Mac only.” Turning it off pauses the sync. Turning it on syncs the file with your account. The notebook opens again either way.
• Stop syncing… ends the sync, after Fennick asks first. The file keeps everything, and you can turn sync on again later.
• Signed out, it says “This notebook is local only. Sign in to sync it.”, with Sign in.

Signed in, Your synced notebooks lists each one with its size and the day it was made. One shared with you says “Shared by” and its owner’s name. In the Mac app, each says which notebook on this Mac is connected to it, or “Not on this Mac”. In a browser or on an iPhone, the one open says “Open here”.

• Open opens it. In the Mac app, Connect makes a new notebook on this Mac for one that isn’t here yet, and syncs it. A notebook on the Mac that syncs takes its synced notebook’s name.
• When the notebook open in the Mac app has notes and doesn’t sync, Connect on one of your own synced notebooks asks first, such as “Merge Recipes into Family?”. Merge brings its pages in: days with the same date become one day, tags with the same name become one tag, and pages with the same name stay two, listed as “Maybe the same” on a page named “Merged from Recipes” with the day. The notebook on this Mac stays as it was. A notebook shared with you has Open only.
• Rename, the pencil, is for its owner: type the new name in place. Enter keeps it, and Esc puts it back. The new name shows on every device. Only the owner renames a shared notebook.
• Share, on the notebook open here, opens Sharing.
• Delete, the trash, is for its owner. Fennick says what goes, and first asks for a sign-in from the last 15 minutes, with a passkey or an emailed link. Delete from Fennick deletes it from Fennick’s servers, for you and for everyone it is shared with. Every device keeps its copy as a notebook of its own, with everything in it. Backup copies are deleted within 35 days.
• New synced notebook, at the foot: type its name and click Make, and it opens.

When you make a new notebook in the Mac app while signed in, Fennick asks once: “Sync this notebook?”, with Keep on this Mac or Sync it. Your Synced Notebooks…, in the menu under the notebook’s name, opens Settings › Sync.

Tags, About and what is coming

• Tags says how many tags you have. Open Tags goes to the Tags list.
• About shows the version you are running, and Report a problem tells the Fennick team what went wrong.
• Check for updates, in the Mac and iPhone apps, is on at first. On, Fennick looks for a new version now and then. Off, it never asks; on a Mac, Fennick › Check for Updates… still works. A browser tab has no such switch: it loads Fennick from fennick.app and asks every 10 minutes whether there is a new version.
• Connections: connect an agent such as Claude, ChatGPT or Claude Code, pick what it may do and where, answer what it suggests, and end a connection (see Connect your agent).
• AI: how far AI may go with your notes. There are three:
  • No AI: nothing in Fennick uses AI, and agents can’t connect.
  • On-device only: AI runs on this device only. Nothing leaves it, and agents can’t connect.
  • AI allowed: agents like Claude can work in your notes. On a paid plan, AI services can be used too.
  Fennick asks once, when you first open a notebook: in a new notebook as the first card of Getting started, in one you already have as a small window. Skip, Esc or a click outside it means No AI, and it isn’t asked again. Your choice is kept with your account, for every notebook. Below it, This notebook can set a lower level for one notebook, for everyone in it, or Same as yours. It shows only when there is a lower level to pick. Agents work only where AI is allowed: below that, they are told so and change nothing. At On-device only or AI allowed, the Mac app also finds related pages by meaning, on your Mac.
• Import and export: bring in a Notion export, an Obsidian vault, a folder of Markdown, a CSV file, a Tana export or a Fennick export, and export everything as one zip. See Import and export.

The sidebar

From the top: Search (⌘K) and New page, then Today, Tasks, Library, Tags, Starred, Recents and the Calendar, then Op Log, Trash and Settings.

• Right-click a section for Fold or Unfold, Move up, Move down, Hide, and Customize sidebar…. On Recents, Show 8 or Show 30.
• Right-click a page or tag in Starred or Recents for Open, Open in new tab, Unstar (when it is starred) and Add to the sidebar as a section (for a page that isn't one already). Drag a starred row to change its place.
• ⌘\ makes it small, a strip of icons; press it again to hide it, and once more to bring it back.
• When a new version of Fennick is ready, a thin bar across the top of the window says so, whether the sidebar is open, small or hidden. Click Reload to get it. Its × puts it away; a New version ready row in the sidebar stays until you reload.

Customize the sidebar

Pick Customize sidebar… in a section's menu, or Customize sidebar in the command menu. It has two tabs, Left sidebar and Right panel.

• Switch a section on or off.
• Drag a section to move it, or press Alt+↑ / Alt+↓.
• Add section (left sidebar): A page… puts a page in the sidebar, with its first blocks under it; A tag… puts a tag there, with its newest entities and how many there are. Rename it, or remove it from the sidebar. Search, New page and Settings always stay.
• Reset to default puts the side back as it was. Fennick asks first.

The right panel

The right panel sits beside a page. Open or close it with its button at the right end of the band across the top, or ⌘⌥\ (Ctrl+Alt+\). Drag its edge to make it wider or narrower. Its views:

• Links: Highlights, Backlinks, what is dated this day, Unlinked mentions, Outgoing links and Related dates.
• This page: what the page is: when it was made and last edited, by whom, and how much it holds.
• Fields: every field of the page.
• Outline: the page's headings.
• History: the page's changes, as in the Op Log. Page history in the page's ⋯ menu opens it.
• Comments and Chat coming.

On a phone the panel slides in over the page; pick Right panel in the page's ⋯ menu.