Getting started

Everything you need to go from zero to a synced, offline-first workspace. Each section below has a deeper page elsewhere in the docs; this one gets you oriented.

1. Create an account

Go to app.ensoapp.io and register with an email and a password (at least 8 characters). That’s it — you land in the suite immediately. Your account is what ties your devices together for sync, so use the same one everywhere.

Note

Every account starts with a 14-day free trial of Premium (no card needed). See Billing for what happens after the trial.

2. Pick your platform

You can use any or all of these — they stay in sync:

• Web — app.ensoapp.io in any modern browser. Works offline too.
• Desktop — install the Windows or macOS app. It updates itself and keeps its own local database.
• Phone — open the web app on your phone and use Add to Home Screen (the Share menu on iPhone, the browser menu on Android) to install it as a full-screen app.

Per-platform steps and first-launch caveats are in Install.

3. A quick tour

The rail on the left switches between the suite’s modules.

• Agenda — your day at a glance: events, what’s due, what you did, and the day’s note.
• Todo — lists (and groups of lists) with sections, subtasks to any depth, due dates, and recurring tasks.
• Reading — save articles by pasting a URL, mark them read, keep them organized in lists.
• Calendar — month view over one or more color-coded calendars.
• Projects — a keyboard-first outline for planning real projects: Tab/Shift+Tab to indent, milestones, dependencies, and a Gantt pane.
• Notes — a page tree with a block editor. Type [ to link pages; import and export markdown.
• Email — connect Gmail or Outlook to read and file mail inside the suite.
• History — everything that changed, across every module, with point-in-time restore for notes.

On desktop, click Split view in the rail to put two modules side by side, and drag the divider between them to resize. See Split view.

4. The command palette

Press Ctrl+Space anywhere (it’s Ctrl, not ⌘, on the Mac too) to open the command palette.

From the palette you can:

• Jump to any module with a single letter: a Agenda, t Todo, r Reading, c Calendar, p Projects, n Notes, e Email, h History.
• Capture without leaving what you’re doing: t n adds a new todo to your Inbox, n c captures text onto your Inbox note, n n creates a new note.
• Type s to search, v to toggle split view, or ? to list every command.

Ctrl/⌘+F opens global search across the whole suite. More in Command palette and Search.

5. Working offline

There’s nothing to configure. Every device keeps a full local copy of your data, so Ensō works on a plane exactly as it does at your desk — on the web app too, not just the desktop app.

When you’re back online, a background sync reconciles your devices with the server every 15 seconds. If two devices edited the same thing while apart, the same merge rules run everywhere, so every device ends up with the identical result. Details in Sync and offline.

6. Vaults

A vault locks part of your workspace — a notes folder, todo list, reading list, calendar, or project — behind its own password with end-to-end encryption. The server only ever stores ciphertext it cannot read.

Caution

When you create a vault you’re shown a recovery code once. Store it somewhere safe. Without the password or the recovery code, nobody (including us) can decrypt the vault’s contents.

See Vaults, or follow the Set up a vault tutorial.

7. Chrome extension

The extension saves the page you’re on to your reading list, along with a complete offline copy of the page. It’s not on the Chrome Web Store yet, so it installs unpacked:

1. Download the extension zip from the download page and extract it.
2. Open chrome://extensions and switch on Developer mode (top right).
3. Click Load unpacked and select the extracted folder.
4. Pin the Ensō button, open any article, and click it — the page and its offline copy appear in your Reading module.

Full details in Chrome extension.

Where next

• Your first day — set up your Inbox, plan today, and get the palette under your fingers.
• Use Ensō on two devices — install on a second device and see sync in action.
• Plan a project, Build a notes workspace, A reading workflow, Set up a vault.
• Keyboard reference — every shortcut in one place.