Resources & documentation

Everything you need to get the most out of Quiddy — from quick-start guides to in-depth references.


Getting started

Installation

Download the .dmg from the Download page. Open it and drag Quiddy to /Applications. On first launch, macOS may show a Gatekeeper prompt — right-click the app icon and choose Open to proceed.

First-run wizard

Quiddy opens a guided setup on first launch. You'll be asked for your name, a short description of what you work on, and a starting persona. This takes under two minutes and bootstraps your AI context immediately.

Adding an API key

Open Settings → API Providers. Add your key from Anthropic (sk-ant-...), Google AI Studio, or OpenAI. Keys are stored in the macOS Keychain — they never appear in the database. If you're on Apple's internal network, Floodgate is configured automatically.

SEEK personas

SEEK stands for Sensitivity · Exploration · Expressiveness · Knowledge. Each dimension is independently configurable with five preset options plus a free-form custom field, and three intensity levels.

Building a persona

Open the Personas panel from the sidebar footer. Click + New persona. Choose SEEK mode, configure the four dimensions, and click Generate PROMPTED Configuration. The background model assembles a full system prompt and five conversation starters tailored to your configuration.

Conversation starters

Each persona can have up to six short conversation starters — prompt chips that appear below the input when the persona is active. Click any chip to pre-fill the message box. SEEK generation suggests five automatically; you can edit or add more in the Execution tab of SPECS.

Intensity levels

Each SEEK dimension has three intensities. For Knowledge, these are: none (no prefix), Professional, Expert. For the others: Slightly, Normal, Very. A Very Analytical exploration style is noticeably more rigorous than Slightly Analytical.

SPECS behavioral controls

SPECS (Semantics · Probability · Execution · Constraints · Security) gives fine-grained control over every aspect of model behaviour, independent of the SEEK-generated system prompt.

Semantics

Set Tone (Objective, Supportive, Socratic, Authoritative), Style (Analytical, Action-Oriented, Explanatory), and Role (Technical Specialist, Creative Writer). Each maps to a specific system prompt injection.

Probability

Controls temperature (0 = deterministic, 1 = maximum variation), Top-P nucleus sampling, Repetition Penalty, and Topic Novelty Bias. Hover any slider for a precise description of what it does.

Constraints

Output Length: Concise (<250 words), Standard (250–600 words), or Comprehensive (no limit). Output Format: Auto, Plain Text, Markdown, or JSON.

Execution

Context Memory (how many prior exchanges to include), Knowledge Base (vault/chat folder links), Web Search (Gemini only), and Conversation Starters.

Security

Context Memory scope, Data Privacy (regex-based PII redaction on typed messages), and Content Boundaries (Standard or Strict — Strict refuses medical, legal, and financial advice).

Knowledge Vault

The vault lets you attach documents to personas so they're injected as context on every message. Supported types: PDF (10 MB), text/code/JSON/Markdown (2 MB). Images are not accepted in the vault — they're text-only injection.

Attaching vault docs to a persona

In the persona editor, open the Knowledge section and select vault folders or individual documents. On each message, up to 12,000 characters per document are injected into the system prompt.

Chat attachments vs vault

Vault docs are always-on context — injected on every message for a persona. Chat attachments are per-message: drag or paste a file into the chat input and it's included only in that message. Images and PDFs attached to chat messages are sent directly to the model using vision/document APIs.

Memory

After each conversation, Quiddy extracts memorable facts about you using the background LLM model. These facts accumulate over time and are injected into the system prompt as "About You" context.

How extraction works

Extraction is queued and debounced — not run after every single message. After a 30-second quiet period, up to five conversations are processed in a single batch. Facts are deduplicated before insertion. Conversations with fewer than 4 messages or very short average message length are skipped.

Persona rebuild

When at least two new memories are added, the background model synthesises them into a 1–2 sentence "You are..." persona description. This description is injected at the top of every system prompt.

Managing memories

Open Behavior → Memories to view, edit, or delete individual facts. Use the Rebuild button to regenerate the persona description from current facts.

Models & API keys

Supported providers

Anthropic (Claude 4 Opus, Sonnet, Haiku), Google (Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash), OpenAI (GPT-4o, o-series), and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint including Ollama. Floodgate is available to Apple network users.

Model routing

In Settings, you can set separate models for Chat (the interactive model you converse with) and Background (the cheaper model used for memory extraction, title generation, and persona rebuild). A typical configuration: Claude Sonnet for chat, Claude Haiku for background.

Web search (Gemini only)

When using a Gemini model, enable Web Search in SPECS → Execution to add Google Search grounding. The model can retrieve current information before responding.

Privacy & data

All data is stored in ~/Library/Application Support/Quiddy/. Open Settings → Privacy & Data to see exact counts, your data directory path, and options to export or delete everything.

Export

Click Export all my data to download a ZIP containing your SQLite database, vault documents, and attachments. Suitable for backup or migration.

Delete

Click Delete all my data and confirm by typing the phrase. All conversations, memories, vault documents, and attachments are deleted. Settings and API keys are preserved so the app still functions.

Frequently asked questions

No. Quiddy never sends your conversations, memories, or vault documents to Quiddy's servers. The only external calls made by the app are the LLM API requests you initiate — sent directly to Anthropic, Google, or OpenAI. Quiddy has no visibility into these calls.
Any one of: an Anthropic API key (for Claude models), a Google AI Studio key (for Gemini), or an OpenAI key (for GPT-4o). You can add multiple providers and switch models per conversation. If you're on Apple's internal network, Floodgate is available at no cost.
The app itself works fully offline. Conversations, personas, memories, and the vault are all local. The only thing that requires internet is sending a message to an LLM — those API calls need connectivity. If you're offline, existing conversations are readable and all settings are accessible.
Two ways: (1) Manual export via Settings → Privacy & Data → Export all my data — downloads a ZIP with everything. (2) Time Machine or any backup tool will automatically include ~/Library/Application Support/Quiddy/ — no configuration needed.
SEEK generation uses the background model to write your system prompt. If it fails, check: (1) your API key is valid and has credits in Settings → API Providers, (2) the background model is configured in Settings → Model Routing, and (3) you have an internet connection. The Inspect panel → Logs tab will show the specific error.
Export your data via Settings → Privacy & Data → Export all my data. On the new Mac, install Quiddy and import the ZIP.
Yes. In Settings → API Providers, add a custom provider with base URL pointing to your Ollama instance (typically http://localhost:11434/v1). No API key needed. Then set it as your chat model in Model Routing.

Join the conversation

Share personas, discuss workflows, and get help from other Quiddy users.

Get help

Bug reports

Found something broken? Use the built-in Report Issue button (bottom-left of the sidebar) to send a bug report with relevant logs attached automatically.

Email support

Feature requests

Have an idea? We read every feature request. Email us or post in the Discord #feature-requests channel with as much context as you can.

hello@quiddy.app

Enterprise & procurement

Evaluating Quiddy for your organisation? We can provide security documentation, privacy impact assessments, and volume licensing information.

enterprise@quiddy.app

Press & media

Writing about Quiddy? Find screenshots, logos, and product descriptions in the press kit. Reach out for interviews or early access.

press@quiddy.app