The Lodge
A local-first relationship CRM for one person, on the Mac: who you know, how well you know them, how they're
connected, and everything you've learned about them along the way. Drop in notes, documents, spreadsheets and
meetings and it files what they say under the right people. It runs on your Mac, or with the AI you choose: a local
model through Ollama, a cloud AI with your own key, or a mix, and the first run recommends one from your Mac's memory.
Your people stay on your computer unless you send them somewhere, and Lockdown makes sure nothing is sent. The full specs are under
Features; the download page is at therealeminem.github.io/TheLodge.
Install (Mac)
- Download TheLodge-x.y.z-arm64.dmg from the latest release.
It needs an Apple silicon Mac (M1 or newer) on macOS 14 or later.
- Open it and drag The Lodge to Applications, then open The Lodge.
- First open only: this build isn't signed by an Apple developer yet, so macOS blocks it. Go to
System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and press Open Anyway next to "The Lodge" was blocked.
(Terminal alternative:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/The Lodge.app".)
- A short setup opens on first launch: your name, where AI should run (on this Mac, in the cloud, or a mix; it
recommends one for your Mac and can install Ollama and a model for you), and whether to turn
on Lockdown. Then add your people by hand, or import a spreadsheet or your LinkedIn connections.
The Lodge lives in your menu bar (a small A-frame) and opens its window on launch. Everything it needs is inside
the app: its own Python, the server and the web app. It updates itself from Settings → Updates or the menu bar;
turn on Beta updates there to get new versions a few days early, and Go back returns to the version you had.
Where things are kept: ~/Library/Application Support/The Lodge holds your people, notes, settings and keys
(readable only by you), plus logs/server.log. A backup is made there every hour something changes, and a few are
kept: the newest, and one from about an hour, a day and a week ago. Deleting the app leaves them alone; updating is
just replacing the app. INSTALL.md has the rest: Trailmix, Granola and calendars, backups and restore, and what
to do if something's wrong.
Features
Your people
- People and organizations with what you know about them, where you met, who they work with, tags, and every
note and meeting in order on their profile.
- How well: each person is a strong, working, light or indirect connection, and Home shows how many of each
you have, with the people closest to you first. Find anyone from Home by name, role, organization or tag.
- One of everyone. People who are probably the same person are flagged, with the reason, for you to merge.
Merges move meetings, notes and relationships across, and every one can be undone.
Your network
- Rings of closeness: you at the centre, a ring for each tier, and the people on each ring gathered into
wedges by organization. Switch a group on to make it a wedge, point at someone to see their ties, or find the
paths to a person you'd like to meet and who could introduce you. The same people are also a free-laid map
(groups pull their people together) and a list.
- Ask the network: ready-made questions (who do you know at…, investors and advisors, everyone from an event,
follow-ups waiting), and lists on request: ask "who do I know in climate tech?" and the AI writes the list from
your own book.
Getting things in
- Notes that file themselves. Paste notes or drop in documents (Word, PDF, PowerPoint, text, Markdown, HTML,
RTF, OpenDocument). The AI picks out the people, organizations, relationships and facts and files them; anything
it isn't sure of waits in the Inbox for you to check.
- Spreadsheets, with the AI matching their columns to your fields for you to check, and LinkedIn's own
Connections export.
- Meetings come to you. Turn on Trailmix and the meetings you record
on this Mac come in every 15 minutes with their notes and transcript, leaving out the workspaces you choose.
Connect Granola and its meetings arrive the same way, matched to your people by email; a
meeting Trailmix took from Granola comes in once. Connect a calendar's private iCal address and meetings with
people you know go on your book too. Everything any of them adds can be taken back in one step.
- A sheet others can add to. Share a Google Sheet so people without the app can read, correct and add to your
people; it's kept in step both ways.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
