Everything you need, on one page.

Choose one in Settings → Model. Any of these works, and you can switch at any time:

• OpenRouter: paste your own key from openrouter.ai/keys. Fast, a few cents per exploration, and the only option with web search.
• Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI: if one is installed and signed in on your Mac, CuriousDeck uses it through the plan you already pay for. No key needed. Cards take a little longer to arrive.
• A local server such as Ollama or LM Studio, through Custom: anything that speaks the OpenAI API, including models that never leave your Mac.

Open Settings → Build, pick the agent and choose Install…. Terminal opens and runs the install so you can watch it. Then choose Sign in… once. Both install with npm, which comes with Node.js. If you'd rather do it yourself:

• Claude Code: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code, then run claude once and sign in.
• Codex: npm install -g @openai/codex, then run codex login.

In your Mac's Keychain. It's only ever sent to OpenRouter, when a card is being dealt. Remove it any time in Settings → Model.

You get seven days with everything included. The clock starts with the first card the AI deals or the first build that finishes, so setting up never uses it. After the trial, everything you made stays yours to read, edit and export; only dealing new cards and building stop until you buy.

After you buy, your receipt email has a key and an Activate button that opens CuriousDeck and activates it. You can also paste the key into Settings → License. One license covers two of your own Macs.

On the old Mac, open Settings → License and choose Deactivate this Mac, then activate on the new one. If the old Mac is gone for good, write to us and we'll free the activation.

Find your order at app.lemonsqueezy.com/my-orders with the email you bought with, or write to us.

Build hands a card to Claude Code or Codex, which then works in a folder you choose. Start it from the composer's Build switch, with B on any card, or from the hammer in the dock. Each run becomes a card: you watch its steps while it works, open it to see every change it made, undo it, or tell it what to do next. Runs take as long as they need, and keep going while you explore other decks.

You choose in Settings → Build:

• Edit files: changes files in the folder; anything that needs a command is refused and shown on the card.
• Edit and run commands (the default): also runs installs, builds and tests, with network access.
• Full access: no sandbox and no limits. Only for folders and agents you trust completely.

Choose a project folder rather than your home folder; CuriousDeck won't build in your home, Desktop or Documents folders themselves.

Before and after every run, CuriousDeck records the folder in its own snapshot store, so each run's card shows exactly which files changed and can put them back. Undo leaves later work alone, and refuses if a later run changed the same lines. It covers files in the folder, not what commands did elsewhere (an install, a push, an email). Your folder's own git, if it has one, is never touched. Undo needs Apple's command line tools; run xcode-select --install once if CuriousDeck asks.

In ~/Library/Application Support/CuriousDeck/Snapshots, one folder per project folder you've built in. They include everything in the folder that isn't ignored, so if your project has secrets in a .env file, a copy is kept there too. Quit CuriousDeck and delete that folder any time; you lose undo for past runs, nothing else.

Build uses your own Claude or ChatGPT plan through their CLIs, so it comes out of that plan's usage. CuriousDeck adds nothing on top.

In one library file on your Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/CuriousDeck/Library.sqlite, with your own dealers beside it in Dealers.json. Everything is saved as you go and works offline. To back up or share a deck, use File → Export → Deck File….

• The text needed to deal a card goes to the AI you chose, at the moment it deals. With web search on, OpenRouter searches the web for it.
• While building, the agent you chose can read files in the folder you picked and send them to its own service.
• Your license key and your Mac's name go to Lemon Squeezy, our store, when you activate and when the license is re-checked.
• Once a day, CuriousDeck asks curiousdeck.com whether there's a new version. You can turn that off in Settings → About.
• Nothing else: no analytics, no account, no servers of ours.

Open Settings → Build and choose Sign in…, or run claude or codex login in Terminal once. Then try the card again.

Undo needs Apple's command line tools (xcode-select --install), and folders over 20,000 files or 600 MB run without snapshots. The build itself still ran; open the folder to see what changed.

CuriousDeck couldn't write to its library, usually because the disk is full. Free some space and choose Try Again. If the banner says the library was saved by a newer version, update CuriousDeck: this version reads it but won't change it.

Quit any other copy of CuriousDeck and choose Try Again. If it still won't open, Start a New Library sets the old one aside untouched, next to the new one, and write to us: we'll help get your decks back.

Check the message on the card: an OpenRouter key out of credit, a model that's unavailable, or being offline each say so, with a button to fix it. CLI plans have usage limits that reset after a while.

1. Export any decks you want to keep (File → Export → Deck File…), and choose Deactivate this Mac in Settings → License.
2. Quit CuriousDeck and move it from Applications to the Trash.
3. Delete ~/Library/Application Support/CuriousDeck (your decks, dealers and build snapshots).
4. Optionally, in Terminal: defaults delete app.curiousdeck.mac, and in Keychain Access remove the items named com.curiousdeck.app.credentials.