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On a computer, download Kanso for macOS, Windows or Linux and open it. Your notes live on that computer, in plain Markdown, and Kanso works without an account or a connection.

On an iPhone or iPad, get Kanso Pocket from the App Store; the Android version is coming soon to Google Play. It is the same app: write, search and lock notes there as you do on your computer, and sign in with your Kanso account (see below) to keep them in step. The mobile apps share version numbers with the computer apps, so the release notes cover them all.

You don't need an account to use Kanso on one computer. You need one to keep several devices in step.

On a computer, open Settings › Account and choose Create account. Pick a username and a password of at least 12 characters. Kanso encrypts your notes on the device before they are uploaded, with a key the server never sees.

Kanso then shows a recovery key. Save it somewhere safe, such as a password manager. Kanso can't reset a forgotten password: the recovery key is how you set a new one.

To add a device, sign in to the same account on it. Your other devices hold the key to your notes, so the new one asks one of them to approve it. It shows a six-digit code; open Kanso on a device that is already signed in and approve the request only if it shows the same code. If no other device is at hand, use your recovery key instead.

Signing out keeps every note on the device. If a device already has notes when you sign in, Kanso asks whether to add them to the account or replace them with the account's notes, and saves a backup first.

Lock note… in the command palette or the Note menu seals a note's text with a lock password. You can lock a whole notebook too. A locked note's text stays sealed in sync and opens on your other devices with the same password.

Kanso can't recover a forgotten lock password, and the notes locked with it can't be read without it. Titles, notebooks, tags and dates of locked notes stay visible, and pictures and files attached to them aren't sealed.

You can export a note as a web page or a PDF, or publish it as an encrypted link. The key to a published note is in the link itself, so only people you give the link to can read it. Locked notes can't be published.

On a computer, File › Import… reads a folder or an export from another notes app and shows what it found before it writes anything. The source is only ever read, and importing the same source again updates the notes it made instead of duplicating them. It reads Markdown folders and many other apps' exports; the list is in the README.

If Kanso on your iPhone, iPad or Android device crashes, it keeps a report on the device. It is sent only when you tap Send, and the app shows you the exact text first.

A report says where in Kanso's code the failure happened, the app and system versions, the kind of device and the day. It never holds note text, titles or file names. The privacy page has the details, and the definition lists every field.

On a computer, Settings › Account has Delete account…. It asks you to prove it's you, and then removes the account and everything the sync server held for it. The notes on your devices stay. Backups kept by the server's database host can hold the encrypted data for up to 30 days.

Kanso is open source and supported in public. Search the issues on GitHub to see whether someone has met the same problem, or open a new one. Say which device and Kanso version you use, and what you did. Please leave note text out of it.