Install

One command puts thc on your PATH, makes a vault, starts the background service and teaches your agents.

thc installs with one line, on macOS (Apple silicon or Intel):

$ curl -fsSL https://github.com/brancusi/thought-control-releases/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

It ends with a checklist, something like this:

thc 0.9.43 (aarch64-apple-darwin)
  verified: checksum, Apple signature, update signature
  installed ~/.local/bin/thc
Setting up thought-central
  ✓ vault       ~/thought (new)
  ✓ thc         ~/.local/bin/thc
  ✓ background  running · starts at login
  · agents      none found · thc setup claude --user to add one later

  Ready. Your notes live in ~/thought.

    thc j      write in today's journal
    thc        see what's due
    thc --help everything else

Open a new terminal window so your shell finds the command, then type thc j.

The installer is macOS-only for now. Releases, checksums and the installer itself live at thought-control-releases.

What it sets up

Some details worth knowing:

• Every download is checked before anything is installed: a checksum, Apple’s code signature and the release’s own update signature. If one fails, nothing changes.
• Your PATH: if a new terminal wouldn’t find ~/.local/bin, setup adds one marked line to your shell profile. A thc you already have from somewhere else is never replaced.
• The vault is never a sync folder by default. It’s ~/thought. To share one with a team or across machines, make a vault in a synced folder.
• Agents later: thc setup claude --user or thc setup codex --user whenever you like. See Agents.

thc setup --status shows what setup added, where it is, and whether it’s current.

WezTerm

If you use WezTerm, one more command gives you the Mac editing keys (⌘←, ⌥←, ⌘⌫) and ⌘V for screenshots:

$ thc setup wezterm --yes

It writes thc’s own key file and adds one marked block to the config WezTerm loads, after backing that file up. The keys only act while thc is running in the pane: in your shell, an editor or an SSH session, they do what they did before. It also turns on WezTerm’s kitty keyboard mode, which is what lets ⇧Enter make a line break. thc setup, run inside WezTerm, offers this once and never changes your config without a yes. thc setup wezterm --undo --yes takes it out again.

Staying current

thc updates itself.

$ thc update            # fetch, verify, swap in place, restart the service on it
$ thc update --check    # only say whether there's a new version
$ thc update --rollback # put the previous version back

The background service checks for a new release every six hours. When there is one, thc today mentions it and the TUI’s footer says so: type :update and thc updates and comes back exactly where you were. If you update from another window, an open thc notices and offers :update to reload in place.

In ~/.config/thought/config.toml, update = "off" stops the checks and update = "auto" installs new versions on its own.

When something seems off

$ thc doctor

thc doctor checks the vault and the local store, and says which vault it’s using and why. It notices days or tags that were made twice on two devices before they synced, empty tags, missing attachments and files nothing refers to. thc doctor --fix shows what it would repair without changing anything; thc doctor --fix --yes makes the repair as one step that thc undo puts back. Unreferenced files are moved aside, never deleted.

Two more that help:

$ thc daemon status     # is the background service running? (exit 0 live, 3 not)
$ thc vault             # which vault you're in, and why

The local database is only a cache of the log. If it ever looks wrong, thc rebuild replays the log and makes it again.

Uninstall

$ thc setup wezterm --undo --yes    # only if you ran thc setup wezterm
$ thc setup --undo

The first removes thc’s block and key file from your WezTerm config. The second removes what setup added: the login item, the PATH line and the agent files (a skill you’ve edited by hand is left alone, and it says so). Then remove the binary itself:

$ rm ~/.local/bin/thc

None of this touches your notes. Your vault stays in ~/thought, a plain folder you can keep, back up or delete yourself.