Start here.

Install

Download the installer from the MindToo page and run it. It installs for you alone, needs no administrator rights, and opens MindToo when it finishes. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.

The publisher

When Windows asks whether to run the installer, it names the publisher: PrivateAI, Belfast Ltd. If it says the publisher is unknown, the file is not ours. How to check the download’s hash is on the help page.

The first fourteen days

MindToo opens in its free trial with everything working. You do not need a licence to follow this chapter, or any other.

Where your memory lives

In one file, mindtoo.db, in the .mindtoo folder of your Windows user folder. The bottom of the window names it. There is no account to make and no cloud.

The rail

Down the left: Home, Ask, Memories, Conversations, Messages, Activity, Assistants, API Wallet, Privacy, Settings and Help. Each is a chapter of this manual, and Help holds the whole manual inside MindToo, with or without a connection: press F1 from any screen.

Home

Three tiles (Memory, Assistants, API Wallet), the three-step setup until it is done, and the latest activity: who did what, and when.

Ask

The box at the top, "Ask your memory a question". It answers from what MindToo holds, and says plainly when it holds nothing that answers.

The menu bar

File, Edit, View and Help, above the window. Help opens the manual (F1), the help page and the manual online, a message to support, and About MindToo.

The tray

MindToo keeps running in the Windows tray when you close the window, so your assistants always have their memory. Right-click the tray icon to open it or quit.

Home and the Assistants screen show the same three steps and move on by themselves as you complete them. Connect one assistant first; everything else can wait.

1 of 3: choose an assistant

Open Assistants. MindToo lists the assistants it found on this computer: the Claude app, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor and Windsurf. Pick one and press Connect. MindToo backs up that assistant’s existing settings before it changes anything. If none was found, install one and come back.

2 of 3: send one message

Quit and reopen that assistant (hooks load when it starts; Codex may ask you to trust MindToo’s hooks, so accept), then send it one message and press Check it.

3 of 3: capture proved

Check shows your message arriving, or says plainly that nothing came within three minutes, with what to do for that assistant. When a real turn has arrived, the step reads "Your connection is working".

If nothing arrives

Claude Code: start a new session. Codex: quit and reopen it, and accept the hooks if asked. The Claude app: make sure the MindToo skill is added in Claude (Settings, Capabilities, Skills), then start a new chat. Gemini CLI: start a new session. Cursor and Windsurf: quit and reopen. Then press Check it again. Chapter 6 has more.

Next: Chapter 2, your memory, or connect the rest of your assistants in Chapter 3.