About

An app written for a single user, first.

Shale came from a mundane problem: in the morning, figuring out what to do takes more energy than doing it. I built the tool I wanted to open first — a window that decides for me what comes next, and records what I did without my having to think about it in the evening.

I write it on my own, as a sole proprietorship registered since August 2026, with updates released week after week. Shale isn't a fundraising story: it's paid software, sold to people who use it, which is the only way I know to make it last.

Where Shale comes from

I'm an entrepreneur. For a long time, I tried to run my work in Notion: tasks, notes, goals, everything was in there.

I never managed to make it last. Too complicated to use, and nothing that really links a note to a goal, or a goal to the day: I got lost more than I moved forward. The tool meant to help me had become one more chore.

Shale is my answer: an app that links those steps instead of leaving them in separate tools. An idea becomes a note, the note a goal, the goal a set of steps, and the steps this morning's tasks.

Antonin EstanieFounder of Shale

What I care about

Your Mac first

Your data lives in a file on your machine. An end-to-end encrypted copy, which I can't read, keeps your devices in agreement.

Quiet

No reminder emails, no gamification. The app's reminders are discreet, adjustable one by one, and turn off in a tap.

Honest about where it stands

What's released is announced as released; what's a preview is announced as one. Even when that doesn't help sales.

Built for one person

No sharing, no comments, no shared space. Shale is made for one person at a time.

How Shale is made

One person, not a team

I write the code, answer support, and write these pages. When you write in, I'm the one reading.

Releases week after week

Every change is dated in the release notes, fixes included.

Read the release notes

A blog kept in public

What changes, why, and what's left to do: an article when there is something to say.

Read the blog

Where Shale stands

  1. August 2026

    The sole proprietorship is registered.

  2. Today

    The waitlist is open. People on the list hear first, and their first month is free.

  3. At launch

    Public launch, on macOS Apple Silicon.

  4. Next

    The iPhone app is in the works; Windows is on the roadmap.

What if Shale stops?

It's the question to ask of software written by one person, and the answer lies in where your data lives: on your Mac, with an encrypted copy I can't read.

Your data is in a file on your Mac, readable by you, with an encrypted copy on our servers. A full backup exports at any time from Settings. If you cancel, nothing is deleted: the file stays on your Mac.

The data format is open and exportable: if development stops, your file stays readable.

Support

One person develops and answers. Write what's not working, with your macOS version and the module involved: that's what moves the app forward fastest.

support@shaleapp.com

Hear about it the day Shale opens.

Shale isn't open to the public yet. People on the list hear first.

Your first month is free at launch.

For people on the waitlist only, to be claimed within 7 days of launch, on the Shale plan. A card is asked for at activation and charged only when the free month ends. Nothing to pay today, and one message is enough to unsubscribe. Privacy

MACOS APPLE SILICON — WAITLIST OPEN