Questions

Shale is a productivity app for Mac (Apple Silicon). It turns an idea into execution: a note becomes a mind map, then a goal split into phases, tasks and a calendar. It is made for one person at a time and published by Antonin Estanie, as a sole proprietorship.

Shale is made for entrepreneurs and independents carrying a project, as well as students and young professionals who want to stick with a goal over time. It is built for one person at a time: no sharing, no comments, no team space.

Yes, in the Shale Pro plan only, and only if you turn it on. The AI is off by default and is switched on group by group: the morning brief and the evening wrap-up, capture (a text, a PDF or an image becomes tasks, events or notes for you to approve), breaking down tasks and goals, writing help in notes, and the weekly review. It changes nothing on its own: every suggestion waits for your approval. The content you submit to it goes to our servers and then to Google, whose Gemini model writes the response; during that transfer, it is not covered by end-to-end encryption. Without the AI, the whole app works.

Habits, tasks, notes and figures live in a local file on your Mac, which you can open, back up or delete. An encrypted copy goes to our servers so your devices stay in agreement: encryption happens on your machine, with a key derived from your password, which we don't have. So we store data we can't read. The one exception: the AI features of Shale Pro, off by default. When you run one, the content concerned goes to our servers and then to Google for as long as it takes to respond, and we don't keep it.

It's the flip side of end-to-end encryption: since the key is derived from your password, no one here can decrypt the sync copy for you. The local file on your Mac, however, stays accessible.

Yes, for everything local: tasks, calendar, habits, timer, goals, notes. Only sync between devices and assisted features need the network.

Notion is an excellent shared workspace. Shale is something else: an app installed on your machine rather than a browser tab, built for one person rather than a team, and one that tells you what to do when you open it instead of waiting for you to build the system.

No date is set: Shale opens as soon as Apple has approved the app. People on the waitlist get an email the same day. The first version ships on macOS Apple Silicon.

Your address joins the list, nothing else: no account to create, no card to give today. You tick a box to say you want to hear about the launch and get your free month; without it, nothing is saved. On launch day, an email tells you sales are open. Until then, you'll get at most a few development updates.

It is for people on the waitlist only. On launch day, an email tells you sales are open: you create your account with the address that is on the list, and the first month of the Shale plan is free. The offer must be claimed within 7 days of launch; after that, it ends. During that month, you'll be invited to share your feedback. Signing up commits you to nothing: no card is asked for today. It will be asked for when Shale opens, to activate the free month, and charged only when that month ends; cancelling before then means nothing is charged.

Shale will be sold as a subscription. Pricing will be known when Shale opens. It is published under the French VAT exemption scheme: the price shown will be the price you pay.

A message to support@shaleapp.com is enough, no reason needed: the address is erased. It is only used for the waitlist, and is never sold or passed on. The details are in the privacy policy.

Nothing. Your subscription and your invoices stay in your account area. Log in.

In your account area, on this site: the secure billing portal handles plan changes (prorated), invoices, payment method and cancellation. Log in.

From the log-in page, “Forgot password?” sends a link that restores access to your account and billing. However, the sync copy already encrypted with the old password stays unreadable to us: you start again from the data on your Mac, and sync rebuilds itself.

macOS on Apple Silicon (M1 and later) first: that's the version that is opening, through the waitlist. Windows and iPhone are on the roadmap, not distributed: what the site shows of them is a preview, never a download. Write to us to hear when Windows ships.