Two people.

What ships in the download

One file. Nothing hidden.

When you buy The Eternal Journal, checkout (handled by Paddle, our merchant of record) hands you a direct download link for a small .zip. You actually get the whole package twice, one set to keep, one identical set to give away. Inside each:

• The_Eternal_Journal.html

  The application itself. A single self-contained HTML file: no dependencies, no network calls. Open it in any modern browser, choose a passphrase, and start writing. The file is not minified; you can read and inspect every line.

• The_Eternal_Journal_-_Copy.html

  An identical, untouched second copy, byte-for-byte the same file, ready to be given to a person you like. They start their own journal with their own passphrase; yours and theirs never meet.

• The_Eternal_Journal_Manual_dark.pdf

  The field guide, designed for screens. Dark background, warm text.
  Read it at 2 a.m. without searing your retinas.

• The_Eternal_Journal_Manual_light.pdf

  The same guide, designed for print. Cream paper, dark ink.
  For those who still believe in paper.

• elara_voss_journal.json

  A sample journal in the unencrypted seed format. Import it to see how entries look and feel, fictional words by no one in particular, safe to read and safe to delete.

• A_Note_on_Sharing.pdf

  A short essay on why there are two copies, and what to do with the second one.

• README.txt

  Plain-text orientation: what's in the package, how to open the file, how to back up your writing, and what happens if you lose your passphrase (nothing, it's gone, and that is the point).

• LICENSE.txt

  Human-readable personal licence. Up to three of your own devices plus the one gift copy. 30-day, no-questions refund. Site licences for clinics and schools on request.

• RELEASE_NOTES.txt

  A dated log of every release: what changed, when, and why. Boring on purpose.

• TROUBLESHOOTING.txt

  The most common things that go wrong, and what to try first before writing to us.

• FOR_CLINICAL_PRACTICE.txt

  A short briefing for therapists, clinicians and practice managers on how the journal is,
  and isn't, used between sessions. Skip it if you're using the journal for yourself.

• SHA256.txt

  Cryptographic checksums of every file in this package. Run sha256sum against it to verify nothing was tampered with in transit. Most people don't need to. It's here in case you do.

Verify what you downloaded

SHA-256 checksums.

Current release: 2.0.4 (August 2026).

Every file we ship is listed below with its SHA-256 hash. If a hash matches, the file is byte-for-byte the one we released. If it doesn't, don't trust that copy, and write to us. Run sha256sum -c SHA256.txt (or shasum -a 256 -c SHA256.txt on macOS) inside the unzipped folder.

The two copies of the application are intentionally identical, so they share a hash. SHA256.txt cannot list its own hash; check it against the copy published here.

Two claims here are checkable rather than promised. The paid file is generated from the demo file by a script, not maintained alongside it; and the encoder fix in v2.0.3 is covered by a round-trip test suite that proves old data still decodes identically. Both are published in full: how the paid file is made, the build script, and the regression test.

The other half · Petur

The second pair of eyes.

Petur is the other half of Meanwhile. He reads everything before it ships, argues with the parts that are not clear yet, and keeps the studio honest about what is finished and what only looks finished.