Deliberate Absences
A minimalist journal — by removing, not by adding.
No streaks chasing you. No formatting wrestling your sentences into neatness. No AI finishing your thought before you've had it.
Minimalism in software is usually a styling decision. Here it is a structural one. The features we left out are not in a roadmap. They are in a manifesto.
What's left is a cursor, a passphrase, and your words.
It turns out that's most of what a journal ever was.
The Typewriter Experience
The cursor stays. The text moves.
In Write mode, your cursor remains exactly at the centre of the screen. The page rises up to meet it. Past words fade into soft shadow at the edges, leaving the present sentence in clear focus. Switch to Read mode and the entry flattens into an evenly lit document — the fade is for writing; the flat light is for returning.
Radical Privacy & Encryption
AES-256-GCM, in your browser, with a key only you derive.
- ·PBKDF2 key derivation at 600,000 iterations — the OWASP 2024 recommendation. Existing journals upgrade transparently on first unlock.
- ·No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics, no cookies, no third-party scripts.
- ·IndexedDB storage with a localStorage fallback. Encrypted before it touches the disk.
- ·The file is not minified. You can read the source. We'd rather you trust it than us.
What It Does Not Do
- ✕No word counts chasing you across the screen.
- ✕No formatting toolbar wrestling your thoughts into neatness.
- ✕No cloud sync. No distant servers. Your words stay yours.
- ✕No social sharing. Your vulnerability is not content.
- ✕No AI assistant finishing your sentences.
- ✕No streak counters. No guilt. No gamification.
- ✕No subscriptions. No mood trackers. No noise.
Licensing & Gift Copy
One purchase covers up to three of your personal devices. It also includes a second untouched copy of the file — meant to be given to one person you trust. Lifetime updates. 30-day, no-questions refund. If you run a clinic, school, or workplace and want a copy for everyone, ask us about a site licence.
One Purchase. Yours Forever.
The price is $24 today. It will become $29.
One-time payment
Get The Eternal JournalQuestions
What features were deliberately left out?
Word counts, streaks, tags, folders, formatting toolbars, prompts, social sharing, and an AI assistant. Each was removed on purpose, not missing by accident.
Is there any formatting at all?
Plain text only. Paragraph breaks are the entire feature set, which is what keeps the attention on the sentence.
Does minimal mean it is unfinished?
No. It is a finished product with a small surface. The manual that ships with it explains every deliberate absence.
More in Core
See all →A typewriter journal where the cursor never leaves the middle.
The text moves around you. Past sentences fade into soft shadow at the edges. The present moment stays lit.
A writing app built to disappear.
Fullscreen. Centered. Quiet. The interface gets out of the way and stays there.
A private, offline journal that asks nothing of you.
One file. One password. Yours forever. No accounts, no cloud, no algorithms reading your three-in-the-morning thoughts.
An encrypted journal where the passphrase never leaves your device.
AES-256-GCM with PBKDF2 key derivation at 600,000 iterations — the OWASP 2024 recommendation. Done in your browser, not on a server.
A journal that doesn't track you. At all. Ever.
No analytics. No cookies. No third-party scripts. No "anonymous usage data." If you view the file source, you'll see for yourself.
Your journal lives on your machine. Not someone else's.
No syncing, no servers, no "your data is safe with us." Local storage, encrypted, yours.
You might also read
For Writers
A private notebook for the sentence you haven't found yet.
First-draft thinking deserves a room with the door closed. The Eternal Journal is that room.
Comparisons
The Eternal Journal vs Day One.
Both are journals. They're built on opposite assumptions about where your writing should live.
By Location
GDPR-friendly by architecture, not by paperwork.
Most apps meet the GDPR with a stack of documents arranged around an unavoidable fact: they collect data. We arranged the software so there is nothing to document.
The cursor will be there when you return.
Centered. Blinking. Patient.
Start Writing