Support

Getting in touch

Email: support@getcloister.app — the quickest way. Cloister is made by one person, and that person answers.

If you are stuck blocked

This is the most likely reason to need help, so it comes first. A running session cannot be cancelled, by design — but nothing is permanent. Sessions end after at most 24 hours of your Mac being on or asleep — a shutdown pauses them — and there is a way out through Recovery mode for when you genuinely cannot wait: write to support@getcloister.app and we will send you the steps.

Nobody can end a session for you — not us, and not our support: Cloister has no remote switch.

Cloister won't remove its background component while a session runs: it says when the session ends.

Your licence

• Lost your key? It is in the email you received after buying. If you cannot find it, write to us from the address you bought with.
• New Mac? Unlink the old one in Cloister's settings, then activate the new one. If the old Mac is gone, activate the new one anyway: when every seat is taken, Cloister lists your Macs, and you can unlink the old one there.
• Mac not online? Write to us with the code the activation screen shows, and we will send you a licence file by email.
• A new version says your licence doesn't cover it? Your update window has closed. Renew, or reinstall the last version it covers from our website.
• Bought the wrong licence, or used the wrong email? Write to us and we will put it right.
• Invoice or VAT? Paddle issues them, and your receipt links to them. To buy as a business, enter your VAT number at checkout; to fix an invoice, ask Paddle at paddle.net. A business charged VAT can ask Paddle to refund it, with a valid VAT number, within 60 days.
• Refund? See Refunds.

Never post your licence key in public. When you write to us, the email you bought with is enough.

Known limits

Cloister makes giving in deliberate and inconvenient, not impossible. These are the ways around it we know of, kept current with each release:

• Safari with iCloud Private Relay switched on gets past the hosts file. Cloister's network filter blocks it, but only if you allow the filter when macOS asks.
• Anyone who boots into Recovery mode and deletes one directory can remove Cloister. That will never change: Cloister is a commitment device, not a security boundary against the Mac's own administrator.

Uninstalling

Settings → General → Uninstall Cloister…, in one step. It is refused while a session runs, and says when it can run. It removes the background component and the network filter for every account on the Mac, and Sparkle's settings and caches and the licence key from yours, then moves Cloister to the Trash.

• What stays: the trial record, so a reinstall isn't a fresh trial; and your lists and settings.
• This Mac keeps its seat on your licence. To free it for another Mac, unlink it in Settings → Licence first.
• If you deleted Cloister in Finder, download it again, open it, and uninstall it from there.

Diagnostics

Cloister sends us nothing automatically. If we need to know which version of the background component you are running, Cloister's settings show it on one line under General, with a Copy button: paste it into your email. It carries the version, the build and the user it runs as, and nothing from your lists or schedules.

Security issues

Found a vulnerability? Please report it privately — see Security.