Let Sprout hold it 🤲

Don't send it hot. Give it to Sprout instead — nothing you put here ever gets sent anywhere. When your heart slows down, you two can read it together and decide.

How long should Sprout hold it?

Practice with me 🎒

Pick who'll be there. Sprout deals practice cards — the moves they usually make, and your line, ready before you walk in.

The idea shelf 💡

The ten most-loved ideas float to the top. Tap "me too" on anything you wish for — wishes are votes, and votes move the shelf.

Plant an idea 🌱

What should Sprout learn to help with? If someone already planted the same wish, yours waters theirs and it grows up the shelf.

The lantern walk 🏮 (a side-room, for the curious only)

This lives all the way over here on purpose. Your answers always come from your own lanterns — full stop, no exceptions. But some people are curious how a moment would sound through a different heart — as a window, never as advice. If that's ever you: pick a moment, tap a lantern, and we'll take a little walk. A maybe, never a must.

Which moment? Your last question, or any page from your book. My last question Which lantern?

Add a person

Their name Who are they to you? Tap one. How do you want to handle them? Tap one. This shapes every reply Sprout writes. How do they come at you? Tap all that apply. Sprout uses this to keep you safe. How are you willing to be reached — if at all? Tap all that apply. You pick the channel. Always. What do they usually do? Tap everything that fits. The more you tap, the better Sprout understands.

Your people

Backup chest 🧰

If the app ever loses your stuff (it can happen after an update), bring it back from here. Copy this somewhere safe — or paste it into the chat and your helper will tuck your people into the app for keeps.

Everything you save lands here — what really happened, in your own book. Patterns can't hide from a book.

My promise 🤝

Sprout reads this before every answer. Pick the lantern that matches your heart — Sprout walks by whichever one you choose.

Choose your lanterns 🏮 Tap as many as feel true.

Your words are yours 🔒

Nobody sees what you put in here — not even the people who made Steady. Everything you save (your people, your book, your held words) lives only on your own device. The tap-button answers never touch the internet at all. If you paste words for a deep read, they're sent once for thinking, answered, and forgotten — never stored, never read by a person, never used to teach anything. Your family's mess is not our data. It's your life.

The one rule no lantern can change

Whatever stance you pick: being tricked or hurt is never your fault, Sprout never tells you to say sorry for having boundaries, and nothing Sprout writes is ever unsafe to be shown around. That's the floor. It doesn't move.

Why Sprout thinks this way 🌱

Where do Sprout's ideas come from?
Scientists and helpers have studied for a long time how people trick and pressure the ones close to them. The tricks are so common they have names — guilt trips, fake apologies, flipping the story. Sprout learned the names, and the old, tested ways to answer them. None of it is made up.

Sprout's three big ideas:
1. People earn closeness by how they act — not just by being family.
2. You can't control what they do. You can always control what you do back. (People figured this one out about two thousand years ago. It still works.)
3. Being kind to yourself isn't a treat. It's a job. Yours.

What Sprout will never do:
Blame you. Rush you. Tell you to apologize for protecting yourself. Or write anything that would look bad shown to the whole family.

About the lanterns:
They come from many old traditions — some from faith, some from philosophers, some from plain human fairness. No tradition owns kindness, and no lantern is the "right" one. They answer different questions: some are about your safety, some about your own heart, some about what it would take to come closer. That's why you can carry more than one.

And two honest things:
Sprout only ever hears your side of the story — that's why Sprout helps you decide, and never decides for you. And Sprout is a friend, not a doctor or a judge. For the biggest, heaviest things, real humans you trust matter most.

Where the lanterns come from 🏮

Nothing in Steady was invented from thin air. The tricks have names because researchers named them: DARVO — deny, attack, reverse victim and offender — comes from psychologist Jennifer Freyd's research at the University of Oregon. "Don't JADE" (justify, argue, defend, explain) and gray rock grew out of recovery communities who learned them the hard way, one boundary at a time.

And the lanterns borrow honestly from old traditions: the calm fortress from the Stoics — Epictetus, who taught that what's outside your control can't own you, and Marcus Aurelius, who wrote that the insult belongs to the one who throws it. Truth & teshuvah from Jewish teaching, where forgiveness follows real repentance — in that order. Patience & kinship from Islamic thought on sabr and the ties of family, held without surrendering to harm. Courtesy without surrender from the Confucian understanding that honoring the form is not handing over the self. Peace & letting go from Buddhist non-attachment. Faith & grace from Christian teaching that forgiveness and trust are different gifts, given differently.

Why a shelf of lanterns instead of one? Steady's founder studied philosophy — graduated summa cum laude — and built this app on a single conviction: the philosophies we carry quietly drive the lives we experience. Hand someone one fixed worldview and you've given them advice. Hand them a shelf of lanterns and you've given them a way to think.

One more secret: the lanterns are also windows. Curious how a different heart would see your situation — or how the person across the table might be seeing it? Borrow a lantern for an afternoon. Understanding a viewpoint was never the same as surrendering to it. And to be very clear: this is completely optional. Your lanterns are yours, they are enough, and nobody here will ever push a different one on you. Borrowing is for the curious, on the days curiosity feels good — and no other day.

What's new in the garden 🌱

Every time Steady grows, Sprout writes it down here — so you always know what changed, in plain words.

Your words are yours 🔒

Nobody sees what you tap or type in Steady. Not even the people who made it.

What stays on your device: everything you save — your people, your book, your held words, your lanterns, your wins. It all lives in your own browser's storage, on your own device. There is no account, no cloud, no list of users with your name on it.

What never touches the internet: every tap-button answer. Sprout's little book of old tricks is built into the app itself, so instant answers work with the internet off entirely.

What happens on a deep read: if you paste someone's exact words and ask Sprout to think deeper, those words are sent once — securely — to the thinking engine, answered, and forgotten. They are never stored, never read by a human, never used to train anything, and never shown to anyone.

What we will never do: sell your information (we don't have any), show you ads, or use your family's hardest moments as data. Your family's mess is not our business model. Your peace is.

Leaving is easy: your backup belongs to you (My people → Backup chest), and the button below erases every trace of Steady from this device. No questions, no retention, no "are you sure you want to unsubscribe" maze.

Something broken? Something missing? 💌

If Sprout did something odd, a button didn't work, or you have an idea that would make Steady better — we really do want to hear it. This app grows from exactly this.

What kind of thing is it? Tap one. Tell us what happened Describe what the app did — please keep your family's actual messages out of it. We don't want them; that's the whole point of us. Want a reply? Optional — leave your email only if you'd like us to write back.

Your report travels with a little technical note (app version, browser, whether storage works) so we can fix things faster. Never your words, never your people.

The important stuff 🆘

Sprout is a friend, not a therapist, a doctor, or a lawyer. Steady helps you read messages and hold your ground. For the biggest, heaviest things, real humans matter most.

If anyone threatens you or you feel unsafe: that's bigger than any app. Tell people you trust, and contact local emergency services. Keep the messages — your book can help you remember what was said, but real protection comes from real people.

If the weight ever feels like too much: you deserve real support, not just a seedling in an app. A therapist who understands family trauma is worth their weight in gold — and if you're in the US and things ever feel truly dark, you can call or text 988 any time, day or night.

And one thing Sprout wants you to hear: needing help was never weakness. It's what people who survive do.