The Lighthouse · Quick start
You do not need to know anything about computers to do this. It is a download, a double-click, and about six questions about how you write your notes. Everything below is written out in full, including the two moments where your computer will try to worry you.
Six steps. The third one is the one people call about, so it is written out fully.
Download for Mac · Apple silicon Download for Mac · Intel
Which one? Click the apple at the very top-left of your screen and choose About This Mac. If it says Apple M1, M2, M3 or M4, take the first. If it says Intel, take the second. Any Mac bought new since about 2021 is the first one — and if you pick wrong, nothing breaks, the app simply will not open and you come back and take the other.
You will get a file ending in .dmg — that is just what Apple calls an installer. It goes to your Downloads folder. It is a large file, around 160 MB, so give it a minute.
Double-click the downloaded file. A small window opens showing The Lighthouse next to a folder called Applications.
Drag the Lighthouse onto the Applications folder. That is the whole installation. You can then close that window and, if you like, drag the downloaded file to the Trash — you do not need it again.
This happens once, it is expected, and it is not a sign that anything is wrong. Double-click The Lighthouse in your Applications folder. Your Mac will stop it and show one of these two messages:
They mean the same thing: Apple has not been paid to vouch for us yet. It is a statement about our paperwork, not about the software. Click Done — not Move to Trash — and carry on below.
Here is how you get past it — do this once, ever. Do it straight after the message above, while it is fresh:
1. Click the apple in the very top-left corner of your screen.
2. Choose System Settings.
3. In the list on the left, click Privacy & Security.
4. Scroll that page down to the bottom, to the part headed Security.
5. You will see a line saying The Lighthouse was blocked.
Beside it is a button reading Open Anyway. Click it.
6. Your Mac asks for your fingerprint or your computer password — the
one you use to log in. Give it.
7. One last box appears with an Open button. Click it.
From then on it opens normally, like any other app — you never have to do this again.
On an older Mac (macOS 14 Sonoma or earlier) there is a shortcut: right-click The Lighthouse, choose Open, and click Open in the box that appears. Apple removed that shortcut in newer versions, which is why the longer route above is the one written out.
The first time, the Lighthouse builds your empty practice. You will see a small spinning circle and the words Starting your practice… Then your workspace appears.
It is empty on purpose. There are no example clients and no pretend appointments — the first name in it will be one you type.
It asks you six things, and each one changes what your notes look like: how you sign them, the sentence you use when a session shows no safety concerns, the diagnosis you carry forward, your note templates, where your backup lives, and whether the scribe drafts your two clinical judgement rows.
Take your time. These are the answers that make the notes yours, and you can change any of them later in Settings.
The Lighthouse can draft a note from a session recording, on your own computer, with nothing leaving the building. That part is a separate download of about 5 GB and it takes a while.
You do not need it to start. Everything else — clients, notes, calendar, assessments, the session room — works right now. Add it whenever you like, from Settings.
The same six steps. Only the first three look different.
You will get a file ending in .exe, in your Downloads folder. It is a large file, around 136 MB, so give it a minute.
Double-click the downloaded file. Windows shows a blue box:
To continue:
1. Click More info — it is small, under the message.
2. Click Run anyway.
Same reason as on a Mac: we have not yet paid for the certificate that would make this box go away. It says nothing about the software.
It installs for you alone, so it will not ask for an administrator password. When it finishes you get a Lighthouse icon on your desktop and in your Start menu.
Open it, wait about ten seconds, answer the six setup questions, and decide about the note-writing helper. Steps 4, 5 and 6 above apply exactly.
In a folder on your computer, and only there. In the Lighthouse menu choose Help → Where my records are kept and it will show you the exact folder. Back that folder up the way you would back up anything else you could not bear to lose.
No. There is no account with us, nothing uploads, and there is no copy on our side to hand over, lose, or be breached. That is why no agreement needs signing between us.
Install the Lighthouse again and copy that records folder across. The app is replaceable; the folder is the practice.
Take a photo of the screen and send it to us. The Lighthouse also writes a plain-text file called lighthouse.log next to your records — the last few lines of it usually say exactly what happened, and you can read them to us over the phone.
You can install it on both, but each one keeps its own separate records — they are not joined together. Most people pick one machine and treat it as the practice.
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