Owl training
The five setup steps, in the app's own order and words
Right after confirming your email you meet your owl: It already knows how to read and write, but it doesn't know you yet. Owl training is the five-step setup that teaches it what you care about, where to read, when your digest lands, and how you like it written. It takes about two minutes, and your first digest follows within minutes of finishing.
Press Start the training. The bar at the top shows where you are (1 of 5), and the panel on the right, Your digest so far, previews the result as you go.
Categories
First things first: what do you care about? Pick up to five topics from the twelve on offer: Tech, AI, Startups, Business & finance, World news, Politics, Science, Climate, Design, Culture & film, Sports and Food. Missing one? + something else? tell me lets you type your own; double-tap a chosen topic to rename it.
Five is a focus cap, not a plan limit: Lots of interests, huh? Five keeps your digest sharp. You need at least one to continue, and you can add more topics later under Settings.
Sources
Now, where should your owl read? For every topic you picked, the owl has already scouted a few good sources; press + Add on the ones you want. To follow something of your own, paste any URL into Or paste any URL — I'll find the feed: a newsletter, blog, YouTube channel or podcast. The feed is detected for you and filed under a topic, which you can change on the spot.
The trial allows a small number of feeds; the step tells you when you have used them all. See Topics and sources for the current limits and for what counts as a valid source.
Schedule
When should your digest land? Pick a weekday and a time: 06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 12:00 or 17:00. The default is Monday at 08:00. Times are in your own timezone, detected from your device (Amsterdam time (GMT+2), detected from your device.). Delivery is weekly; see Delivery schedule.
Preferences
Almost done: how do you take your digest? Three choices with sensible defaults: Length (Short, Standard, Thorough), Language (English, Nederlands, Deutsch) and Summary style (Headlines only, Just the facts, With commentary).
Below them, Sharper still: ask your AI (optional): copy a prompt, ask your own AI assistant to describe you as a reader, and paste the answer. It becomes the base of your reader profile. All of this is explained on Preferences.
Payment
Training is done: leave a card and your trial starts for free. The summary shows your first digest (within minutes), the weekly moment, your topics and sources, and the trial end date with the first payment date after it.
Go to payment opens Stripe Checkout. Nothing is charged during the 14-day trial, and we remind you two days before the first payment. If you back out of Checkout: Nothing was charged, nothing will be, and the trial is one tap away whenever you're ready. See Trial and subscription.
After payment
You see Settling onto the perch… for a few seconds while Stripe confirms the card, then the dashboard opens by itself. Your first digest is generated right away and arrives within minutes, in the app and by email.
Pausing and resuming
You can close the browser at any point. Signing in again brings you to Back to the perch. I kept your notes., with a checklist of what is done and a Pick up at … button for the next step. Start over instead clears the notes.
In the mobile app
The app runs the same training in four steps; the subscription is handled on the web. The ask your AI paste is left out on a phone. See Mobile app.