FAQ

Answers to common questions. Grouped by topic.

General

What is Recall? A desktop legal research application. You upload PDFs to a matter, search across them with keyword or AI-powered semantic search, save excerpts as pins, and insert them as properly formatted citations into Microsoft Word. A built-in AI assistant (Clerk) helps you rewrite passages and chat with your matter's documents.

What platforms does it run on? Windows and macOS desktop. No web, no mobile, no Linux.

Does it cost anything? Licensing is handled by The Retrieval Company — check there for pricing.

What version is current? Recall 2.6.x. See the Blog for release notes and Roadmap for what's coming.

Do I need an internet connection? Only for (1) optional model downloads after setup, (2) auto-update checks, and (3) connecting to a remote server in server mode. In local mode, after setup, Recall works offline.

Installation and distributions

What's the difference between Full and UI-Only installers?

	Full	UI-Only
Size	~1.2 GB	~63 MB
Includes	Flutter UI + Recall Core + bundled models + llama binaries	Flutter UI only
Backend	Runs on your computer	Remote server
Use if	You want everything on your machine (solo practitioner, offline work)	Your firm hosts Recall centrally

SmartScreen is warning me on Windows. Recall's Windows installer isn't code-signed yet. Click More info → Run anyway. This will be resolved once code signing is in place — see the Roadmap.

Is the macOS installer signed? Yes, signed and notarized. Gatekeeper won't block it.

Can I install Recall without admin rights? Yes. Both the Windows and macOS installers are per-user and don't require elevation.

Accounts and organizations

Do I need an account? Only in server mode. Local mode uses a built-in local-user account silently.

How do I register? Server mode only. On the login screen, click Register and enter your email, password, display name, organization name (optional), and an invite PIN. Registration is invite-gated — your administrator generates and sends the PIN.

How long does an invite PIN last? 7 days.

What is an organization? The unit of data isolation in server mode. Each organization has its own database, documents directory, and users; data from one organization is never visible to another. You belong to exactly one organization.

Can I belong to multiple organizations? Each user session is scoped to one organization. There's no in-app organization switcher today.

Can I rename my organization? Yes, if you're the owner. Gear menu → Organization Settings.

Matters, documents, and pins

What's a matter? A container for a case or research topic. Documents, pins, and notes are matter-scoped. See Matters.

What document types can I upload? PDFs only.

What if my PDF is scanned? Recall doesn't OCR. If the PDF has no extractable text, it's tagged not_readable and search/indexing can't find anything inside. Run OCR externally (Acrobat, Preview, etc.) and re-upload.

Can I share a matter between users? No. Matters belong to one user in one organization. In server mode, different users in the same organization have separate matter lists.

What's a pin? A saved excerpt from a document. Pins carry the text, source, page, pinpoint, and optional notes and category. See Pins.

Does deleting a document delete its pins? No. Pins stay but become orphans. Delete them manually or re-upload the document.

Search

Keyword vs. Semantic — which do I use?

• Keyword (default) when you know exact phrasing (proper nouns, statute language).
• Semantic when you're after a concept that could be phrased many ways.

Why isn't my document showing in search? Check its status: Extracting → Indexing → Ready. Keyword works after Extracting; semantic after Indexing.

What embedding model does semantic use? Whatever you picked in Settings → Semantic Search. ModernBERT is the default and is bundled.

Clerk AI

What does Clerk do? Two things: Edit (rewrite a passage in one of six styles) and Assist (chat with the matter's documents). See Clerk AI.

What model runs Clerk? Whatever you picked in Settings → Generation. Llama 3.1 8B is bundled; Phi-3.5 Mini is optional. Server deployments can route to a remote OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Can I turn Clerk off? Set Generation to Disabled in Settings.

Does Clerk ever hallucinate citations? Yes. Treat every citation Clerk produces as a hypothesis to verify.

Word integration

Do I need Microsoft Word? Only if you want to insert formatted citations and tables of authorities into a Word document. Pins, Clerk, search, and notes work fine without Word.

What Word versions are supported? Windows: Word 2013 and newer. macOS: Word 2016 and newer.

Why does macOS ask for Automation permission? Recall uses Apple Events (in Recommended mode) to control Word, which requires an Automation permission. Grant it once and it sticks.

What if I denied the permission? Settings → Word Integration → Request Word Permission to re-trigger. Or: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation → Recall → tick Microsoft Word.

What's Advanced mode on macOS? A fallback Word Add-in flow for Macs where Apple Events doesn't work (e.g., MDM-blocked). Requires cert trust and add-in installation. See Word Integration Setup.

Citations and Table of Authorities

Which citation styles does Recall support? federal and california. Style is set per matter.

How does Recall know how to format a citation? It uses the document's citation metadata (kind, volume, reporter, case name, etc.). Recall auto-extracts this on upload; you can edit any field.

What's a "context-aware citation"? A citation whose form (full / short / Id.) depends on what you cited recently in the Word document. See Citations.

How do I generate a Table of Authorities? Place your cursor in Word where the ToA should go, trigger the action, and Recall scans the document, groups citations, and inserts a formatted table. Regenerate it whenever you add or remove citations. See Word Integration.

Performance and technical

Recall is slow. Most common causes: semantic indexing still running on a large document set; generator is downloading or loading; Windows antivirus scanning GGUF files. Check the status pill for specifics.

How much disk space does Recall use? Full install ~6–7 GB with bundled models. Add any optional models you download.

Where is my data stored? - Windows: %LocalAppData%\Recall\ (C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Recall\) - macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Recall/ - Server: wherever the server admin configured

Can I move my data to another computer? Yes — copy the data root. But note Recall uses absolute paths inside the config; test carefully.

Does Recall send my documents anywhere? Not in local mode — everything stays on your computer. In server mode, documents go to your organization's server. In both modes, if your server administrator has configured a remote generator, Clerk queries go to that endpoint. Recall also contacts an update server in the background to check for new releases (no document content is sent).

Updates

Does Recall auto-update? It checks for updates in the background but never installs without your confirmation. See Auto-Updates.

How do I manually check? Settings → scroll to Auto-Updates → Check for Updates. Or wait — it checks every 4 hours automatically.

Can I disable auto-update checks? They run in the background and are harmless (they only check, not download). There's no UI toggle to disable them today.

Privacy and security

Is Recall secure for confidential work? In local mode, all document content stays on your computer. In server mode, data lives on your organization's server and is isolated per organization. Whether that meets your confidentiality requirements depends on your policies and the server's security posture — no application can decide that for you.

Does Recall encrypt data at rest? Recall doesn't add its own encryption layer. Data is protected by your OS-level encryption (FileVault, BitLocker) and (in server mode) the server's configuration.

Is there audit logging? The CoreService writes to logs/core.log under the data root. That's not a formal audit trail — it's operational logging.

Getting help

I found a bug. Report it to The Retrieval Company at retrieval.company.

I want to request a feature. Same place.

Something looks wrong in these docs. Also same place.