Documentation
How Notenz Works
A plain-English guide to how your automated check-in service works. No technical knowledge required.
The Heartbeat System
You set a check-in interval
Choose daily, weekly, or monthly. At the end of each interval, Notenz sends you a reminder.
You check in
Click the link in the email (or the Telegram message). Your timer resets. Everything stays locked.
If you miss a check-in, escalation begins
Example below uses a 7-day grace period. Your actual timeline depends on the grace period you set in Settings.
- Day 1: Email, Telegram, and SMS alerts sent at once
- Day 2+: Vault executes once your grace period expires
Vault executes
Only after your full check-in interval plus grace period passes with no response. Your encrypted notes and files are delivered to your recipients.
Vault Delivery
🔒 Your messages are locked away
When you write a note, Notenz scrambles it immediately, so nobody (not even Notenz staff) can read it. Think of it like putting a letter in a sealed safe. Only when your vault executes is it unlocked and sent to your loved ones.
📧 Your recipients confirm their email first
When you add someone as a recipient, they receive a short email asking them to click a button. This one-time step tells their email provider to trust messages from Notenz, so when the real delivery arrives one day, it lands in their inbox rather than their spam folder.
📬 Delivery when it matters
When your vault executes, each person you chose receives the messages you wrote for them, delivered directly to their email and ready to read.
Two-Person Secret
GuardianThis optional feature is for people who want an extra layer of protection. Instead of one person receiving your full secret message, it gets split between your selected recipients, like tearing a letter into pieces. No single piece makes sense on its own, but any 2 of your recipients can put their pieces together to read it.
Think of it like a safety deposit box that takes any 2 keys
Imagine a safety deposit box at a bank where you've cut several keys and given one to each of your trusted contacts, but the box only needs any two of those keys to open. No single person can open it alone, and it doesn't have to be one specific pair: any two of your trusted contacts can meet up and open it together. Notenz works the same way, just digitally.
What each recipient receives
An email containing their own share of the secret, which looks like a long jumble of letters and numbers. On its own, it is completely unreadable and meaningless. This is intentional.
Why "any 2" matters
If you split a secret between 3 or more people, any 2 of them can combine their shares to read it. It doesn't matter which two. So if you lose touch with one trusted contact, the other two can still unlock it together, and no single person can ever read it alone.
How recipients read the message, step by step
Each recipient receives their own email from Notenz. Each email contains their share of the secret: a long code.
One recipient selects all the code in their email and copies it (like copying a phone number: select all, then copy).
Any other recipient does the same, copying their share from their own email.
Both open notenz.com/reconstruct/ in a web browser. No account or login needed.
Each person pastes their own share into one of the two boxes on the same screen. It doesn't matter which box, and it doesn't matter which two recipients are doing it.
Click "Reconstruct Secret". For a text message, the original message appears on screen, with no data sent back to Notenz. For a file, the browser automatically starts the download, and Notenz decrypts and streams the file directly.
Files work slightly differently
When the secret is a file, Notenz doesn't split the file itself. Instead, it splits a short access token among your recipients. Any 2 of them still go through exactly the same steps above. The difference is the final result: instead of text appearing on screen, the file downloads automatically. The file is decrypted by Notenz only at that moment and streamed directly to the browser. The download link stays active for 90 days.
Why is this safe? (plain English version)
Notenz splits your secret into pieces using a well-established mathematical technique for sharing secrets, the same family of techniques used by banks and security teams to protect master encryption keys. Any 2 pieces can be combined to recover the original message, but a single piece (or even all the pieces minus one) reveals absolutely nothing about it. This isn't just hard to guess; it's mathematically impossible. Even if someone stole every file on Notenz's servers, the most they'd have is a single piece, which on its own tells them nothing.
Who should use this?
Anyone who wants to make absolutely sure no single person can act alone. For example, a business owner who wants any two of several family members or advisors to agree before accessing financial information, or someone who wants to split a password or account recovery code between several trusted people without relying on any one specific pairing.
Zero-knowledge encryption
For most items, Notenz holds the key needed to deliver your vault automatically, even if something happens to you. But you can also create items that even Notenz itself cannot read. There are two flavors, depending on whether the item is just for you or needs to reach a recipient.
🔐 Sealed Vault: just for you, never delivered
GuardianSealed Vault is a private area for your most sensitive personal secrets, things like your password manager's master password or two-factor recovery codes. Everything in it is scrambled in your browser before it's sent to us, using your password as the key. Notenz only ever stores the scrambled version, and it is never delivered to anyone, even when your vault executes.
By default, Sealed Vault uses your normal Notenz login password. You can also turn on an optional separate Sealed Vault password from the Sealed Vault page, so resetting your account password doesn't lock you out of these secrets. Either way, if you forget the password protecting Sealed Vault, these secrets are gone for good. There is no reset link and no support team override.
Want a trusted person to be able to open this one day? Notenz can't do that for you. There's no automatic delivery for Sealed Vault, by design. Instead, give them two things separately, ahead of time: a way into your Notenz account (e.g. listed with your other passwords for your executor), and the Sealed Vault password itself (e.g. written down with a lawyer, or in a safe). With both, they can log in and unlock it. With only one, the contents stay sealed forever.
Per-item phrase encryption
GuardianOn top of Notenz's standard encryption, Guardian subscribers can lock any individual vault item with a short phrase. The phrase is generated in your browser, and Notenz never sees it. Your recipient enters the phrase on the delivery page to unlock the item, entirely in their browser.
What the phrase looks like
When you turn on phrase encryption for an item, Notenz generates a four-word phrase in your browser, for example:
swift-ocean-purple-flame
That phrase is shown to you once. Write it down, or send it to your recipient yourself, through a separate channel before the vault ever executes.
How encryption works
Your browser uses the phrase as a key, deriving a strong cryptographic key via PBKDF2 and then encrypting the item with AES-256-GCM. Only the encrypted result is stored by Notenz. The phrase itself is never sent to our servers. Decryption happens in the recipient's browser when they enter the phrase on the delivery page.
Zero-Knowledge: Notenz cannot decrypt this item
Because the phrase never reaches our servers, Notenz has no way to open a phrase-encrypted item. If the phrase is lost, the item cannot be recovered. There is no reset option and no support process that can help.
With Two-Person Secret: the phrase splits too
If you combine phrase encryption with a Two-Person Secret item, the phrase is Shamir-split along with the content. Each recipient gets their share of both. To reconstruct the original message, two recipients must combine their shares, and both their phrase shares are needed to decrypt it. No single recipient can open it alone.
When to use phrase encryption
Use it for your most sensitive items: private keys, account credentials, or any note you want to be sure only the right person can open. For most vault items, standard Notenz encryption is more than sufficient. Phrase encryption adds a layer you fully control, at the cost of needing to share the phrase separately.
QR-Vault
GuardianGuardian plan users can create a QR-Vault: a printed QR code you hand to a trusted person. It stays sealed until your vault executes, then requires a 6-digit PIN to open. No app, no digital access needed on their end.
How it works
You generate a QR code and a 6-digit PIN from your dashboard. Print the QR code and give it to someone you trust. When your vault executes, the QR code activates. Your trusted person scans it, enters the PIN, and sees your vault contents. There is also a 9-digit short code as a fallback for people without a phone camera.
What happens if someone scans it early
Nothing is exposed. If the QR code is scanned before your vault executes, it shows a 'not yet accessible' message and you receive an alert email. The vault contents stay sealed.
Access window
Once unsealed, the QR code stays active for 90 days. Your trusted contact (if configured) receives an email or SMS notification when the vault executes so they know to use the code.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. When you write a note, it is scrambled into unreadable gibberish before it is saved. Notenz stores only that scrambled version, not the original words. Your message is unscrambled only at the moment it is sent to your recipients, and nobody at Notenz can read it in between.
You won't lose everything from one missed reminder. Notenz sends email, Telegram, and SMS alerts together the moment you miss your check-in. As long as you respond to any one of them, your vault stays locked.
When you add a recipient, they receive a confirmation email. Clicking "Confirm my email" trains their email client to trust the Notenz domain, so the real vault delivery email is far more likely to reach the inbox.
The confirmation email bounces or is never clicked, and your recipient shows as "Pending" in your dashboard with a Resend button. Fix the email and resend before it matters.
If your vault executes by accident, Guardian gives you 24 hours to recall it and revoke recipient access. Your vault content is retained for 30 days after execution, then all files and notes are permanently deleted from our servers and your account is closed. A minimal audit record (no vault content) is kept indefinitely as proof of delivery.
Two-Person Secret is included with Guardian. It requires at least two confirmed recipients. You can select more than two recipients for a single item, and any 2 of them will be able to combine their shares to read it.
Common questions
When your vault executes, each recipient gets an email with a secure, personal download link. The file is decrypted only at the moment they download it, and Notenz never stores unencrypted files. The download link remains active for 90 days, so recipients can re-download as many times as needed within that window. After 90 days the link expires and the stored delivery copy is removed.
Guardian accounts have a 24-hour recall window. A recall link is sent to your registered email address immediately after execution. Clicking it invalidates all delivery links and blocks file downloads. Note: text note content is delivered via email and cannot be recalled, so recall is most effective for file attachments. After the window closes, recall is no longer possible.
Your account enters a "frozen" state with read-only access. You can view your vault and see your recipients, but cannot add or edit items. Your files and notes are retained for 30 days from the subscription expiry date, giving you time to renew. After 30 days without renewal, the account and all stored data are permanently deleted.
Yes. Your Activity Log is a tamper-proof timeline of every action on your account, including check-ins, vault changes, recipient confirmations, and vault execution events. It is immutable and cannot be edited, providing a clear record for your beneficiaries if needed.
Use Vacation Mode in your settings. Set a return date, and your vault will be paused until then: no reminders, no execution. You can also set a longer check-in interval (monthly) if you prefer a relaxed schedule.
Guardian costs €3.99/month or €29.99/year (€2.50/month billed annually) and includes:
- Sealed Vault: store your 1Password / Bitwarden master password and recovery kits with zero-knowledge encryption. Even Notenz cannot read them. You can also turn on a separate Sealed Vault password, kept apart from your normal login password.
- Trusted Contact: nominate a person who gets a wellness check alert before your vault fires.
- QR-Vault: generate a printed QR code and PIN you give to a trusted person. It stays sealed until your vault executes, then opens with a 6-digit PIN.
- Staged/Timed Release: set a delivery delay per recipient (immediately, 7, 30, 90, or 365 days after your vault executes), so different people receive their items at different times.
- Unlimited recipients for everyone you want to protect.
- Files up to 250 MB for important documents and media.
- 24-hour recall window for accidental vault execution.
- Delivery links valid for 1 year so recipients have time to act.
- WhatsApp alerts: coming soon.
If something happened today, is your family covered?
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