PLACE

Install guide

Install PLACE, step by step.

Everything from the first launch to the Chrome extension and permissions, plus fixes for the usual snags. The Welcome window inside PLACE covers the same steps and checks them off live.

Before you start

  • macOS 14 or later. PLACE is a native Mac app.
  • Google Chrome for video and article memory. Everything else works without it.
  • Optional, for AI answers: Claude Code signed in to your own subscription, Apple Intelligence (macOS 26), or a Claude API or OpenAI key. Keyword search works without any AI.

Download and check

Download PLACE 1.0.0

9.3 MB disk image. To check that the file arrived intact, compare its SHA-256 with the published checksum. In Terminal:

shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/PLACE-1.0.0.dmg

First launch

This hackathon build is signed but not notarized by Apple, so macOS blocks the first open until you confirm it. You do this once.

  1. Drag PLACE onto the Applications folder, then open PLACE from Applications.
  2. macOS says it can't check PLACE for malicious software (this hackathon build isn't notarized by Apple). Click Done.
  3. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway next to PLACE, and confirm. You do this once.

    Open Privacy & Security

    The button works on a Mac; your browser asks before it opens System Settings. The same shortcut is in the PLACE disk image window.

System Settings, Privacy and Security, scrolled to the Security section, with an Open Anyway button next to a line about PLACE, highlighted. Privacy & Security Privacy & Security Security “PLACE” was blocked Open Anyway
Simplified drawing; the exact wording depends on your macOS version.

Right-click → Open doesn't skip this any more on current macOS. Use Open Anyway in System Settings.

Don't see Open Anyway? It appears only after you've tried to open PLACE once. Open it from Applications again, click Done, then look again.

Running it from the disk image or Downloads?

PLACE offers, once, to move itself to Applications. Move to Applications copies it there, puts any older copy in the Trash and opens the new one. If you moved it yourself later, PLACE points Chrome and Claude Desktop at the new copy on its next launch and tells you so.

The Welcome window

On first launch PLACE opens a Welcome window with six screens and one button on each. Screens that wait for System Settings or Chrome move on by themselves, and every permission can be declined. Reopen it any time from Help → Welcome to PLACE.

The Welcome to PLACE window, screen 1 of 6: what setup involves, and an Agree and Continue button.
Screen 1 of 6. Agreeing here turns Memory on.
  1. Welcome. Click Agree and Continue. Memory turns on, and PLACE links itself to Chrome.
  2. Accessibility. So ⌃⌥⌘S can read the text you selected. Click Allow, then turn on PLACE in the list macOS opens.
  3. Automation. So a quote saved from a browser keeps its page address. macOS asks once per browser.
  4. Screen Recording (optional). So PLACE can remember the words on your screen. It keeps the text, never the picture. macOS may ask to quit and reopen PLACE; the guide picks up where it stopped.
  5. Chrome. Three clicks; see Chrome extension below.
  6. Done. What is on and what is still off, and a sample to save your first quote from. PLACE also says which AI it found on this Mac.

Chrome extension

The PLACE Memory extension tells PLACE which parts of YouTube videos you watch and which articles you approve. It isn't in the Chrome Web Store; you load it from PLACE's own folder, once.

  1. In the Welcome window's Chrome screen, click Open Chrome. It copies the extension folder's path and opens Chrome's extensions page. (PLACE already linked itself to Chrome when you agreed on the first screen.)
  2. On that page (chrome://extensions), turn on Developer mode, the switch at the top right.
  3. Click Load unpacked and choose the folder below. In the folder window, press ⌘⇧G, paste the path with ⌘V, press Return, then click Select. The path is already copied; Copy Folder Path in the Welcome window copies it again.
    ~/Library/Application Support/PLACE/Companion/chrome
  4. Wait a moment: the step turns to Connected when PLACE hears from the extension.
  5. Open the PLACE Memory popup in Chrome's toolbar and click Allow on YouTube. On an article site you trust, click Remember articles on this site.
The Chrome screen of the Welcome window, with three numbered steps and a small picture of Chrome's extensions page showing the Developer mode switch and the Load unpacked button.
The Chrome screen, with a picture of where to click in Chrome.

The extension's ID is hodaebkocbckdjgidojfjoobiccmedjk. Because it lives in PLACE's data folder, moving or updating the app doesn't mean loading it again. After an update PLACE may ask you once to press Reload on PLACE Memory in chrome://extensions.

Is it remembering? The PLACE Memory icon shows ● while the current video or article is being remembered and … while it's counting toward the minimum (20 seconds of video, 30 seconds of an article).

Permissions

macOS asks for each one the first time it's needed. Only you can grant them, in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

PermissionWhyWithout it
AccessibilityRead the text you selected when you press the shortcutYou can still save browser pages to Links, and press ⌘V in the map to save what you copied
Automation, per browserRead the current tab's address and title, so a quote keeps its sourceQuotes keep the window title only
Screen RecordingOnly for screen memory and Visual mode: read the window in frontScreen memory and Visual mode stay off

Granted Screen Recording but nothing is kept? Quit PLACE and open it again.

Choosing an AI

AI is optional: typing in Ask searches on this Mac without it. Pick a provider in Settings → AI.

  • Claude Code (default): uses your own Claude subscription through the claude command. Install Claude Code, then run claude once in Terminal to sign in.
  • Apple Intelligence: on this Mac, nothing is sent. Needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on.
  • Claude API or OpenAI: paste a key. It is stored in your macOS Keychain.

Nothing is sent to a cloud provider until you allow it. What is sent, and when.

Troubleshooting

The same answers as Help → Tips & FAQ in the app.

The shortcut does nothing.

PLACE must be running: its icon is in the menu bar. If another app already uses ⌃⌥⌘S, PLACE can't register it; Settings → General shows that it's taken, and you can record another one there.

The map opens, but without my selected text.

PLACE reads the selection through Accessibility. Allow PLACE in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, then try again. Until then, press ⌘V in the map to save what you copied.

Chrome shows “not connected”.

Chrome must be open with the PLACE Memory extension turned on. Open the setup guide (Help → Welcome to PLACE) and go to its Chrome step, then press Reload on PLACE Memory in chrome://extensions. After PLACE updates, it tells you once to press Reload: Chrome doesn't pick up the new files by itself.

No AI is available.

Choose a provider in Settings → AI. Claude Code needs the claude command installed and signed in: run claude once in Terminal. Apple Intelligence needs macOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on. For Claude API or OpenAI, paste a key. Keyword search works without any AI.

There's a purple dot in the menu bar.

macOS shows it while an app reads the screen. Screen memory reads the window in front about every 10 seconds, and Visual mode once a second, so the dot stays while either is running. Pause Memory or turn off Text on my screen to stop it.

Ask finds nothing.

Ask only searches what PLACE holds: your saved quotes and, with Memory on, videos you played for at least 20 seconds, approved articles and screen text. Try fewer or other words. Return needs an AI provider; typing alone works without one.

I moved the app, and Chrome or my assistant stopped working.

Open PLACE from its new place once: it points the Chrome link and Claude Desktop at the new copy by itself and says so. The extension lives in PLACE's own folder (~/Library/Application Support/PLACE/Companion/chrome), so it keeps working. If you loaded it from inside the app before this version, Chrome lists it as missing: load it once from the setup guide's Copy Folder Path. Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI show “PLACE moved · reconnect” in AI connections, with the steps.

Screen memory or Visual mode keeps nothing.

Both need the Screen Recording permission. Allow PLACE in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording, then quit and reopen PLACE.

Removing PLACE

  1. Quit PLACE (Quit PLACE in its menu bar menu, or ⌘Q) and move it from Applications to the Trash.
  2. In Chrome, remove PLACE Memory in chrome://extensions.
  3. To delete what PLACE kept, delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/PLACE. This can't be undone.
  4. The Chrome link is one file: ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/NativeMessagingHosts/dev.place.memory.json. If you connected Claude Desktop, remove the place entry from its settings.