Someone in your group invited you. This page walks you through the whole thing — install the app, use your invite code, and find your way around. Plan on about ten minutes.
Cove runs as a web app that installs to your home screen or dock — just like a regular app. Nothing to download from an app store; the code loads once and stays offline-capable. Updates arrive automatically.
Open Cove →Your keymaster texted or handed you an invite code — a string of letters and numbers, single-use, expires within a day or two. When you first open Cove, you'll see a Get started button.
https://lwccoa-hub.oap.dev), and the invite code.Cove has two main ways to look at your group's messages. Understanding both makes the app feel obvious instead of overwhelming.
The Inbox is Cove's landing screen. It lists every thread with the most recent activity first, showing you the latest message, who wrote it, and how many are unread. Think of it like an email inbox: you scan for what needs your attention, tap into the specific thread, catch up.
Unread threads bubble to the top with a small dot. Once you read them, they settle back into chronological order.
A thread is one conversation about one topic. When you tap a thread from the Inbox (or from the sidebar), you see every message in it in order, from first to most recent. Long threads scroll like any messaging app.
Threads have names. The sidebar shows every thread the group has going, so you can jump between them without going back to the Inbox.
The sidebar on the left is your permanent nav: Inbox at the top, then a list of Threads (scrollable if there are many), then hubs at the bottom. On phones and narrow windows, the sidebar collapses; a hamburger button at the top-left reopens it.
Inside a thread, type your message in the compose box at the bottom and hit send. Attachments (photos, PDFs, spreadsheets) go through the paperclip icon — they're stored on your group's hub, not in a third-party cloud.
Cove offers two ways to render a thread's messages:
Toggle via the icon at the top of the thread pane. Your choice is per-device and persists between sessions.
You can start a thread anytime by clicking the + button next to the Threads section header in the sidebar, or the + New thread button in the Inbox.
budget-2027, reservoir-project, annual-meeting. Type whatever's natural — spaces get converted to hyphens automatically, so budget 2027 becomes budget-2027.When you create a thread, you'll pick an audience:
Cove treats "how long does this need to live?" as a first-class decision. Some conversations should be on the record forever; others shouldn't outlive their purpose. Every thread is one of two kinds:
Once posted, entries in a permanent thread are there forever — verifiable line by line, signed by the person who wrote them, part of the group's tamper-evident log. Governance decisions, meeting minutes, financial discussions, anything you might need to reference three years from now.
What gets kept: everything. Every message, every attachment, every read receipt.
Ephemeral threads carry a self-declared expiration. When their time's up, the hub seals the thread and its contents disappear. A signed record proves what the thread was about and when it existed — but the messages themselves are gone.
Good for: a beach cleanup coordinating chat, the recital, a spring social, back-and-forth about a one-time event. Anything where "the conversation was useful in the moment but shouldn't clutter the archive."
What gets kept: the fact the thread existed, its name, when it was created, when it expired, and a signed proof of what was inside so nobody can later dispute whether it happened. The messages themselves are gone.
You pick permanent or ephemeral when you create the thread. Ephemeral threads show an hourglass icon and a countdown in the sidebar.
Once you're signed in on your first device, adding a second one is a two-minute round-trip. You never generate new keys; the same identity travels with you.
Some people are in multiple Cove groups — an HOA, a church council, a small nonprofit. You can add all of them to one Cove client and switch between them from the sidebar.
Each group's keymaster gives you a separate invite code. The keymaster of the second group attests the same identity you already have, so no new keys, no new sign-in ceremony. From the Cove sidebar, tap + Add another hub, enter the new URL, and the app authenticates you against it.
Once added, hubs appear as rows near the bottom of the sidebar. Tap one to switch. Threads, Inbox, notifications — everything flips to that group's view.
Cove is small on purpose. There's no feed algorithm, no ad targeting, no plugin marketplace. Just your group, having its conversations, on your group's server, forever.
If you get stuck, the person who invited you can help — they're either your keymaster or one keystroke away from them. And if you're curious about the technical details, the specifications page lays out the whole protocol.