Using Ovillo

Settings

Settings is where you change the language, the name Ovillo checks documents against, the assistant connection and the auto-lock time, and where you make backups and restore them. This page lists every control in the order the screen shows it.

At the top

The screen opens with the line "How the assistant connects, and where your vault lives." The button Run setup again sits at the top right. It brings back the four-step setup card (documents, whose record, assistant, backup). It only shows the card again and takes you to the Overview.

Language

Choose English or Español. The whole app switches at once. These are the only two languages. On first start, Ovillo picks Spanish if your system language is Spanish and English otherwise.

Whose record is this?

Each new document is checked against this name before anything from it is filed or sent. A document that names someone else waits for you.

• Nickname. The field is labelled Nickname on the start screen, with Save nickname. It is what the start screen shows before you unlock. It is stored in plain form, so use a nickname that is not a full name. See More than one person.
• Name. Patient's full name, entered as it appears on documents, then Save name.
• Details. Date of birth (optional) is used only to check that a document is about this person. How you refer to them (optional) is the word you use, such as "your mom", with no names or dates. Save both with Save details.
• Also named. A list of names from documents you said are this person's. Documents with those names are checked as theirs, and the names are coded before anything is sent. Forget one that turns out to be someone else's, and documents with that name wait for you again.

Rough one-line summaries

The tick box Write rough one-line summaries on this Mac adds a short description to each row of the Documents list. It can be wrong, so it is used for nothing else. It is off by default, runs only when no assistant is connected, and needs the on-device reader helper (Apple Silicon on macOS 27, with Apple Intelligence turned on). On other Macs it does nothing.

Assistant connection

Choose No assistant, Sign in with ChatGPT or Your own API key. Each choice shows its own fields: Model, Service, Address of the service (https), API key, List models, then the consent tick box and the buttons Save assistant connection and Disconnect. A line above them says which reader handles your documents (Apple's built-in models, or Ovillo's own reader). The steps, the consent wording and what is sent are on The assistant.

Below the form is the tick box Let the assistant decide held items. It is on by default. When an assistant is connected, it decides what would otherwise wait for you in Review, says why, and you can undo any decision. Turn it off to approve by hand, which also stops a run between batches. See Review.

Reply checks that fired

A counter of the checks Ovillo ran on the assistant's replies since you opened it, for example Number or date not on the cited page or Source not in the record. It shows None yet. until one fires. Nothing here is saved or sent.

Vault & portability

The heading line names where your vault lives on this computer. A backup is one file holding the encrypted record and every encrypted document, and it needs the same passphrase. This part of the screen has these controls.

Document index

Shows how many documents are indexed. Rebuild document index reads every document again from scratch, which can take a while on a large folder. Use it if search seems to miss something.

The picture from your documents

Update the picture now has the assistant draft the overall picture (current state, connections, gaps, disagreements, questions) for your OK. It is greyed out without an assistant. Compare with my imported history appears only if you imported an older history file. Below it, Tests learned from your documents lists tests Ovillo reads because you or the assistant approved them. Forget stops Ovillo reading one; values already filed stay.

Auto-lock

Lock the vault after this long without activity, with these choices: 5 minutes (the default), 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour and Never (lock it yourself). Time away from the page counts. The choice applies to this computer only. With Never, the vault stays open until you press Lock vault in the header.

Document passwords

Password-protected PDFs can be unlocked by typing their password. Ovillo keeps the passwords you typed inside the vault and tries them on other locked PDFs. This section says how many are kept, or "No document passwords are kept." Forget saved passwords removes them.

Encrypted backup

Download encrypted backup saves one file, named health-picture-encrypted-backup.json, with the encrypted record and all the encrypted documents. It needs the passphrase of the vault it came from. Keep it somewhere you control. There is no cloud copy: if the Mac fails and you have no backup, the record is gone.

Restore a backup

1. Press Choose encrypted backup and pick the file.
2. Type the Backup passphrase.
3. Press Preview restore. Ovillo checks the file and shows a Restore preview with the name on the record and how much is in it. Nothing has changed yet.
4. If it is the right backup, press Confirm restore. To stop, press Cancel restore preview.

Restore is an overwrite: it replaces the vault stored for the person you are in. A backup bigger than 1 GB is refused, and so is one with missing document files. You can also restore from the locked start screen, under Restore existing backup, with Preview backup restore. That is the way to restore on a new Mac.

Plaintext JSON

Download plaintext JSON saves the whole record as an unencrypted file. It will not start until you tick I understand this download is unencrypted. Assistant credentials and saved document passwords are left out. Anyone who gets the file can read it, and a copy cannot be recalled.

Re-read the history file

Shown only if an older history file was imported. Choose the same file again to refresh its trend tables with the latest reader. Nothing else changes.

Delete this vault

Open Delete this vault, type DELETE in Confirmation, and press Delete vault permanently. It removes the encrypted vault and its documents from this computer, for the person you are in. It can be recovered only from a backup file.

All controls at a glance

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