Your first ten days
What day one looks like with an empty memory, and how to backfill it if you don't want to wait.
It knows nothing yet, on purpose
A brand-new Selv has nothing to answer from — and it says so rather than pretending otherwise. From here, it learns two ways: from the capture sources you enable, or by backfilling from what you already have.
Backfilling instead of waiting
In Settings › Data Sources, a few sources import what you already have rather than only capturing forward:
- Chat Imports and Journal Import are one-shot: pick your WhatsApp/Telegram export or your Day One (or compatible) export, and Selv indexes it in one pass.
- Apple Notes, Browser history and Calendar start syncing continuously the moment you turn them on — including what's already there, not just what happens next.
Turn on whichever of these apply to you, and Selv can answer from your own past as soon as the first import finishes, instead of only from the day you installed it.
If you'd rather just let it run
Leave the importers off, and Selv builds a record from the capture sources you enable. There is less to draw on during the first few days, and questions remain limited to what has been captured and processed.
Updated 2026-09-13