What Nova is

Nova is a browser for macOS in which a tab is a small layout rather than a single page: a web block on one side, a real shell on the other, both in the tab you are already in. The shell is a PTY on your Mac, not an emulator talking to a server.

Nova is a separate application with its own codebase. This article covers the part that meets your Tincograph account, which is what this help centre can speak for.

What is built on the account side

• Device registration. Signing in inside Nova registers the Mac as a device on your account. Its identity is the public key of its remote-access TLS certificate, and the fingerprint of that certificate is stored alongside it. A paired phone checks the live certificate against that fingerprint before it trusts the Mac, so the link is between your two machines rather than through us. The device then appears on your account page, where it can be revoked — see Paired devices.
• Sync. Bookmarks merge per item across devices. The non-secret part of Nova’s settings mirrors both ways; any key that looks like a token, password or secret is excluded from every read. Tabs and layouts mirror one way, one document per Mac.
• The AI pane. The Tincograph AI workspace runs in Nova’s side pane. Reading is granted to it — the current tab, bookmarks, the non-secret settings, the tab list. Acting is not: opening a terminal, running a command, navigating the tab or writing a bookmark each need a one-time approval for that origin.
• Terminal contents never leave the Mac. Not over the phone link, not through the AI bridge, not into your account. What syncs is state, never output.

Nova costs no credits and is on every plan, including Free.

What is not there yet

• A download on your account page. There is no build to fetch from your account today.
• Reaching your Mac from outside your own network. The relay that would make that work is not deployed; the status page lists it as such. A paired phone reaches the Mac over the local network.

Ask about a build through the contact form.