How to use EMBER
Everything you need to walk EMBER well: how the Index reads you, what a day asks of you, what the other screens are for, and where to turn when the weather gets heavy. Read it once, then come back to any section.
1. Getting started
Open EMBER. You don't need to sign up: EMBER starts you on a private device account instantly. Onboarding has three steps:
- Take the Ember Index, about 7 minutes.
- Take The Ready Mindset (MQ), or skip it for now.
- Read your Restoration Blueprint. Two instruments, one picture. Then tap Begin Day 1 of my 90-Day Pathway.
Choose your lens anytime with the Lens: Open button in the header (see Lenses).
2. Your account
The 👤 Guest button in the header opens your account on the Care tab.
- Device account: no email and no password. Everything works, but your journey lives on this device.
- Protect it: add your email and choose a magic sign-in link (no password) or a password of 8 or more characters. You keep the same account, so nothing is lost.
- New phone or computer: open EMBER and sign in with the same email.
3. The Ember Index
Forty statements about the past two weeks, ten in each of four domains: Meaning, Mind, Body, Belonging. Rate each from 0 (not at all true of me) to 4 (completely true). Statements marked vitality item are reverse-scored. The total runs from 0 to 160, and higher means more dimmed.
| Score | Band | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 0–32 | Burning Bright | Flourishing range. Use the pathway to protect it. |
| 33–64 | Flickering | Early dimming. The pathway is a good fit. |
| 65–96 | Dimmed | Languishing range, functioning on fumes. The full 90 days is built for exactly here. |
| 97–128 | Smoke | Run the pathway and schedule a professional evaluation this week. |
| 129–160 | Near-Dark | A professional evaluation is the right next step. The pathway walks beside care, never instead of it. |
Your profile
If one domain clearly leads the others (by 5 points or more), you get a profile and a practice steer for Days 8–21:
| Profile | Domain | Steer |
|---|---|---|
| The Drifting Ember | Meaning | Awe + Gratitude |
| The Clouded Ember | Mind | Music + Savoring |
| The Depleted Ember | Body | Gratitude at night + Music in the morning, walk-anchored |
| The Isolated Ember | Belonging | Kindness + Music taken in company |
Otherwise you'll see a Balanced profile. The results screen also shows Where the dimming lives (domain bars), your core features and your trajectory. Tap Ask Ember to interpret this with me for a walkthrough.
4. The 90-day pathway
| Phase | Days | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Stabilize Stop the spiral. Build a floor under your feet. | 1–30 | 1 Begin Where You Are · 2 The Donned Practice · 3 The Thought on the Table · 4 The Body as Ally (Day 30: The Second Reading) |
| Deepen Personalized by your Mindset barriers. | 31–60 | 5 Roots of the Pattern · 6 Rewriting the Narrative · 7 The Web of Connection · 8 Meaning and the Thorn (Day 60: The Third Reading) |
| Sustain From project to way of life. | 61–90 | 9 The Oak Takes Root · 10 Purpose Beyond the Pain · 11 Rhythms That Last · 12 The Witness · 13 The Next Beginning (Day 89: The Fourth Reading; Day 90: The Letter and the Road) |
The Pathway tab shows every phase and week, plus a grid of all 90 days. Tap a past day to mark it done (if you did the work away from the app); tap it again to clear it. It opens with the Walking Covenant:
- Clean words, always.
- Nothing here is a verdict on you.
- We ask; we don't assume.
- Your best is a moving target, and today's counts in full.
5. Walking a day
Open Today. Your day card has a brief, then Today's teaching: why this works, then six moves:
Tick each move as you do it. Then read Tonight, write in Journal this day, and tap Complete Day N.
Need help? Tap Walk today through with Ember. Below the card, This week's evidence explains the science behind the week.
6. The weekly Pulse
A 60-second, ten-item check-in. It opens on Today from Day 6 and comes due again about six days after each one you take. It is scaled to the same bands as the Index, so you can see drift between full readings. Three of its items (mood, sleep and energy) feed the core-features line on Journey.
7. When things get heavier
EMBER adjusts the pathway on its own when your readings call for it:
- Gentle on-ramp: through Day 14, if your band is Smoke or Near-Dark or your PHQ-9 is 15 or higher. Smaller doses, more grace.
- Storm protocol: two Pulse rises in a row. Nothing to fix. It offers an ally line you can send: "Storm week. Nothing to fix. Just check on me."
- The line is speaking: three or more rises, or an Index that worsens by 8 or more. EMBER recommends stepping up to professional care and flags it for clinical review.
8. Companion screens
Each is optional and private to you. None is ever shared with an employer.
| Screen | What it is | Bands | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHQ-9 | A standard depression screen. Nine items, 0–3 each, scored out of 27. Re-screen every 2–4 weeks. | Minimal 0–4 · Mild 5–9 · Moderate 10–14 · Moderately severe 15–19 · Severe 20–27. At 10 or more, Today shows an evaluation card. | Index, Care |
| Five Voices | The Restoration Quotient: 25 items about the past 30 days, scored out of 150. Joy, Gladness, the Bridegroom, the Bride and Praise in the Faith lens; Joy, Flow & Purpose, the Builder, the Sanctuary and the Larger Story in the Open lens. | The Symphony 120+ · The Developing Choir 80–119 · A Faint Whisper 50–79 · The Silence of Exile under 50. Shows your quietest voice and its practice. | Index |
| PRSM-12 | A sleep inventory: 24 items across 12 domains, scored out of 96. A draft instrument, not a standalone diagnosis. | Minimal up to 19 · Mild 20–39 · Moderate 40–63 · Severe 64+. Domains scoring high show targeted protocols. | Care |
| ISI | The Insomnia Severity Index: 7 items, scored out of 28. | None up to 7 · Subthreshold 8–14 · Moderate 15–21 · Severe 22–28 | Care |
The Core features panel tracks eight features: low mood, sleep disruption, low energy, loss of interest, appetite change, worthlessness or guilt, poor concentration, and slowed or restless. It uses your most recent PHQ-9 (within 30 days), then this week's Pulse, then your Index.
9. The Ready Mindset
On the Mindset tab: forty statements rated 1–5, naming the execution barriers you meet most and the tool paired with your profile. Your results show your MQ score, your barrier profile and cluster, your three barriers, and Your fused 90-day thread.
Once taken, Today shows a Ready Mindset thread card, and the day's tool folds into your Engage move. Completing an EMBER day also logs that day to your Ready Mindset pathway. Two pathways, one practice. Phase 2 (Deepen) is personalized by these barriers.
10. Every tab explained
The Help button is for app support. It never replaces or hides crisis help.
11. Working with Ember
Ember is an AI companion, honest about being AI. It reads your Index, today's unit, your journal, Pulse, PHQ-9, mood, pod and sleep, so it can coach today's practice at today's dose. Speak or type, and switch voice replies on if you like.
Quick starts: Run today's H with me · I don't feel like doing anything · Help me plan the ally speech · Interpret my Index · I did my walk.
Ember keeps replies short, asks one question at a time, and always lands on one small, doable action. It is not a therapist, never advises on medication, and will never ask you to reframe mistreatment as something you imagined.
12. The Music Room
Music runs through the pathway (the Music Block starts on Day 9). On the Ember tab:
- Search chips open YouTube searches matched to your lens.
- Your Restoration Playlist: paste YouTube links to save them.
- My Audio Library: add your own audio files (up to 25MB each). They stay on your device, play offline, and can loop.
A mini-player keeps playing while you move between tabs.
13. Journey and photos
Journey counts your current day, full-row days and minimum-dose days. It charts your Index trajectory, your mood line, your weekly Pulse, mood, sleep and energy week by week, and your body trends. Before & along the way invites a photo on milestone days (1, 15, 29, 43, 57, 71, 85 and 90) or any day you choose. Photos are private and never readable by an administrator. Tap Ask Ember to reflect my journey back to me for a summary in your own words.
14. Care, vitals and medications
Vitals log
Record weight, blood pressure, resting heart rate and last night's sleep. Read straight from a Bluetooth scale, cuff or heart-rate strap (Chrome on Android or desktop; not iPhone), import a CSV, or link Fitbit, Oura, Garmin, Withings or the LifePro app with a link code. A blood pressure of 180/120 or higher is an emergency: seek care now.
Medication routine
Add a medication by name or nickname, with a time. Today shows a checklist, Care shows your 7-day completion, and Download daily reminders (.ics) adds alerts to your phone calendar. These are reminders only: EMBER never suggests, adjusts or comments on any medication.
Connect to care
Use Request a consult on the Care tab: choose a reason and your state, and EMBER routes it through the DoktorConnect care network.
Cohort code
If your employer or program gave you a code (3–16 characters), enter it under My cohort. It only places your anonymous trend into the right group. It never carries your name or your answers.
15. Healed Pods
Three peer rooms: The Fireside (open), The Upper Room (faith) and The Builders (purpose). Post under a handle (up to 24 characters), up to 600 characters per post. Every post is checked for safety before it appears: if it suggests crisis, it is held and you're shown help; if it could land harder than you mean, you're offered a gentler rewrite. Tap ⚑ to flag a post for clinicians.
The four house rules: clean words · experiences, not advice · nothing identifying · crisis belongs with humans. 988 first, always.
16. VALLEY link
If you also use VALLEY with the same verified email, Today shows a From your valley card: your day in the 90-Day Valley, today's ditch and the expectation it serves. Tap I did it to mark it dug in VALLEY, or Open my valley to go there.
- On a very heavy day (when you tap Very heavy) the card hides, and Ember is told not to bring up goals.
- Nothing links without a matching verified email, and EMBER never creates a VALLEY account for you.
17. Lenses
Tap Lens: Open / Lens: Faith in the header to switch at any time. Your progress stays. The lens changes each day's Engage and Declare wording, the move descriptions and the Covenant, the Music Room chips, the Five Voices names and how Ember speaks. In the Open lens, Ember uses no religious language unless you bring it first. In the Faith lens, a weekly faith note appears and practices like lament and the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3) are welcome.
18. Privacy
- Your journey is readable only by you. Photos are never admin-readable.
- Ember conversations and your audio library stay on your device.
- Employers see only anonymous population trends: bands, totals and cohort counts. Never your answers, chat, PHQ-9, photos, vitals or care requests.
- Safety signals can be read only by the clinical review role.
19. Safety and crisis help
If you answer the Index's safety item or PHQ-9 item 9 with anything above zero, EMBER stops and shows help immediately: Finishing this screen can wait. Today then shows a crisis card, and Ember puts safety first. These signals, and others such as a Smoke or Near-Dark band, a severe sleep score, or a BP in the crisis range, go to a confidential clinical review queue.
The clinical queue is retrospective review, not crisis response. If you might act on thoughts of harming yourself, don't wait for it:
US: call or text 988, 24/7, or call 911.
Anywhere else: findahelpline.com lists your local line.
20. Questions
I missed a week. Do I start over?
No. Resume at the day you're on. A missed day is data, not a verdict. If the gap came with heavier weather, take a Pulse or, if 30 days have passed, retake the Index.
I only did one move today. Does it count?
Yes. Minimum dose counts. Zero moves is the only thing that doesn't.
My Index went up. Am I failing?
Scores are weather. Look at the trend across readings on Journey, and ask Ember to interpret it with you. If it rose by 8 or more, EMBER will suggest professional care. That's the system working, not you failing.
Is EMBER a diagnosis or therapy?
No. The Index and the screens are not diagnoses; only a clinician can diagnose. EMBER walks beside care, never instead of it, and Connect to care is there when you want a person.
Can my employer see me?
No. Your employer sees only anonymous population trends.
Bluetooth reading doesn't work on my iPhone.
iPhone browsers don't support Web Bluetooth. Enter readings by hand, import a CSV, or link your wearable account.