65 problems and their answers, pulled from the setup guides so the two can never disagree. Every one is checked against the shipping app rather than written from memory.
Run a model on your own machine, or point NeuralVault at one you pay for.
Installing Ollama does not download a model. Run "ollama list" in a terminal. If it is empty, pull one.
Full guide: Run a model on your own machine with OllamaOpen http://localhost:11434 in a browser. If that does not respond, Ollama is not running, and no setting in NeuralVault can fix that. Restart it, then reopen the model picker.
Full guide: Run a model on your own machine with OllamaThat is a hardware answer, not a configuration one. A model larger than your available memory will be swapped to disk. Try a smaller variant.
Full guide: Run a model on your own machine with OllamaNearly always a missing or extra /v1 on the base URL. Open <your base URL>/models in a browser: if that returns JSON, the URL is right.
Full guide: Connect LM Studio, or any other OpenAI-compatible serverSome servers bind to 127.0.0.1 only and some to all interfaces. Use exactly the host the server printed, not a substitute you assume is equivalent.
Full guide: Connect LM Studio, or any other OpenAI-compatible serverStored and valid are different things. Check the key has credit or an active billing method on the provider’s side, and that it has not been scoped to a project that excludes the model you picked.
Full guide: Add an API key for a cloud providerInto your OS credential store under the service name NeuralVault: Credential Manager on Windows, Keychain on macOS, the Secret Service on Linux. It is not written into your vault and it is not synced anywhere.
Full guide: Add an API key for a cloud providerDelete it from the same screen. Removing your data wholesale is a separate control, in Settings, General, Remove my data.
Full guide: Add an API key for a cloud providerThe path template does not match your endpoint. Azure deployments in particular sit under a deployment-specific path rather than the plain /chat/completions most OpenAI-compatible services use.
Full guide: Connect Azure OpenAI, Z.ai, or another direct endpointAuth style. Some endpoints want a bearer token and some want a provider-specific header. Match what the provider documents, not what another provider uses.
Full guide: Connect Azure OpenAI, Z.ai, or another direct endpointThat is the filter working. Its vendor’s published policy does not meet the level you selected. Loosen the chip to see it again.
Full guide: Pick a model, and filter by what the vendor does with your dataDeliberate. A model running on your own machine sends nothing to a vendor, so no vendor policy applies to it and there is nothing for the filter to exclude.
Full guide: Pick a model, and filter by what the vendor does with your dataIt is intentionally kept out of that dropdown and given its own row, so that a missing search key never hides behind a missing model key. Look below the model providers.
Full guide: Let the assistant search the webThe list is built from the providers you have configured. Add the provider key first, under API keys, and the models appear here afterwards.
Full guide: Model tiers: which model runs at which levelIt applies from the next turn. A turn already in flight finishes on the model it started with.
Full guide: Model tiers: which model runs at which levelLet the assistant reach a tool, a server or a service you already use.
The command is what a shell would run. Check the program is on your PATH, and that the arguments are separate entries rather than one string with spaces in it.
Full guide: Connect an MCP serverAlmost always missing credential values. Declaring the variable name is only half of it. See "Give a connector its credentials".
Full guide: Connect an MCP serverGranting and marking read-only are separate ticks. A granted tool that is not marked read-only waits for your approval before an agent may run it, which is the deliberate default.
Full guide: Connect an MCP serverThey only exist once the connector is saved with variable names declared. An unsaved form has nothing to attach a credential to.
Full guide: Give a connector its credentialsYou cannot, by design. Re-enter it rather than hunting for it. Nothing in the app displays a stored credential value.
Full guide: Give a connector its credentialsIt is hidden rather than empty. The plugin API needs Personal or above, and on Free the whole card is left out instead of shown and refused.
Full guide: Plugins: what they are, and how one connectsIt has not connected. The list stays empty until a plugin program is running and has registered; starting NeuralVault does not start your plugin for you.
Full guide: Plugins: what they are, and how one connectsRevoke it there. What a plugin asked for and what it was granted are shown separately, so check the granted column rather than assuming the request was met in full.
Full guide: Plugins: what they are, and how one connectsThis pane reports, it does not control. What an agent may actually reach is decided by connector grants (Settings, AI & extensions) and by the approval step before a write.
Full guide: See what an agent is allowed to doThere is not one in the app yet. The backend publishes no command to list, add or remove a source, so a control here would be a button with nothing behind it.
Full guide: Where your calendar events come fromIt is a Business edition feature. Check Settings, General, Licence for which edition this account is on.
Full guide: Where your calendar events come fromThe entry has to match the host the tool actually calls. A subdomain is a different host, so allowing the parent does not cover it.
Full guide: Outbound hosts: where tools are allowed to send requestsThere is no off switch for the prompt in this build, and the empty list is what makes it safe by default. Add the hosts you use and the asking stops for those.
Full guide: Outbound hosts: where tools are allowed to send requestsThe whole category is hidden when your edition includes neither device sync nor calendar, rather than shown and refused on save.
Full guide: Sync a vault between your own machinesThere is no hosted option in this build. Sync talks to an nv-sync-server instance on your own network, so something has to be running it.
Full guide: Sync a vault between your own machinesWhere your notes live, the instructions the assistant follows, and how the app looks and behaves.
This is nearly always the vault pointing somewhere other than where you think. Read the path on the Vault screen first, before assuming notes were lost. They are files on disk; if the folder still has them, nothing is gone.
Full guide: Find, choose or move your vaultPoint the app at the new location from the Vault screen. NeuralVault does not follow a folder you move behind its back.
Full guide: Find, choose or move your vaultIt has to be at the ROOT of the vault. A CORTEX.md inside a subfolder is an ordinary note.
Full guide: Write standing instructions the assistant always followsOnly the first of CORTEX.md, CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md that exists and is not blank is used. Never both. A blank CORTEX.md is skipped, so a written CLAUDE.md beside it is what takes effect.
Full guide: Write standing instructions the assistant always followsThere is not one, anywhere in the product. The Enabled column is a status, not a control. Opting in happens once per directory, and narrowing what a particular agent may use is done per agent.
Full guide: Skills: what they are and where they come fromThe change applies to the screen immediately and is saved in the background, so a display that is correct proves the first half only. A reset means the write failed, and that is worth telling us about.
Full guide: Change the theme and how tightly packed it isYour operating system has its own permission for notifications, separate from this one. Check that NeuralVault is allowed to notify you in your system settings.
Full guide: Turn native desktop notifications on or offIt does not. Connections holds notifications and hotkeys only. Connectors live under AI & extensions, which is the single most confusing thing about this Settings page.
Full guide: Turn native desktop notifications on or offYou cannot in this build. The card says so in as many words: they are fixed for now. There is no settings file that overrides them either.
Full guide: Keyboard shortcuts, and why you cannot change themThat is expected. These work inside the app only, so they are not global shortcuts and will not fire from another window.
Full guide: Keyboard shortcuts, and why you cannot change themWhat runs on its own, what it is allowed to do, and what is being kept.
Your switches still save. They take effect wherever the active scheduler is running, which is a different window or a different machine, so the change is not lost.
Full guide: Background jobs, and turning one offIt has not had a reason to run, or the scheduler is paused as above. The time shown is the last actual run, not a countdown to the next one.
Full guide: Background jobs, and turning one offThe card reports what it can and names the error on the row that failed, so the other two are still trustworthy. It is a read failure rather than a sign that something was approved without you.
Full guide: The Safety screen: rewrites, security events and audit logsThat review page is not available on your edition. The count is still shown, so you can see there is something there.
Full guide: The Safety screen: rewrites, security events and audit logsIt only renders when off-box backup is already enabled, so there is no way to turn it on from Settings in this build. It was taken off the default surface deliberately, because it can do nothing until restic is installed separately.
Full guide: Backups: what runs on its own, and what does notThe card is still there in that case, on purpose: anything already running keeps its off switch. Settings, then System, and it sits under Background jobs and Safety.
Full guide: Backups: what runs on its own, and what does notNothing has asked it to look. Save the card once, which triggers the check, rather than expecting it to poll on its own.
Full guide: Watch & Learn, and the programs it needs firstIt takes the device name your system reports, not a friendly one you choose. Copy the name exactly as your operating system lists it.
Full guide: Watch & Learn, and the programs it needs firstThat is the state before you point it at anything. Add a repository path and build it.
Full guide: Index a repository so an agent can answer questions about itThe commit shown beside the count is the one it was built from. If that is behind your working tree, the index is stale rather than wrong, and it needs rebuilding.
Full guide: Index a repository so an agent can answer questions about itSigning in, what your edition includes, and removing everything.
Neither exists in this build. Model spend is billed by whichever provider your API key belongs to, on their own account, and the app does not total it for you.
Full guide: Which screen answers a plan, licence or billing questionThe licence file was read without checking its signature. Development builds honour those and released builds ignore them, so it will stop granting anything. Sign in on that same card to replace it with a signed one.
Full guide: Which screen answers a plan, licence or billing questionNeither happens in the app. Both are on this website under your account, which hands off to the payment provider’s own portal.
Full guide: Which screen answers a plan, licence or billing questionIt is not in this download. This page will not walk you through a screen you cannot open, so treat it as absent until a release says otherwise.
Full guide: Paying for AI through NeuralVault instead of your own keyThat is the expected state rather than a fault: nothing can run a model for you yet. Either add a provider key or install Ollama.
Full guide: Paying for AI through NeuralVault instead of your own keyThere is nowhere, deliberately. Editions are tied to the account, not to a file you install.
Full guide: Sign in, and see what your edition includesCheck the email matches the one that made the purchase. If it does, that is a billing question rather than an app one, and worth writing to us about.
Full guide: Sign in, and see what your edition includesThat is fine. Once signed in, the install knows what it may do with no network at all. Signing in is the only step that needs a connection.
Full guide: Sign in, and see what your edition includesThat is worth telling us about, and it is the one case where the detail matters: say what the account page shows and what the app shows. Those two disagreeing is a fault on our side, not something you did wrong.
Full guide: You paid, but the app still says FreeThe edition follows the account that made the purchase. Sign in with that email.
Full guide: You paid, but the app still says FreeThey should all survive an update exactly as you left them. If they did not, that is a bug rather than something you did, and worth telling us.
Full guide: An update did not apply, or the app cannot find oneThere is not one in this build. What you may be after is Settings, General, Remove my data, which is a different thing: it deletes what NeuralVault has written on this machine.
Full guide: Anonymous usage reporting: there is none in this buildThen it is a new feature in that version rather than something that was hidden here. If it is ever added it is off on a fresh install, off after an update, and stays off until you turn it on.
Full guide: Anonymous usage reporting: there is none in this buildDelete the vault folder yourself. The app deliberately will not delete the folder it does not own, because a local-first product that silently removes your documents is the worst possible failure mode.
Full guide: Remove everything NeuralVault has put on this machineIt has to match exactly, including case. That is the safety catch: there is no boolean a mis-wired button could pass instead.
Full guide: Remove everything NeuralVault has put on this machineThey are the failure modes the guides document, gathered in one place because that is the form people want them in. We would rather say that than dress them up as community posts that never happened.
Somewhere people can answer each other, hosted here rather than rented. It is not open yet and this page will not guess at a date. When it opens, these answers are what it starts with instead of an empty room.
Report a bug from inside the app, where the diagnostics attach themselves and you are already signed in. For anything else, write to us and a person reads it.
Prefer to read the lot at once, or hand it to an assistant? The guides these come from are served as one plain-text document at /support/guides.md.