Getting started
What Simeon is, what you need, and your first plan.
Simeon turns one of your Canvas courses into a study plan that runs right up to the exam. A plan has:
- a day-by-day plan to the exam date: what to read and what to practise each day
- past-paper questions with full model answers and marking points, so you can mark yourself
- a formula sheet (Reference), and a timed mock exam
- for some courses, methods (one per question type), flashcards and readings
The plan is built on your Mac by Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex, on your own subscription. You then
study from it in your browser, and on your iPad or phone if you like.
- A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or later), on macOS 14 or newer.
- A Claude subscription (for Claude Code) or a ChatGPT subscription (for ChatGPT Codex). Simeon uses
whichever you already pay for.
- Your school's Canvas login.
Simeon itself is free. Studying from a plan works in any browser, on any computer, and on your iPad or phone.
- Open Terminal: press ⌘ Command + Space, type Terminal, and press Return.
- Paste the line from getsimeon.com and press Return.
- Simeon opens. He lives in your home folder, in a folder called Simeon.
Rather not use Terminal? Download Simeon from the homepage, open it, and drag Simeon into Applications, like any
app. Open him from Applications: the first time, macOS says it can't check him (see
macOS says it can't check Simeon), then he sets himself up in your home folder, in a folder called
Simeon, and opens. After that, Applications, Launchpad or the Dock open him.
An Intel Mac? Simeon runs on Intel Macs with macOS 14 or newer (most from 2018 on). The Terminal line picks the
right version by itself; to download it instead, use Intel Mac? Download the Intel version under the download button.
Simeon builds plans with whichever assistant you already pay for. In the Mac app, open Settings → AI connection
(⌘ Comma) and pick Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex, or Ollama to run on your own computer.
If it isn't on your Mac yet, press Install and sign in. Terminal runs the official installer, then the sign-in.
Every button to press is spelled out beside it, and the same command is there to copy.
When it's ready, the build screen says so. If you're ever signed out, Simeon tells you and shows the way back in. Before your first plan, Simeon asks you to turn off training in Claude or ChatGPT, and waits until you have.
Ollama is the most private choice. Your course is your school's, and with Ollama it never leaves your computer: no
AI company sees it, so nothing is used for training and no copy sits on anyone's server. It's free, with no account. Press Set up Ollama
and Terminal installs Codex (which builds your plans on it) and Ollama, then downloads a model that fits your computer's
memory. Plans are slower and rougher than with Claude or ChatGPT, and need 16 GB of memory to be good; with less, Simeon
uses a small model that suits Ask Simeon better than building. Marking a photo needs a model that can see pictures.
The Claude app isn't Claude Code. The Claude and ChatGPT apps are for chatting; Simeon needs Claude Code or
ChatGPT Codex, separate programs that come with the same subscription at no extra cost. Install and sign in adds it.
Something not working? Press Check everything under Settings → AI connection. Simeon checks each part in turn:
that the assistant is installed, starts and is signed in, that your computer reaches it, that it answers a real test
question, that Simeon's own Python works and that there's room on the disk (and on Windows, Git, which Claude Code
needs). Anything that isn't right says what to do, with a button that does it.
The first time you open Simeon, he walks you through three short steps: what he does and what to call you, which
assistant reads your course (Claude Code, ChatGPT Codex or Ollama, installed and signed in right there), and your first
course. Skip any of it; nothing is lost.
Your name is optional. Leave it blank and Simeon never uses one.
Until your first plan is built, the home screen keeps a short Getting started list: connecting your assistant
(if you haven't) and Build a plan. Not sure yet? Try the example opens an example plan, a week in, on getsimeon.com.
To see it again: Help → Getting Started with Simeon in the Mac app.
- In the Mac app, press Build a plan (or New plan, once you have one).
- Course: sign in to Canvas (once) and pick the course. See Get your course from Canvas.
- Exam: when it is, and anything you know about it.
- Add your focus, your own files or your notes if you have them (all optional).
- Press Build my plan, and carry on with something else while he works.
- When it says Your plan is ready, press Open my study plan.
Building a plan
From your Canvas course to a finished plan.
On the build screen's Course card, sign in to Canvas in Simeon's window. You only do this once: the app remembers it.
Then pick the course.
Simeon downloads everything your account can see in that course: modules, pages, files, assignments and
announcements. It only reads; nothing on Canvas is changed, and it asks Canvas gently, a few things at a time.
It runs in the background, so you can close the sheet and carry on. If your school's Canvas isn't found, set its address
in the Mac app's Settings (Your school's Canvas).
The course is kept in your Documents folder, in Simeon, so you have it for later: to build again, or to update
a plan. Getting the same course again replaces its older copy.
Quick, at the top, is the easiest way: choose the course, type anything to focus on if you like, and press Build my plan.
Simeon picks the rest: Claude's newest Sonnet (or ChatGPT's everyday model), which is easy on your usage, and the exam date from the course.
Step by step goes one card at a time. Each finished card folds to a line, with Change to go back to it:
- Course: the Canvas course
- Exam: the date, and what it's like
- Focus: anything to put first or leave out, in your own words
- What to cover (optional): the essentials, the full plan or everything, and in your own words if you like, such as the grade you need or what you're already strong in. The full plan is chosen unless you change it. The essentials puts the
questions most likely to come up first, with fewer extras; everything takes in every question and adds a second mock, and takes the most hours. The card also
shows your time, the hours a day you set in Simeon (in Settings, under Your time), and about how much this course has in all before its
exam, after what your nearer exams need: the whole plan is kept within that, and This exam season puts its days on dates. A new plan's time is an estimate. With no time
set, the plan is sized to a normal study day. Update a plan has the same card, filled in with the plan's own choice; for a plan
built without one, it's a single line with Choose, which opens the card.
- Your own files and Your notes (optional)
- Advanced, hidden until you ⌥-click (Alt-click on Windows) the switch at the top: whether the slides are image-heavy (so he looks at the pictures too), the model and effort, and Extra checks:
once the plan is written, a second helper solves every question again without seeing the answers, and another reviews the
plan as a strict examiner would; what they find is fixed and listed in the report. Careful: some of these use far more of your
Claude or ChatGPT usage, and are marked in red: Opus, Extra (or Max) effort, Extra checks and Lecture by lecture. Each helper starts
fresh and reads the past papers again, and with Opus the helpers run on Opus too, so together they multiply: one big build can use up
all of it. Advanced turns itself off after each build and when you quit, and so do Extra checks and Lecture by lecture; out of Advanced, every job uses the
everyday model, whatever was picked there.
- Read the course lecture by lecture (Advanced, new): he reads each lecture, seminar and reading on its own and writes a card for it
(what it teaches, its definitions and methods, which slides cover what), maps the concepts by how often the past papers test them, and
designs the plan from that: time goes where the marks are, model answers use your lecturer's terms, and each day's reading names the
exact slides. Past papers are still read in full. It helps most on big courses, but uses much more of your usage: the helpers reading the files each
start fresh. It works for
Update a plan too, for what's new.
- Make a course library (with Your own files, optional): Simeon also keeps the course itself on your Mac, organised by file and
page, with what's on its scanned and handwritten pages and the concepts linking them, for
Reference the course in Ask Simeon. A few minutes more, and some usage for the pictures.
The Overview shows it all. Press Build my plan. When it's done, press Open my study plan, or
Build another. Choosing another course starts afresh too: the last plan's report, exam and words go.
Under the steps, Reports on plans you've made lists every plan you've built, each with a green tick: press one to read
what Simeon said about it last, open it, or find every report on it.
Usually 15 to 40 minutes, longer for a big course: Simeon reads all of it and checks every answer. The build screen
says about how long, from how long your last builds took.
While he works, the screen is one card and a game: Simeon running along a bar, about how long is left, and Stop. Under it is Simeon runs, the game from getsimeon.com, to play while you wait: click it, then
space to jump and ↓ to drop. It pauses when you look away. When it's ready the card turns to a big tick with Open my study plan and his short report;
if you're mid-run, a line over the game says so, and you can finish first. Updating a plan, flashcards and summaries work the same way.
On every other screen, a bar along the bottom of the window shows him working, so you can do something else.
He tells you when he's done.
He keeps your Mac awake while he works. Just don't close the lid: a closed lid sleeps the Mac, and that stops him.
If your battery is low, plug in: a big course takes a while, because Simeon is thorough.
Nothing is lost. Simeon saves his work after every step, so you carry on from where he stopped:
- Your Claude or ChatGPT usage ran out: he says when it comes back. Then press Continue building.
- Your Mac went to sleep (the lid closed): press Continue building.
- You were signed out: sign in again, then Try again.
A half-built plan waits on the build screen, even if you quit the app. Start over or Throw it away if you'd rather.
See also Simeon had to stop.
Lecturers sometimes share past papers or slides outside Canvas. When you build or update a plan, drag them onto the
box with the plus under Your own files, or click it to choose them. Files and whole folders both work, as many as
you like. Simeon reads them as part of the course, past papers and all.
The course export and your notes have the same box: drop the export's .zip (or its folder), or your notes, straight on it.
Add your notes on the Your notes card. Simeon weights the plan with them (what you flagged for the exam, what
confused you) and keeps them with the plan, on a Your notes page. They never override the course itself.
From Google Docs: File → Download → Microsoft Word (.docx), with Tab set to All Tabs.
Left on Current Tab, only the open tab downloads. Markdown works too.
Notes kept elsewhere: any file works. An Anki deck (.apkg) is read deck by deck, with the cards
you tagged leech or marked taken as what you found hard; anything else, Simeon works out how to read.
A photo or scan of handwritten notes works too; for several pages, put them in one PDF first.
Sometimes a course names things the export doesn't have: a file you can't open, a past paper "on the course website",
a reading list. Simeon lists them when the build is done, and on the plan's Today page.
Found them? Use Update a plan and drop them on Your own files. Your progress stays.
Hidden from Today, the list moves to Settings → Your plans.
If your exam is on a stack of articles, Simeon notices (a dozen or more, or 250+ pages) and reads them one at a time,
writing a card for each: the argument in one line, a summary, its concepts, where it falls short, and how it connects
to the others. The plan then goes theme by theme, a few readings a day, with a quick look back at earlier ones.
The questions are the kind those exams ask: recall, compare, apply, and essays. See Readings
and Open questions.
Every answer is worked out in full and recomputed before the plan is finished. Where an official solution sheet slips,
the question says so in its note.
Every method works on a Casio fx-82EX: no equation solver, no IRR keys. A rate with no formula is found by
trying two rates and interpolating, with every step written out.
You can build a course again beside the plan you have (with another model, say). The new plan is separate, with its
own progress, and gets a name to tell them apart. Your first plan isn't touched.
To bring an existing plan up to date instead, use Update a plan.
Studying
Your plan, day by day, and everything in it.
Simeon says hello (by your name, if you've set one) and tells you how many plans are waiting. Under that:
- one strip with what to do next: the plan with the nearest exam, in the next 60 days, that isn't done today, the day it's on, how much is left,
and the countdown, with Continue. Press it to open that day. Your hours today are a ring round your picture, once you've set a goal.
- What do you want to do today?, a line to ask him anything, if you turn it on (see Asking on the home screen)
- New plan (Build a plan, in orange, when no exam is coming up), My plans, and Do more:
making flashcards or a summary, updating a plan, Simeon in Claude (on a Mac), Tell a friend, the walk-through again, Support Simeon and Help
(on Windows, Report a bug too: on a Mac it's in the Help menu)
Settings is the cog at the top right, beside your photo. Your photo has your streak on it: press it for Your progress and streak
(your heatmap and your goal, in Simeon), and to set your name and photo.
Your streak counts the days in a row you've studied: at least one question marked, or flashcards reviewed, in any plan.
- Not studied yet today? It keeps going until the day's over.
- A day off in your time never breaks it.
- Freezes. For every 7 days you study you earn a freeze (the snowflake), and you can hold two. A missed day uses one, and
your streak goes on. With none left, a missed day ends it.
It's on your picture by the hello on the home screen, as a small badge: the flame and your days, orange once you've studied today.
Press your picture to open Your progress and streak. The Mac app and Windows have the same badge on your picture.
Your progress and streak is the home screen's own page, for every plan. It has your streak, your freezes (press them to see how they work) and the next milestone, and a heatmap: a square for
every day of the term, brighter the more you studied. With your time set, brighter means more of your hours, and the brightest is half as
much again. A freeze is ice blue, a day off is dashed, and each exam is a dot in its plan's colour. Press a day to see it.
Milestones. At 3, 7, 14, 30, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 365 days, Simeon shows the milestone on a screen of its own, once.
Share (on Your progress and streak, and on a milestone) makes a picture: Simeon, your streak, your last twenty weeks and this week's hours, with
getsimeon.com. Nothing from your courses is on it. On an iPad or phone it opens the share sheet; on a computer you can copy the picture, save it,
save a version for a story, or copy the link.
Press My plans in the Mac app. Your plans open in your browser, on the plan picker:
press a plan to open it.
Your progress lives in that browser, so keep using the same one. See Your progress lives in your browser.
- The sidebar has the plan's pages in sections: Study (Today, the plan, Practice, Readings, Flashcards),
Ask and look up (Ask Simeon, the Desk, Reference, the cheat sheet, the course map), and Progress and Settings at the foot.
- Switch plans: press the plan's name at the top of the sidebar.
- The study pages (the plan, a day, Practice, Methods, Flashcards) show how far you are as a ring beside the title,
and their questions as one list: press a row to open it.
- Home (the house) goes back to all your plans.
- More room: the button under Home folds the sidebar to a row of icons. Point at it to slide it out.
- Your browser's Back and Forward work, and every page has its own address you can bookmark.
Each plan opens on Today: the day you're on, what it covers, and a button to start. Beside it, two rings: how much
of the plan's questions you've done, and your average self-mark, with the marks you've practised and your focus blocks under
them. Then your days up to the exam, and How to use this, one quiet line to open.
Simeon may also show a catch-up card, what's new after an update, or what's missing from the course.
The plan goes a day at a time, by your computer's clock. Finish today's questions and Today says Done for today,
with the next day ready for tomorrow. Want more? Press Keep going.
- Your days (on Today) is a timeline from the first day you studied to the exam: what you did each day, and
what's planned.
- Missed a day? A catch-up card says what to do: today's first, the key questions, and if the plan now runs past
the exam, the lightest days to double up on.
- Settings → When you start sets which date is Day 1, and says whether the last day lands before the exam.
- Ask Simeon to leave a day out (see Change your plan by asking). Its day page then has Bring it back.
When you finish the day, Done for today sums it up: how many questions you marked and your score, the time you
studied (against your goal, if you set one), your streak, your best topic and the one worth another look, and what's tomorrow.
- Simeon adds a line of his own. With the Mac app open, he writes it from your day, including your notes on today's
questions, once a day. Without it, he still has something to say.
- The first time you see it each day, Simeon hops and acorns fly. On a big day (a streak of 3, 7, 14 days and on,
your hours done, or the whole plan finished) more of them fly. With Reduce Motion on, he stays still.
- His line follows Simeon's voice, kind or cheeky (see Kind or cheeky).
On the home screen, This exam season lists the exams you have coming up, the nearest first: every plan still to come, and any exam you've written down. Each row shows its date, how far you've got, whether it fits and about how long it gets today; press it to open the plan. Edit shows the rest below, and Done puts it away.
- Add an exam: write its name, and the date if you know it. It can be there before it has a plan, with Build beside it. Once you've built a plan with a matching name, the plan takes over. If the names differ, remove the old line with ×.
- The date beside each exam can be changed right there. Moving a plan's exam is listed under Settings → Changes to this plan, with Undo.
- Update opens the app's Update a plan with that plan picked.
- With your time set, each plan says whether it fits, and Make it fit appears when it doesn't.
Not studying for one this season? Press × on its row. It stays under your plans and you can still open it, but it takes none of your time. It's listed under Left out, where pressing it puts it back.
Past exams show when you press Add an exam under Edit. A plan moves here by itself once its exam date has passed. A plan with no date has Finish instead. It stays in your plans, and takes none of your time.
Bring back a past plan for a retake: choose the new date, and it starts clean. Your old marks are kept: the plan shows how far you got last time, and each question shows what you got. Your notes, chats and streak stay. Untick Start clean to bring it back as it was, if the plan finished too soon or the exam moved.
Today follows your time. With your hours set, each row says about how long that plan gets today, and the home screen leads with the nearest exam. Finish a day with time still to give and the plan moves on to its next day; when its time is used, it's done for today. A plan can get nothing today, and comes back in the days ahead. Without hours set, a plan goes one day at a time as before.
Make it fit opens right under the row when a plan doesn't fit, and it's the same from the plan's Today. Under Edit, the line by the title goes to Settings → Your time, where your hours, what each plan covers and your reminders are, and Add to your calendar goes to the one file with your exams and study blocks.
Tell Simeon. With the Simeon app open, press Edit and type to him in the box above the list: "stats moved to the 14th", "I can do 3 hours on weekdays", "I can't study next weekend", "I failed law, the retake is on 10 August". He shows what he'd change, and nothing happens until you press Apply, with Undo after it (not when a plan has started clean). What you type goes to your own Claude or ChatGPT with your exams' names and dates.
The Mac and Windows apps show the same list on their home screen; Edit there opens it here. With no exams listed, Set up this exam season takes its place and opens this, ready to type; it's in Do more too.
A plan you've hidden isn't in the list until it's past or you show it again. On your iPad and phone the list is there to read and open; you change it on your computer.
Optional: Simeon works the same without one. It's all in one place, Settings → Your time, not inside a plan. Before it's set, the home screen has a grey Set a goal box.
- Your time: how many hours a day you'll study, at weekends too, and your days off. You set this once, for all your plans
together, so 4 hours a day means 4 hours across every course. A day off never breaks your streak.
- Days you can't study: particular dates you can't study, like a trip or a wedding. Simeon plans around them, and they never break your streak either. They stay if you remove your hours, and you can add them before you've set any. You can also tell him: "I can't study next weekend".
- What to cover, for each plan: the essentials, the full plan or everything, or Left out. You choose them there too, each with its own words if you like. It changes the plan when you update it: the essentials puts the key questions first, everything adds a second mock. Until then Simeon says your new choice is waiting, with Update beside it. It also decides what Make it fit offers. A plan you haven't set gets the full plan.
With your time set, the schedule decides when each day of a plan falls. Not starting a plan yet? Set a later start under What to cover (Start from), or tell Simeon "I start stats on Monday": it gets none of your time until then.
Simeon then plans your days forward, sharing your time between your exams and spreading each plan out up to its exam, so it reaches its mock and last days when it should. A day can be shorter than your hours; miss one and the days ahead grow a little. Up to three plans a day, and if an exam needs every minute, it gets them. He says for each plan whether it
fits before its exam, at your pace and counting the time to mark your answers and do the readings: it fits, it's tight, or it doesn't fit and by how much. When it doesn't, he says why
(another course's exam comes first and takes the time) and what to do, by what it covers: the key questions first for the essentials,
more time a day for everything. He also says how to split today: "Still today: about 1 h 20 Macro, 40 min Finance".
Ask Simeon what to do first puts the question to him with all your goals in it.
A course still being taught. When a build or an update sees more lectures to come, the plan holds only part of the course, so Simeon doesn't spread it out to the exam. What's here comes first, to be done before the next lecture, and the days after stay free. Update the plan after each lecture and the new work joins your days. Once the last of the teaching is in, it spreads out to the exam like any plan.
Make it fit. When a plan doesn't fit, it has a Make it fit button, which opens the plan's Today. Simeon proposes a change by
what the plan covers and says what it would do, for example "Leave out Day 6 and Day 9 → fits, done 2 study days before the exam". The essentials: the
lightest days go first, reading-only days and days without key questions before the rest. The full plan: only days without key questions,
the lightest first. Everything: nothing is left out; he works out the time that makes every plan fit (more a day, or longer weekends)
and Use this time sets it. The mock, today's day and any day you've started always stay. If even all that isn't enough, he says so.
Nothing changes until you press Apply; days left out can be brought back one at a time on their page, and Undo puts the
plan and your time back as they were, even after you close Simeon.
On You and on each plan's Today, a ring fills with the time you've studied today, all plans together, in each plan's colour;
this week is seven dots (filled for a day you hit your hours, half for some, a dash for a day off), with how many days you hit your
hours. The time is what you timed questions for, and your pace for the rest. Your hours also make the heatmap brighter (see
Your streak).
With your time set, your study blocks go into your calendar from This exam season: each date gets each plan's share of your hours, and a day off gets none.
On the home screen, your hours today are a ring round your picture, in each plan's colour; hover over it for the time. Show or hide it under
Settings → Your time.
Don't want it? The × puts the box away; it stays in Settings, under Your time. Remove there takes it all away. Your goal goes to
your iPad or phone with your progress.
When you build or update a plan in the app, its What to cover card sizes the plan's days to
your time and sets how much goes in, and what you choose there is the plan's choice here too.
Practice lists every question, filtered by topic, Not done or Below 70%.
Press Start on one.
A question starts in Test. Switch between Learn and Test at the top of it, and Simeon keeps to the one you chose:
- Learn: the model answer is shown, to study from.
- Test: write your full answer on paper first, against the exam's clock. Press I have finished — reveal answer.
Then tick the marking points you really wrote, and press Save score. Under 70% comes back in Below 70%
and in repair days. Redo any question whenever you like.
A repair day's Redo list is worked through in a row: a question opened from it keeps you in the list, so
Save score and the arrows go to the next one on the list, not to the day it came from, and Back returns to the list.
Your notes, under every question, is yours to write in: a trick, where you went wrong, a page to look at. It saves as you
type, comes with you to your iPad or phone, and Practice tags the questions you've written on.
Where does a number come from? Tap any number in a model answer: the same number lights up in the question and
wherever else it's used in the working, with Show to go there. A number worked out in one step appears nowhere else;
Ask Simeon on the label explains it. Plans built or updated since October 2026 also show how a figure was worked out,
with its inputs lit up. Don't want it? Options → Number traces turns it off.
Timing is optional. On a question, press Start timing (or the space bar) when you begin, and Pause when your
answer's written.
In Test mode the clock counts down from the exam's time. Tick Start the clock by itself beside it and it starts
as each question opens, with a small Pause, and Undo, which puts it back to the full time, stopped.
After a few, Simeon knows your pace: minutes a mark, per topic. Your days and the time on each question then
use your pace instead of the exam's. An answer you revealed in under a quarter of the exam's time for it doesn't count:
that was a look, not an attempt.
On a question, Simeon can mark your answer against the marking points:
- Mark a photo of my answer: a photo of your handwritten answer (one page or a few).
- Type my answer: type it on the page, for courses answered in words.
He ticks the points it shows, with a line on each. Check his ticks, change any you disagree with, and save the score.
This needs the Mac app open (see Turn on Ask Simeon).
Some questions have more than one good answer: explain, compare, apply, or write an essay. These say
An open question. The model answer is one strong way to write it, and the marking points are what a strong
answer covers. Argue it your own way, and tick what yours does, in your own words.
When Simeon marks one, he gives credit for any well-argued answer that covers the points, not just the model answer's wording.
One past paper is held back for the mock, near the end of the plan. Do it in one sitting, timed, on paper,
with the questions in the paper's order. Then mark it honestly. It's the best measure of where you are.
For courses with recurring question types, Methods has one method each, with a worked example. Read the question
and the method, then close the laptop and do it on paper. Open the working only to check.
Reference is the formula sheet: what to know cold, and the ways marks get lost.
The Math switch (in Options, top right) shows maths as maths: fractions stacked, roots under a bar,
powers raised. Turn it off to see it as typed.
Plans built on articles have a Readings page: every reading by theme, with a search (an author, a concept) and
how far you are with each: Not read yet, Read it, Can explain it.
Each reading has its own page: the argument in one line, a summary, its concepts, where it falls short, how it
connects to the others, and the questions on it. Each day lists what to read that day.
A plan can have a deck of flashcards. Flip a card and say whether you knew it: the ones you didn't come round first next time.
- Make them in the Mac app: Flashcards on the home screen. From the whole plan or the topics you pick,
from the plan or straight from the course, with anything you want in your own words.
- On your iPad or phone, tap a card to turn it over, then press Still learning or Know it, or swipe it: right if
you knew it, left if not.
- Just practise goes through the cards shuffled, for as long as you like, without asking whether you knew them:
nothing you've marked changes. Turn a card over, then Next.
- Spaced repetition shows only today's cards, as Anki does: each one comes back on the day you're about to
forget it. Press Again and it comes back in ten minutes; press Good and it waits a few days, then longer each time
you know it. Each button says when. New cards come in 20 a day (More new cards for more), and nothing is left for after
your exam: a card due later comes the day before. It's scheduled with
FSRS, the open-source algorithm by the open-spaced-repetition project
that Anki uses. Just practise and marking cards never move a card's schedule.
- Export to Anki from the Flashcards page. Importing an updated deck again updates your cards in Anki.
A plan can have a summary of the whole course: a few pages to read the evening before the exam. Each topic gets what it's
about, the ideas to know, its formulas, how to answer the questions the papers ask on it, and where marks get lost. At the
top are the few lines to remember if nothing else.
- Make one in the app: Summary on the home screen, or Make a summary in the Simeon app on the plan's
Summary page. From the plan or straight from the course.
- Anything to focus on? is optional: say in your own words what you want more of, or less (the topics you keep
getting wrong, how to answer the essay questions, keep it short). On the Summary page, Add something to focus on
opens a box, and what you write there goes to the app with it. Every topic is still in the summary; this says where the words go.
- The day before the exam, Today opens with it, and the topics your marks are lowest on are marked to read first.
- Print it from the Summary page. Making it again replaces it.
The Course map shows how the course connects: its topics, and the days, questions, methods, formulas, notes and
readings on each. Drag to move, scroll or pinch to zoom, and press anything to open it. Colour it by progress to see
what's strong (green) and what needs work (red).
Progress shows how you're doing at a glance: four rings (questions done, your average self-mark, days finished,
and topics at 70% or more), then every topic as a tile with its average. Topics below 70% come first, then the ones going
well, then the ones you haven't tried. Press a topic to practise it.
Settings is one page for all of Simeon: open it with the gear by your picture on the home screen, or from any plan's
sidebar. It lists its sections on the left (Your time, Your plans, Focus and Simeon, Backups and devices, How Simeon looks,
Language and help) and shows one at a time. Your plans has every plan, hidden ones too: pick one for its name, dates,
reminders and the rest, to open it, show you round it, or hide it from the home screen. On a phone the list is a row along the top.
Search, at the top of that list, finds any setting: type what you're after, in your own words ("dark mode", "notifications"), and press one to go straight to it, lit up for a moment. Before you type, it offers a few to start from and the ones you opened last. The Mac and Windows apps' Settings have the same line (⌘F on a Mac), and find what's on your study page too.
For exams that allow one, the Cheat sheet page makes it from your plan. Pick the pages (1 to 6), the topics,
the layout and the font, and say in your own words what to focus on. Simeon writes it (this needs the Mac app open).
- Edit any line in place, or ask Simeon for a change in the box under the buttons, as in a chat. He replies saying what he changed, the changed lines are highlighted on the sheet, and each reply has Undo this. You can ask him questions about it too (what would you cut?). Earlier versions lists every version before a change, to go back to.
- Print it (or ⌘ P): A4, the sheet alone.
- Download for Word: a .docx to edit in Word, Pages or Google Docs.
In Options (top right), Focus is a timer: 25 minutes of work, then a break, then the next block.
The time shows on the Options button while it runs. The focus blocks you finish count on Today.
A plan built with your notes has a Your notes page, a link from each day to the notes that cover it, your notes
on the course map, and they're given to Ask Simeon when you ask about a question or a day.
Ask Simeon
Questions about your course, answered with your plan in mind.
Ask Simeon answers through the Simeon Mac app, with your own Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex. So:
- the Mac app needs to be open, and
- Answer questions needs to be on in its Settings.
It isn't on your iPad or phone, or in a plan shared with you, since there's nothing there to answer.
He only answers questions about studying; for anything else, ask ChatGPT or Claude directly.
Highlight any text in your plan and a little box appears under it. Press Ask Simeon or Enter to ask about it as it is,
or type in the box first to add your own question. The answer appears in a bubble under it, with bold and numbered
steps where they help. Click away while he's answering and the highlight stays: it pulses when the answer is in.
- Drag the bubble by its top line; resize it by its corner (it remembers the size).
- Ask a follow-up in the bubble.
- Pop out carries the conversation on in the chat beside the page.
- Highlighted a lot? It offers to ask in the chat instead.
Every page has Ask Simeon something… along the bottom. Open it and the chat is:
- floating: drag it and resize it
- beside the page: drag its left edge to make it wider
- or a tab of its own
To put it away, press the layout you're in again, press ×, or Escape. It shrinks into its bar. Drag the bar by Simeon
anywhere, or push it to a side and it tucks into the corner as just him: click to open.
Your chats are kept with your plan, grouped by day, and every tab shows the same ones.
- Ask Simeon about this question opens the chat beside it, about the whole question. He only sees the model
answer once you've revealed it.
- Teach me how to do it is learn mode: Simeon teaches what the question needs first, then takes you through it a
step at a time, without giving the answer away.
Press + in the chat and Add images or files, or drop a file on it: a photo, a PDF or a note. It goes with that one question.
Simeon keeps only its name, not the file.
On the board, press + beside the question to add images or files. You can also paste an image or drop files onto the input. Check the preview and remove anything you do not want to send. Up to four files go with one question.
Ask Simeon in the sidebar is a board of little chats about your course, laid out like any chat: what you asked
on the right, his answer on the left. He answers in short paragraphs, with a list where there are several parts and a formula
on a line of its own. His answers link back into your plan: a question, a day, a topic or a page, as buttons under the answer. He can also draw a graph or a diagram when it helps.
To delete a chat, press its bin: the lid opens and turns red. Press it again within four seconds to delete; click away or wait to cancel.
Ask Simeon answers from your plan, which is quick. For a plan with a course library, the Reference the course switch
in the + menu, on the board and in the corner chat, makes him look in the course itself as well: its slides,
readings and pages, and what's on its scanned and handwritten pages. He answers from those, and under the answer it says where he
looked: Looked up in Lecture 3, slide 12 · Reading 2, page 4. In the answer itself, each place he took something from is
a short note at the end of its sentence, like (Lecture 5, slide 14). It takes a little longer, so it's off until you turn it on, and
stays as you leave it for each plan. Solutions stay out of it.
A plan without a course library shows Make a course library… instead: it opens Update in the Mac app with
Only make the course library ticked, so the plan itself stays as it is. Or tick Make a course library when you build a
plan.
The library is kept on your Mac, in the plan's own folder, and never goes in a shared plan or to your iPad or phone. It's a folder of
notes too, a note for each file and each concept, linked: open library in the plan's folder with Obsidian to browse it.
Tell Simeon what's changed: "my exam moved to 12 January", "I'm only starting today", "put topic 3 first".
He suggests the change as a button. Nothing changes until you press it.
Every change is listed in Settings → Changes to this plan, with Undo. If you moved your exam and an update later brings a new date from the course, the course's date is used and listed there too: press Undo to keep yours.
miniSimeon is a small tab on the edge of your screen with Simeon in it, there over every app, so your studies are never far away.
Turn it on in Settings → On your Mac → miniSimeon, on the side of your screen (on Windows, Settings → On your PC).
- Click it and it opens into today: your hello and streak, your goal, and each plan with its day. Click a plan to go
straight to that day. Open Simeon and Ask Simeon are at the bottom, and ⋯ has the rest.
- Ask Simeon turns into a line to type in, right there: ask what to study, or where something is, and he answers in the card,
with buttons that take you there. The × or Escape goes back to the buttons. Anything beyond the simplest needs Claude Code or
ChatGPT Codex connected, as the home screen's chat does.
- Simeon in the menu bar is there too, at the top of your screen, whether miniSimeon is on or not: click him for today's plans
(one click from each day), Ask Simeon, Simeon's window, building or updating a plan, and Quit Simeon. Turn him off under
the same setting.
- Click anywhere else, press Escape or the › to put it away. Drag miniSimeon up or down, or across to the other side:
it stays where you leave it.
- Everything about it is yours to choose, under the same setting: its colour (pitch black, white, off white or dark grey, and more
under More), size and side, what's on miniSimeon (today's ring round Simeon at first, or Simeon alone, the questions left, or
the days to your exam), a dot while today isn't done, how faint it is when you're not using it,
what the card shows, whether it opens when you point at it, and whether it's there over full-screen apps.
- Peek out in the afternoon makes it slide out once, after four, on a day you haven't studied yet. It's off at first.
- With miniSimeon on, closing Simeon's window keeps him running as miniSimeon, without a Dock icon (on Windows, in the tray), so it stays up to date.
Open the window again from miniSimeon's ⋯; Quit Simeon is there too.
- Tick Open Simeon when you log in, under Settings → General, and miniSimeon is there every morning.
On the Mac app's home screen, What do you want to do today? answers simple requests at once ("open my finance
plan", "make flashcards"), and asks Simeon the rest. His buttons can take you anywhere: a screen in the app, or any page of
any plan. It's off at first, for a cleaner home screen: turn it on in Settings → Home screen, Chat with Simeon on the home screen.
Study with Simeon from the Claude or Codex you already use: ask it to quiz you on today's questions, find your
weakest topic, or say what to study next. It reads your plans and progress from your Mac, asks you a question
without its answer, then marks what you write against the marking points, one by one.
- In the Mac app: Settings → AI connection → Use Simeon inside Claude and Codex. That sets it up in Claude Code and
in Codex (the app and Terminal), with a skill that tells them how to quiz you. Start a new chat there afterwards.
- In Claude, the app: press Add to Claude, then Install in Claude. Simeon is then under + → Connectors,
with his face. For the skill there, press Show the skill and upload Simeon skill.zip in Claude's
Settings → Capabilities → Skills. Once added, it keeps up with Simeon's updates by itself; if you added it before
v2026.10.21 and the course questions don't work there, press Add to Claude once more.
- If you also turn on Let them read your course too, ask about the course itself, for a plan with a
course library: where a lecture defines something, what a seminar covers, a term as your course uses
it. They search the course's own slides and pages, look at scanned or handwritten pages with their own eyes, and say which file and
page. Solutions stay out while they're quizzing you. It's off until you turn it on; turning it off takes the tools away, and the
libraries stay with their plans for Ask Simeon.
- Once you've been marked in the chat, the mark is kept in Simeon, as if you'd ticked the points on the question's page:
it counts towards your progress and weakest topics, and the question says marked in Claude. It reaches Simeon's page the
next time it's open with the Simeon app running. A newer mark for the same question, here or there, replaces the older one.
- Apart from that mark it only reads, and only on your Mac. What you ask goes to Anthropic or OpenAI under your account, as with Ask Simeon.
- To stop, turn the switch off. In Claude, the app, remove Simeon under Settings → Extensions.
Updates and troubleshooting
When something isn't right.
Simeon updates himself, without asking: when you quit him, or after a while in the background with nothing running.
Your plans and progress always stay. To see what's new, use Simeon → Check for Updates… in the Mac app, and for
every update so far, newest first and searchable, Simeon → All Updates… (also under Settings → General).
The version you have comes first, as Your version, with what's in it.
A build, an update or flashcards stopped with a message. It usually says why:
- Usage ran out: your Claude or ChatGPT plan's limit. Wait until it's back (he says when), then
Continue building.
- Signed out: sign in again in Settings → AI connection, then Try again.
- Your Mac went to sleep: press Continue building.
- Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex is too old: Simeon offers the update. Then Try again.
Still stuck? Report a bug, with the message.
- Is the Simeon Mac app open?
- Is Answer questions on in its Settings?
- Are you signed in to Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex (Settings → AI connection)?
- Has your usage run out? Try again later.
Ask Simeon doesn't work on your iPad or phone or in a plan someone shared with you.
If a plan says Progress is not being saved, your browser won't let it keep anything: often a private window, or
storage turned off or full. Press Export progress now to keep what you've done, fix the cause, and import it back.
Simeon isn't signed by Apple yet, so the first time you open him after downloading him, macOS asks you to confirm.
- Press Done.
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and press Open Anyway beside Simeon.
That's the only time. Installing with the Terminal line avoids it altogether.
On a Mac, choose Help › Report a Bug… in the menu bar (or in the menu under Simeon's icon at the top of the screen); on Windows,
Do more › Report a bug on the home screen. Or email
bug@getsimeon.com. Say what happened and what you expected. A screenshot helps.
Your course files stay on your computer, and nothing goes to Simeon, which has no server. But to build your plan,
Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex send what they read to Anthropic or OpenAI, under your own account and their terms. There
are no Simeon accounts or ads, and the app sends anonymous counts only if you say yes (see below). More in Privacy and terms.
Your course material belongs to your school and its authors: use it for your own revision, and check and follow your
school's rules on AI and on course material, including sending it to an AI service. Don't share it or publish it.
To keep it to you: turn off training in Claude or ChatGPT (we encourage it), keep
names out of your course (on unless you turn it off), or choose Ollama, and nothing leaves your computer.
Unless you turn it off, Anthropic and OpenAI may use your Claude or ChatGPT chats to train their models, and that includes
the course Simeon reads to build your plan. We encourage you to turn it off. It takes a minute, and your plans work the same:
- Claude (for Claude Code): claude.ai, Settings → Privacy → Help improve Claude: off.
- ChatGPT (for ChatGPT Codex): chatgpt.com, Settings → Data controls → Improve the model for everyone: off.
Simeon asks in Before Simeon reads your course, before your first plan with each of them. Open the setting takes you
there, and the plan waits until you press I understand, and training is off. It can't see the setting, so it takes your word.
Settings → AI connection says whether you told it you'd turned it off, and How… there shows the pop-up again. That note stays on your computer: it's never counted or sent.
Rather nothing left your computer at all? Choose Ollama: then no AI company sees your course.
Before your assistant reads your course, Simeon takes out the names it can: classmates in discussions become Student A,
Student B and so on (or "a student"), staff become the lecturer, and email addresses, links to a Canvas profile
and a title before a name ("Dr Smith", "Prof. Jansen") come out too. Simeon's plans name no one either.
It's on unless you turn it off: Settings → AI connection → Keep names out of my course. Off, names stay as the course
has them, and the plan's report says so.
What it can't do: a page kept as a picture (a scanned paper, a slide's title page) still shows what's printed on it, and a
name Simeon never saw, like a guest lecturer named only inside a PDF, may get through. A plan built before this keeps what it
says until you update it.
The first time you open the Simeon app, Simeon asks: Help Simeon get better? Say yes and he sends Sam, who made him,
a few anonymous totals, like "a Mac opened Simeon today", "a plan got built", "a summary got made" or "a build stopped because usage ran out".
Only Sam sees them, and only to make Simeon better: what works, and where people get stuck.
Never your name, your course, your plans, your questions or your progress, and no ID of any kind, so nothing can tell
your computer from anyone else's. Only the Simeon app sends them (on a Mac or Windows): the study page and the iPad or phone never do.
Changed your mind? Settings → Privacy → Send Sam anonymous counts. The full list of what's sent is in
Privacy and terms.
Once a week the app also says on how many days of the week before it was opened (one, two or three, or four or more), so Sam can tell who uses Simeon every week from who tried it once. It carries nothing else: no dates, and nothing about what you studied.
A new install is counted once, with its version and nothing else: by the install command or the disk image on a Mac, and on Windows the
first time the app sets Simeon up. Updates aren't counted.
Scanning the QR code on a Simeon poster or flyer adds one to a count of scans for the day, and to one for that poster, on its way to the homepage.
Nothing about you or your iPad or phone is kept.