How Your Companion Works — Almanack

Two layers: computed and written

The computed layer is astronomy and classical rules. Your chart is calculated with Swiss Ephemeris data — the same precision used in professional astronomy software — using the sidereal zodiac (Lahiri ayanamsa). Your chapters (dashas), daily score, and timing windows are deterministic mathematics: the same birth details always produce the same chart, and you can check our windows against any published panchanga. Where an insight comes from a classical rule, we cite it. None of this layer is AI.

The written layer is AI. Your reading, your morning briefings, and every chat reply are written by an AI (Anthropic's Claude), working from your computed chart and the memory you've built with the app. When you talk to your coach, you are talking with an AI — not a human astrologer, and not a licensed professional of any kind.

What the AI knows about you

Exactly what you can see: your chart, your reading, the events and notes in You → Memory, your daily logs, and — if you've allowed them — your location's sky-timing and your calendar's events for today's briefing. Its memory is a visible notebook: every note it keeps is shown, editable, and deletable. Delete a note and it's gone from every future conversation.

What the AI will never do

• Give medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice — and it will say so if asked.
• Pretend to be human or claim credentials.
• Use fear. A demanding day is named plainly, with what to do about it — never doom.
• Keep talking when you may be in crisis: if a conversation suggests you might hurt yourself, the app stops the astrology and shows real help (in the US, 988) first.

How to think about accuracy

The computation is exact; the interpretation is a tradition, thoughtfully applied. Treat what your companion says the way you'd treat a wise friend's read of your situation: material for reflection, not instructions. The app improves as your memory grows — and the weekly review honestly shows you how often your logged days matched your computed weather, including when they didn't.