No new app to live in. No journaling. No therapist booking. Compass works the way you actually receive messages — copy, paste, read, breathe, send. Here's what happens between the third hostile text and the reply you can send without regret.
Screenshot the message in iMessage, Android Messages, OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents, AppClose, or your email. Forward emails to your private Compass address, or open Compass and paste the text directly. Compass reads screenshots automatically.
In about three seconds, Compass tells you what's actually being said underneath the words: DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim & Offender), gaslighting, parental-alienation framing, financial pressure, threats, baiting. Each message gets a risk score and a one-line read of how a judge would interpret it.
This is the feature most members say is the actual product. Compass writes the calm reply — but if the moment is high-conflict, the copy button is locked behind a timer you set. 10, 30, or 60 minutes.
You can read the analysis. You can read the draft. You cannot send it. Not yet. The phone stays the phone — your nervous system gets the pause your judgment was asking for.
Why a timer and not a "send" button? Because the difference between a regrettable text and a court-safe one is rarely vocabulary. It's thirty minutes.
When the timer unlocks, you get three drafts in different registers — BIFF (Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm), gray rock (give nothing emotional to react to), and medium chill (polite but disengaged). Pick whichever fits the situation. Tap copy. Paste back into iMessage or wherever the message came from. Done.
Behind the scenes, Compass is logging tone patterns, frequency, escalation moments, and your own response history. You don't have to journal — it's already happening.
When you need it (status conference, modification hearing, attorney intake, GAL interview), one tap exports the Hearing & Attorney Handoff Pack — a clean PDF with a communication-pattern summary, an incident timeline, and questions to bring to your attorney. Pro-se litigants walk in organized. Represented clients save billable hours.
Most members tell us the same thing: the messages didn't get less hostile. They just stopped taking the bait. The frequency dropped because the supply of reactions dried up. They kept their attorney for court — and stopped calling them about every weekend exchange.
There's a long version of this on the FAQ page. The short version:
We don't give legal advice and we never will. Compass makes the meeting with your attorney shorter, the email to your attorney sharper, and the hearing where you're representing yourself less terrifying. It does not replace legal counsel.
Compass is a communication coach. It will help you reply better. It is not a substitute for therapy, and it will route you to a human (DV hotline, crisis line, child protection) the moment the situation calls for one.
Compass never sends a message on your behalf. You always copy, you always paste, you always click send yourself. If your ex finds out you used Compass, it's because you told them.
Tell ChatGPT "make me sound colder" and it will. Tell Compass to draft a sarcastic reply, and it will tell you why that draft becomes Exhibit A. The guardrails are the product.
Drafts auto-delete after 30 days unless you export them. Not used to train AI. Encrypted at rest, encrypted in transit. Court-safe means private first.
Compass is built for the moment, not the spiral. There are better places for processing. Tell a friend. Call your therapist. Compass is the tool you reach for when the next 60 seconds matter.