Who it's for

Six situations. One pattern: hostile texts at hours when no one's there to help.

Compass isn't a generic relationship tool. It's built around the recurring shapes of family-court conflict — and the reality that most people facing them are doing it without an attorney in the room. If any of these sound like you, Compass was built for you.

01
High-conflict divorce

You're divorcing someone who fights dirty.

The texts are an art form. Every weekend exchange is a setup. Every email has three accusations buried in a logistics question. Your attorney costs $350 an hour and you've already spent more on triaging messages than on actual legal work. Your friends have stopped asking how you're doing because you cried twice in front of them last month and you can hear it in their voice now.

You're not crazy. The situation is. Compass was built first for this exact moment — the divorce phase where the volume of hostile communication is highest, the legal stakes are real, and the cost of a regrettable text isn't just emotional, it's evidentiary.

What you'll use most
  • Locked-draft cooldown for the 11 PM messages
  • DARVO and gaslighting detection on every incoming text
  • BIFF (Brief, Informative, Friendly, Firm) drafts you can copy and paste
  • Pattern reports you can hand to your attorney instead of paying them to read your inbox
Most likely tier: Compass ($49/mo) — unlimited analyses, daily friction support. Upgrade to Premium during a hearing or modification window.
02
Active custody fight

You're in a custody case — and every message is potential evidence.

The thing nobody tells you is that custody cases are won and lost in the texts. Not in the courtroom. By the time you're in front of a judge, your messages from the last six months have already been printed, highlighted, and bound. The reasonable parent gets the kids. Reasonable in family court means: doesn't take the bait, documents the pattern, never matches the tone.

Compass is calibrated for this. Every draft is reviewed against what survives a custody hearing. Sarcasm gets flagged. Profanity gets flagged. Anything that reads as parental alienation gets rewritten before you can copy it.

What you'll use most
  • Court-read scoring on every reply you draft (how a judge would interpret it)
  • Hearing-prep PDF: timeline, pattern, your conduct vs. theirs
  • Custody-specific frameworks (parallel parenting, age-appropriate kid scripts)
  • Drafted questions for your attorney intake or pro-se prep
Most likely tier: Compass Premium ($89/mo) — the Hearing & Attorney Handoff Pack alone usually saves a billable hour per month, and the Parenting Plan Builder is included.
03
Modification or post-decree fight

The decree was supposed to be the end. It wasn't.

You're back in court for a modification — schedule changes, relocation, support recalculation, parenting-plan violations. Or you're not in court yet, but you can feel it coming. The pattern has been escalating for months and your gut says it's heading somewhere a judge will eventually see.

This is the phase where documentation matters more than venting. Compass quietly tracks every interaction in a structured way, so when the modification petition gets filed, you don't have to reconstruct eight months of texts from memory. It's already organized.

What you'll use most
  • Incident timeline that builds itself from your captured messages
  • Pattern reports showing escalation, frequency, and tone over time
  • Documentation framework that holds up in modification hearings
  • Risk-score history — visible evidence the situation isn't improving
Most likely tier: Compass Premium ($89/mo) — designed for this phase. Downgrade to Lite after the modification is granted.
04
Post-decree chronic phase

The divorce is over. The conflict isn't.

You won. Or you reached a settlement. Or you signed something just to be done. And now it's three years later and your ex still texts you eight times a day about pickup logistics that are clearly spelled out in the parenting plan. The conflict is lower-stakes but constant. Your nervous system has not fully relaxed in three years.

This is the chronic phase — where the legal stakes have dropped but the daily friction hasn't. You don't need a fire-extinguisher tier of the product anymore. You need a quiet utility that handles the background noise without burning a Sunday on it, and somewhere to think through the kid-conversations that still matter.

What you'll use most
  • Co-parent message templates for recurring logistics
  • Talking-to-kids scripts as your kids age into new conversations
  • Holiday-exchange and schedule-change negotiation framing
  • Occasional locked-draft cooldown for the moments that still flare up
Most likely tier: Compass Lite ($19/mo) — built specifically for the chronic post-decree phase. Many members downgrade here from Compass after the dust settles, and step back up to Premium for any modification or hearing.
05
Dads in family court

You're a dad, and the deck feels stacked before you sit down.

Maybe you're facing false accusations. Maybe a one-sided GAL who already made up their mind before the home visit. Maybe the kids are repeating language that didn't come from a six-year-old. Maybe your ex is coaching them, or filing motions every time you set a boundary, or telling everyone you're "unstable" because you finally pushed back on years of DARVO.

You're not imagining it. The instinct most dads default to under pressure — firmer tone, fewer words, prove it with logic — is exactly the instinct family court reads as "hostile." Compass exists to translate. Same boundaries, same facts, framing that survives a custody evaluation. It will not let you send the reply you'd actually like to send. That's the point.

What you'll use most
  • Reframing your replies so firm doesn't read as aggressive
  • DARVO detection on incoming texts — names the pattern so you stop second-guessing yourself
  • GAL / evaluator prep: the questions that come, the answers that hurt, the way to talk about your ex without sounding like the high-conflict one
  • Documentation that holds up when she shows up with hers
  • Smear-campaign playbook for the in-laws, the school, and the friends who picked a side
Most likely tier: Compass Premium ($89/mo) during active custody work — the GAL prep and Hearing Pack are built for exactly this. Step down to Compass once the dust settles.
06
Going to court without a lawyer

You're representing yourself. You shouldn't have to do this alone.

Roughly 72% of people in family court don't have an attorney — lawyers call this pro-se. Not because anyone wants to do it that way; because attorneys cost $5,000 retainers and $350/hour and the math doesn't work. So they walk into hearings without the things their opposing counsel has: a bound exhibit binder, a pattern argument, a clear timeline, drafted questions for direct examination.

Compass is the closest thing to a paralegal you can afford. It doesn't replace legal advice — but it gives you the prep work, the documentation, and the calm-communication discipline that self-represented parents almost never have. The Hearing & Attorney Handoff Pack walks into court with you.

What you'll use most
  • Hearing-prep PDF: the exhibit binder you couldn't afford to have prepared
  • Pro-se hearing checklist: what to bring, what to say, what to avoid
  • Question drafting for direct, cross, and judge-addressing
  • Communication record that survives evidentiary scrutiny
Most likely tier: Compass Premium ($89/mo) — the Parenting Plan Builder, Handoff Pack, and Evaluator prep are the whole point when you're in court alone. One hearing prep covers two months of the subscription.
Honest limits

Who Compass is not for.

A short list, on purpose. We'd rather lose your sign-up than waste your money.

If you and your ex still talk well.

If you can resolve a holiday-schedule conflict in three texts and nobody throws a barb, you don't need Compass. Spend the $49 on something else.

If you're in immediate danger.

Compass is not a crisis tool. If you or your children are at risk, call 911, call the National DV Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788. Compass routes you to these resources the moment a message indicates danger.

If you want a tool to "win."

Compass won't help you craft the perfect cutting reply. It'll talk you out of sending it. If you're looking for a faster way to escalate, ChatGPT will give you what you ask for. Compass deliberately won't.

If you need legal advice.

Compass is communication coaching, not law. We'll make your meeting with an attorney faster, sharper, and more expensive-per-billable-minute-saved. We will not replace one.

Sound like you?

Pick the tier that fits the phase you're in.

See the plans → How it works