Press kit

Facts, screenshots and the logo, for anyone writing about Counsel.

In one line

Counsel is an iPhone app where you read the great books one idea a night, ask history’s great minds about a real decision, and practice the hard talk before it’s real.

What it does

You write what is going on, the way you would tell a friend, and choose three to five mentors from history, such as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Cleopatra. Each mentor looks at your situation their own way. The answers are written by AI in each mentor's way; the mentors draw on figures from history and are not the people themselves. Every answer ends with one next step you can save, and any answer can be read aloud. You can also practice the hard conversation that comes with a decision: a mentor plays the other person, a coach steps in when a line works against you, and you see what worked. The journal keeps your steps, your guesses and how things really went. And Read explains the big ideas and the great books in plain words: a new idea every night, free, and six classics told idea by idea.

Facts

Name: Counsel. On the App Store it is “Counsel: Life Advice & Coach”.
Made by: The Counsel team.
Platform: iPhone, with iOS 17 or later. There is no Android or web version.
Price: Free to download. Tonight’s read (a new idea every night), the first rehearsal, the one-minute drills, your own next steps with check-ins, the journal and the Library are free, and a new install can ask one question and read one mentor’s full answer. The classics and collections, the full council, the approaches, more practice talks, the Sunday letter and listening need a weekly, monthly or yearly subscription, which renews automatically. The App Store shows the plans, prices and any introductory offer before you buy.
Mentors: Sixteen figures from history, listed below. You choose three to five for each question.
Approaches: Five practical approaches: Power & influence, Courage & uncertainty, Difficult conversations, Long-term strategy and Clear thinking. Each one is a short set of plain principles, written for Counsel.
Listening: Any answer can be read aloud. The voice runs on the iPhone.
Read: New in 1.7: a big idea every night, painted and explained in about a minute, free. And six classics explained idea by idea: The Prince, Meditations, The Art of War, Letters from a Stoic, the Tao Te Ching and The Dhammapada, twelve ideas each. Facts are checked against the sources, and quotes come from public-domain translations.
Practice: nineteen hard conversations at work and at home, such as asking for a raise or telling a partner you are not happy. A mentor plays the other person at Gentle, Realistic or Tough, a coach steps in when a line works against you, and the talk ends with three marks and your strongest line. The first rehearsal is free.
Drills: One-minute drills for the moments that decide a talk: say it in one sentence, name the number, handle the pushback. Free, and checked on the iPhone with no AI.
Journal: Steps, guesses, practice and notes in one place, searchable. Write what you think will happen; when you check in, your guess sits next to what happened, and your record shows how often things went as well as you guessed, or better. With a subscription, your council writes you a letter about your week every Sunday.
Links: getcounsel.space · Counsel on the App Store