Cadent
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Download

Your coursework, turned into a plan for today.

Cadent connects to your Canvas, Gradescope and publisher sites, understands your courses, and turns them into a plan for today, with answers you can trust.

Check these first

  • Apple silicon only. An M1 Mac or newer. Cadent will not run on an Intel Mac.
  • macOS 13 or later. Ventura or newer.
  • An invite code. Cadent is invite-only while it is in beta. Without a code you cannot finish signing in.
Download for macOS

Version 0.5.5 · Apple silicon · macOS 13 or later · 133 MB

Requires an invite code.

New in 0.5.5: setup is fast — connect Canvas and your schedule, deadlines, and plan come together in seconds, not minutes. The app waits until everything is genuinely imported and planned before it opens, so you land on a finished day, and multi-course accounts sync faster. See the changelog

SHA-256

c0af15ae9b099a38dbcc48ac9164a785bff57ee2c5c4f76ca9f69c54e2ba2e04

Verify with shasum -a 256 Cadent.dmg before you open it.

Opening Cadent the first time

macOS will ask you to approve Cadent once. It takes about twenty seconds, and you only do it once per version.

  1. 1

    Drag Cadent into Applications

    Open the downloaded file and drag Cadent into Applications. Then eject the Cadent disk image; the app needs to run from Applications, not from the disk image.

    Then eject the disk image.

  2. 2

    Double-click Cadent, then click Done

    Open your Applications folder and double-click Cadent. macOS will say it cannot verify Cadent is free of malware.

    Click Done. Do not click Move to Trash.

    Why does this happen? Is Cadent safe? ↓
  3. 3

    Open System Settings and allow it

    Go to System Settings, then Privacy & Security. Scroll down to the Security section. You will see a line saying Cadent was blocked.

    Click Open Anyway and confirm with Touch ID or your Mac password.

  4. 4

    Click Open Anyway once more

    One last dialog appears. Click Open Anyway. Cadent opens normally from then on, and you will not see any of this again until the next version.

Why does this happen?

Apple charges developers $99 a year to have their apps checked and stamped with its approval. Cadent has not gone through that yet, so macOS treats it the way it treats any app it has not been told about.

That will change. Until it does, the checksum on this page is how you can confirm the file you downloaded is the file we published, which is the thing the Apple stamp would otherwise do for you.

Setting up

Sign in

Cadent asks for your email and sends a six-digit code. There is no password to create or forget. The first time, it also asks for your invite code.

Connect Canvas

Cadent needs a Canvas access token: a key you generate yourself and can revoke any time. It never sees your Canvas password.

  1. 1

    Open your Canvas settings

    Sign in to Canvas in your browser. Click Account in the sidebar, then Settings.

  2. 2

    Find Approved Integrations

    Scroll down the settings page until you reach Approved Integrations, then click + New Access Token.

  3. 3

    Name it, and leave the expiry blank

    For Purpose, write Cadent. Leave the expiry date blank. If you set one, Cadent stops working the day it passes, usually mid-semester.

  4. 4

    Copy the token straight away

    Canvas shows the token once and never again. Copy it now. If you lose it, delete the token and make a new one. That is normal and costs nothing.

  5. 5

    Paste it into Cadent

    In Cadent, go to Settings, then Connections, then Connect Canvas. Paste your school's Canvas address, then the token.

Your token is stored in your Mac's Keychain and never leaves your machine except to Canvas itself. Some universities turn student access tokens off entirely. If yours has, this step will not work and there is nothing in Cadent that can get around it.

Where your work lives

Your syllabi, assignments, calendar and conversations are stored on your Mac, in an encrypted database. We do not have a copy.

When a source is first read, its text passes through our gateway once so it can be made searchable. After that, only the passages needed to answer your question are sent. Nothing is sold, and there is no advertising or tracking.

Privacy policy · Terms

If something breaks

Inside Cadent, go to Settings, then Feedback. Tell us what broke. That route carries your version and your Mac with it, so we can reply directly.

If Cadent will not open at all, email support@cadent.work with your macOS version and which Mac you have.

Questions

Will it run on an Intel Mac?

Not yet. Cadent is Apple silicon only: an M1 Mac or newer.

Is there a Windows version?

Not yet.

What does it cost?

Nothing while it is in beta, and Cadent is invite-only for now. Everything is included, with no premium tier and nothing held back.

How do I update?

Cadent tells you when a new version is out and links back here. Download it and drag it into Applications, replacing the old one. Your plan and your sources are untouched.

Why does it ask for my Mac password after an update?

Because Cadent is not notarised yet, macOS treats each version as a different app and asks permission to reach the key protecting your data. Click Always Allow. Your data is fine.

How do I delete everything?

Go to Settings, then Privacy & data, to clear conversations. To remove everything, delete Cadent from Applications and remove ~/Library/Application Support/Cadent.