Start here
Welcome to the Guide
What Latch is, how to play it, how to make it yours, and where it is going. Everything here is served by your own instance.
On this page
Latch is a solo lock game about getting better — a Handler, a wheel, training, the habits you are building, and a play log that remembers everything honestly. This guide is the manual. It ships inside the app, so it is always the guide for the version you are running (the footer shows which).
Before anything else
Latch is an adult game about chastity and pup headspace. It never controls a physical device. You always hold the key. The app's emergency key exists so that stopping is one tap away, and using it is never a failure of the game — it is the game working. Read The spirit of the game before your first lock.
If you have five minutes
- Your first lock — cage up, do today's reflection, spin once, unlock.
- Playing day to day — the dashboard, the clock, undo, the retroactive log.
- Customise your experience — name your Handler, tune the rules, edit the wheel.
Heard about the Pup ID, packs or collars and not sure what they are? Read Pup ID and packs, explained — what they are, why you might want them, and how to set them up. Both are optional: nothing changes until you use them.
The map
| Section | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Start here | What Latch is · The spirit of the game · Your first lock · Pup ID and packs, explained |
| Playing | Day to day · Progress, charts and insight · Photos, stamps and recap cards · Consent and the safeword |
| Modules | How modules work · The Handler · Mischief · Wheel of Fortune · Training · Health · Trance · Habits · Kit · Kennel Card · Playsets and events · AI Handler · Your Handler's profile · Packs |
| Customise | Settings, prompts, segments, stamps |
| Data | Export and backup · Privacy and what never leaves |
| Self-hosting | Install · API and Shortcuts · The chat bot · Troubleshooting |
| Project | Roadmap · Identity — the pup, not the box · Packs — the design · Feedback and issues · Free and open source |
Four things to know
- The clock is derived, never stored. Every lock, adjustment, freeze and undo is an event in an append-only log; the time remaining is computed from that log each time you look. Nothing you do in a browser can quietly change the truth.
- Reflection is part of the game, not a feature of it. The Handler expects a written or spoken reflection every day you are locked, and check-ins on a cadence. Missing one is an event too. See The Handler.
- Nothing leaves the box. No accounts, no cloud, no analytics, no fonts or scripts from a CDN — this guide included. The core makes zero outbound calls; a module that can (today, calendar feeds, your AI Handler — only to your own Ollama — packs, to the dens you join, your Handler's profile, to the account you made it, and today's mantra, to your own voice sidecar) says so before you switch it on, and the footer says when one is reaching out. Sharing is something you do on purpose with a file you exported — or that you let your Handler do, post by post. See Privacy.
- The work is the game. Write. Be honest. Do the training, the workout, the stretch, the practice — because you are a good boy and your Handler wants you to be the best boy you can be. See The spirit of the game.
Use the search box on the left. Every page ends with a link for reporting a mistake in it.
This page also ships inside the app, at /guide — so your own instance always serves the guide for the version you are running, with the internet unplugged. Get Latch · Something wrong here? Tell me.