Horse writes sidebar changes to local storage as you work. Closing a window and quitting the application are different actions, just as they are in other desktop browsers.
The short version is: close when you are done with that window, quit when you want Horse to stop running, and reopen after an update is ready. Your sidebar is working state, so there is no final save ceremony where everybody gathers around the laptop and presses a golden button.
Close or quit
- Use the window close control to close that window.
- Use the application menu’s Quit command to exit Horse fully.
- ⌘+Q is the cross-platform quit shortcut.
If Horse still appears in the dock or task switcher after the window closes, it is probably still running. Use Quit when you want the application itself to stop.
Update Horse
Horse shows a notification when an update is available. Quit and reopen the application when convenient to let the update install. Use the current Stable release for the latest fixes and supported extensions.
An update should not require you to clear the sidebar first. Finish the sentence you are writing, quit normally, reopen Horse, and carry on with your saved Trails®.
Protect important Trails®
Autosave reduces ordinary session loss, but no software can promise that a crash, disk failure, or corrupted profile will never lose data.
For important work, export selected Trails as Markdown and keep the file somewhere separate. That export preserves the selected links and structure; it is not a complete application backup.
If you only wanted the five-page introduction to Horse, splendid, you have reached the end of Getting Started. The rest of the manual covers the fancier moves: Folders, keyboard navigation, extensions, password managers, and rescuing the Trail you closed with magnificent confidence three seconds ago.