Install SilentInk

Before you start

Requirements

Download SilentInk 0.1 One zip (1.5 MB) with the BOOX app, the bridge, what makes the Send to BOOX shortcut, the install and uninstall scripts and the licenses of the libraries inside. SHA-256

Part 1 · on the Mac

Prepare the Mac

1. Install Tailscale and sign in

   1. Download Tailscale for macOS from tailscale.com/download and open it.
   2. Sign in, or create a free account.
   3. In the Tailscale admin console, make sure MagicDNS is on (it is by default).
   4. Find your Mac's Tailscale name: click the Tailscale icon in the menu bar; it looks like my-mac.tail1234.ts.net. You will need it twice.

2. Install Claude Code and sign in

   In Terminal:

   curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
   claude

   Choose to sign in with your Claude account (Pro or Max), finish in the browser, then quit Claude Code with /exit.

   Stay signed in to the Mac itself. Claude Code keeps its sign-in in your macOS keychain, which is only open while you are logged in to the Mac. Locking the screen is fine; logging out is not.

3. Install the bridge

   Unzip the SilentInk download, then in Terminal, in that folder:

   brew install android-platform-tools
   ./install-bridge.sh

   The installer checks the Mac, Tailscale and Claude Code, installs Whisper and ffmpeg with Homebrew if they are missing, downloads the Whisper model (1.6 GB, checked against its checksum), starts the bridge as a login item and prints its address and what comes next:

   bridge: running at http://my-mac.tail1234.ts.net:8787
   bridge: Whisper ok  ·  Claude Code found
   bridge: SilentList: open -a SilentList --args -booxBridge http://my-mac.tail1234.ts.net:8787
   bridge: the BOOX: ./install-boox.sh fills in my-mac.tail1234.ts.net for you
   bridge: Send to BOOX for iPhone, iPad and Mac: open "/Users/you/Library/Application Support/boox-bridge/Send to BOOX.shortcut", click Add Shortcut

   If it stops, it says why and what to do — for example that Tailscale is not connected. Run it again any time; it updates the bridge in place.

4. Add the Send to BOOX shortcut

   The installer made a shortcut that sends PDFs to the BOOX from the Share menu, set up for this Mac's bridge.

   1. Open the file the installer named — Send to BOOX.shortcut in ~/Library/Application Support/boox-bridge — and click Add Shortcut. iCloud puts it on your iPhone and iPad too.
   2. To use it, share a PDF and choose Send to BOOX: in Mail, tap a PDF attachment, then Share; it works the same from Files and Safari, and on the Mac from Finder's Quick Actions. The PDF appears on the BOOX in Documents → To read the next time Home is on screen.
   3. The first time, it asks for permission to connect to your Mac: tap Allow.

   

   The phone or Mac you share from must be on Tailscale. Off it, the shortcut says it could not connect and nothing is kept for later — share it again once Tailscale is on.

   If the installer said the Send to BOOX shortcut could not be signed (is this Mac signed in to iCloud?), sign the Mac in to iCloud and run ./install-bridge.sh again. Everything else works without it.

5. Connect SilentList to the bridge

   1. Install SilentList and open it once.
   2. Quit it, then start it once with the bridge's address (your Mac's Tailscale name from step 1):

   open -a SilentList --args -booxBridge http://my-mac.tail1234.ts.net:8787

   SilentList remembers the address. From now on it fetches the BOOX's tasks every minute into a list called Boox, which it creates the first time.

Part 2 · on the BOOX

Prepare the BOOX and install

1. Turn on USB debugging

   1. Open Settings and search for Build number (or go to About tablet).
   2. Tap Build number seven times, until it says you are a developer.
   3. Search Settings for USB debugging (in System → Developer options) and turn it on.
   4. Connect the BOOX to the Mac with the USB-C cable. On the BOOX, tap Allow when it asks whether to allow USB debugging from this computer, and tick Always allow.

   Check from Terminal; it should list one device:

   adb devices

2. Install Tailscale on the BOOX and sign in

   The BOOX has no Play Store, so the installer fetches the official Tailscale app from pkgs.tailscale.com and installs it over USB:

   ./install-boox.sh tailscale

   1. Open Tailscale on the BOOX and sign in with the same account as on the Mac.
   2. In the Tailscale admin console, open the BOOX's menu (…) and choose Disable key expiry. Otherwise the BOOX drops off your network after 180 days.

3. Install SilentInk

   ./install-boox.sh

   The installer first checks the model and firmware and stops, changing nothing, if they differ. Then it:

   • installs the SilentInk app and makes it the Home screen (the BOOX's own launcher stays installed);
   • turns on its accessibility service — the back arrow over other apps (a BOOX has no back button) and the recording tab;
   • gives it access to your documents, so it can show Documents, Download and Books, and to the microphone;
   • opens Connect to your Mac on the BOOX with this Mac's Tailscale name filled in.

   It ends with:

   silentink: on the BOOX: "Connect to your Mac" shows my-mac.tail1234.ts.net — tap Test, then Save
   silentink: done. What was changed is in …/SilentInk/<serial>/installed.txt; ./uninstall-boox.sh undoes it

   On the BOOX, tap Test — it should say the bridge answers — and then Save. The address is only ever saved by your tap. You can change it later from the status in the top right of Recordings or Ask.

   

   What the installer changed is written down on the Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/SilentInk, one folder per BOOX; the uninstaller undoes exactly that. ./install-boox.sh status shows it.

Optional

Quiet the BOOX

A BOOX comes with apps and services you may never use. The installer can turn them off, one group at a time, with a check after each:

./install-boox.sh quiet --list       # what each group contains
./install-boox.sh quiet shop small   # turn off the groups you choose

The groups: shop (BOOX's store and assistant), small (mail, music, voice recorder, clock, calculator, gallery, dictionary, transfer), google-extras, keyboards (BOOX's own keyboards) and onyx-services (the floating navigation ball, which SilentInk's back arrow replaces, and BOOX sync).

Nothing is uninstalled and the system is not modified: the apps are only disabled, and ./uninstall-boox.sh turns every one of them back on. Google Play services cannot be turned off without root; the firmware turns them back on at every start.

Taking it off

Uninstall and restore the BOOX

1. Keep your notes

   Uninstalling deletes the app's own data: notebooks, ink on PDFs, recordings and questions. Export what you want to keep first — in each notebook, Export writes a PDF to Documents/SilentInk, which stays on the BOOX. Your PDFs themselves are never changed and stay where they are.

2. Restore the BOOX

   Connect the BOOX by USB and run:

   ./uninstall-boox.sh

   It asks you to type yes, then turns back on every app the quiet step turned off, gives Home back to the launcher that had it before, takes SilentInk out of the accessibility services (leaving any others as they were), removes the app, and checks that the BOOX is as it was before you installed. Tailscale stays; remove it like any other app if you want.

3. Remove the bridge from the Mac

   ./uninstall-bridge.sh

   It stops the bridge, removes its login item, the Whisper model, its log and anything still waiting in its queue. Homebrew's whisper-cpp and ffmpeg stay. To stop SilentList fetching from the bridge, start it once with an empty address: open -a SilentList --args -booxBridge "".

   The Send to BOOX shortcut stays in Shortcuts on your devices; delete it there (touch and hold it, then Delete).

Help

When something does not work