A mindfulness-based recovery app for the Buddhist path

Not everyone in recovery finds their footing in a higher power. For many people, the path forward looks more like sitting with the breath, watching a craving rise and pass, and practicing compassion toward the very mind that's been hurting. That's the spirit of the Refuge Recovery and broader Buddhist-recovery traditions: a mindfulness-based, non-theistic approach that treats addiction as a form of suffering and recovery as a practice you return to, day after day.

Twelva is a private recovery companion built to hold that practice. It isn't a meeting, a sangha, or a substitute for community, and it doesn't ask you to believe anything. It's a quiet place on your phone to meditate, reflect, and notice what's actually happening in you, available in the early-morning hours and the hard ones in between.

A path built on attention, not theism

The Refuge tradition is Buddhist-inspired but non-theistic: it draws on meditation and Buddhist psychology without requiring belief in God or a higher power. Twelva supports this directly. Where a 12-step path might lean on surrender to something greater, this path leans on awareness, self-compassion, and the steady observation of how craving and aversion move through the body and mind.

You can work entirely within this frame, or borrow from it. Twelva's Library holds first-class paths for the Twelve Steps, SMART Recovery, Al-Anon, CBT-informed practice, and secular recovery alongside the mindfulness-based approach, so nothing forces you into a tradition that isn't yours.

How Twelva supports a Buddhist, mindfulness-based recovery

The AI companion speaks your language

The AI companion is tradition-aware. Tell Twelva your path is mindfulness-based and the companion will frame its support that way: a breathing practice, a reminder to notice the craving as a wave, a gentle invitation back to the present moment, never a sermon. It's available day or night for the moments between meetings, and it's built privacy-first. Your recovery data is not used to train models, and your conversations stay yours.

It's a companion, not a sponsor and not a clinician. Twelva is a recovery companion, not therapy, medical care, or emergency support. If you're in crisis, the app keeps crisis resources one tap away, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline and the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

Reflection that fits a practice, not a doctrine

Twelva includes roughly 767 reflective questions across the Twelve Steps, worked entirely at your own pace, alongside 366 daily devotionals and 365 daily affirmations. You're free to draw on whichever of these serve your practice and leave the rest. Nothing is gated behind a belief system, and nothing pressures you to move faster than the work allows. The structure is there when you want a frame and quiet when you'd rather just sit.

Private by design

Recovery asks for honesty, and honesty asks for privacy. Twelva keeps your journal encrypted on your device by default; if you turn on cloud backup, that's encrypted too. Twelva never sells your data and never trains AI models on it. The work you do here is for you.

Independent, and meant to sit beside your meetings

Twelva is not affiliated with Refuge Recovery or Recovery Dharma. Those are independent non-profit communities with their own meetings, books, and structures, and Twelva isn't a replacement for the connection a real sangha or peer group offers. Think of Twelva as the practice you carry between sessions: a way to keep meditating, reflecting, and checking in on the days when getting to a meeting isn't possible.