Local-first
We do not know who you are. There is no database to put you in.
No account, no email, no password, no user database. Your memory lives on your machine. That is not a promise, it is how the software is built. And you can check it yourself.
What does not exist
No account. No signup. No server that knows you.
You download, you launch. Nobody asks your name. Your documents, your index, your questions stay with you. If our servers are ever broken into, there is no document, no question and no name to steal.
What stays with you
Reading, chunking, vectors, search: all of it runs on your machine.
The model that reads your documents runs on your own processor or graphics card. So does the search. Unplug the network: it still works.
Your vaults are ordinary files on your disk, readable without us. AES-256 encryption exists. You are the one who arms it.
What can leave
Only the slice that answers. Only where you send it.
The answer is written by a model. You choose where it runs. That is the only setting that decides whether anything leaves. Nothing switches to the cloud behind your back.
| Route | What leaves | To whom |
|---|---|---|
| Local model (GGUF) | nothing | nobody |
| Your own server | your question and the retrieved passages | a machine you named, on your network |
| Your own API key | your question and the retrieved passages | that provider, from your machine, under your contract |
| Mnemosyne Cloud credits | your question and the retrieved passages | our metered relay, then the provider |
What the app does on its own: it asks GitHub whether there is an update. That sends the version and the platform, nothing more, and nothing downloads without your click. If you created a wallet, it checks your license on a public Base node, which sees the address. Models download from Hugging Face when you ask. That is all.
Why this choice
A user database is a liability. We chose not to have one.
Data leaks every week, from companies far bigger than us. The only database you cannot lose is the one you do not have. So we do not have one.
It changes how you pay, too. No subscription. You use, you pay for what you use.
The download is free, and it is the complete OS. The license is 70 $, once, for life. Our cloud, if you want it, tops up in packs of 10, 25 or 50 $. You pay up front, so you always know how much.
With your own key or a local model, we see nothing and we bill nothing. With nothing configured, only the update check talks to the network.
Check it yourself
Three checks you can run tonight.
- Unplug the network. Ask a question about your documents. The answer still comes.
- Open your system network monitor and work locally. You will see the update check, the license if you have a wallet, and nothing else.
- Read the app code on GitHub. It is open core: the memory engine is sealed, the rest is there to read.