Reference

Data & Storage

Your data is saved on your device, encrypted at rest — and it stays yours. Day-to-day work doesn't depend on an internet connection: ReticulOS works fully offline. With Pro, an encrypted backup can be restored on any computer; live sync between devices is coming next.

Your data lives on your device

Every collection, cell, image, and note you save is stored on your device, so capturing, organizing, and searching work anywhere — plane, train, dead wifi. We never see your content, and we don't collect personal data.

Everything is encrypted

Your data isn't just local — it's locked. ReticulOS encrypts everything it stores with AES-256, the same encryption standard used by banks and governments. The key that unlocks it is protected by your operating system's own secure login, so unlocking your computer is what unlocks your data. Nobody who copies the files off your disk can read them.

Good to know: full protection relies on your desktop's built-in security features, which mainstream Linux desktops provide out of the box. On unusual setups without them, protection is reduced — a passphrase-based option for those systems is coming.

AI data stays in the same vault

AI Mode builds a search index over your notes — text chunks and their vector embeddings. That index lives inside the same encrypted database as everything else; it is not a separate, weaker copy of your content. Your sign-ins for Ret AI and your ChatGPT plan are kept in their own encrypted files, protected the same way as the database key, and password vault entries are never indexed at all.

Deleting

Deleting a cell removes it from search and the AI index immediately, and an Undo is offered right after in case it was a slip. Under the hood the cell stays recoverable for up to 30 days, after which it is purged permanently.

Upgrading from an older version

If you used a ReticulOS version from before encryption shipped, your existing data is upgraded automatically the first time v0.8.0 starts. A safety backup is created before anything is touched, and all your collections and cells come through exactly as they were. You don't need to do anything.

What ReticulOS remembers

  • Your content — collections and cells, including titles, formatting, pins, colors, and where you placed cards on the canvas.
  • Your layout — the size and position of both windows, so everything reopens exactly where you left it.
  • Your preferences — dark mode, glass effect, sidebar state, per-collection view modes, and your last open collection.

Backups and moving machines

On the same computer, your regular system backup covers ReticulOS along with the rest of your home folder. Moving your data to a different computer is deliberately not as simple as copying files — that's the encryption doing its job. Instead, use Export (in the widget's settings menu): Export as Markdown writes a readable folder tree of Markdown files — one per cell, images included as real files — and Export as JSON writes a single lossless archive. Your notes are never locked in.

Privacy, in short

  • We never see your content.
  • We don't collect personal data. Usage stats, if enabled, are anonymous and opt-in — off by default.
  • Deleting something deletes it — recoverable for 30 days on your own machine, then gone for good.

Read the full privacy policy.