Frequently Asked Questions

Where is my data stored?

Everything is stored in your vault folder on your computer. Atlas writes all notes, CRM data, memory files, and session history as plain files in the directory you chose when setting up your vault.

You can find your vault path in Settings > Vault. On most systems it’s a folder you picked during first setup.

Is my data sent to the cloud?

No. Atlas Local runs its AI on your own machine, so nothing you write or say is sent to us or any third-party AI provider:

• Chat — the local language model generates every answer on your device. Your message text and the vault snippets Atlas uses as context never leave your machine.
• Voice — recordings are transcribed on your device by Whisper Base and spoken back by Kokoro; the audio is never uploaded.
• Search — semantic and keyword search run entirely on-device against your local index.

Your full vault notes, CRM contacts, memory files, and relationship graph all stay on your computer. The only time anything touches the network is the one-time model download, the one-time license activation, and any optional extras you turn on yourself (weather, web search, Google sync).

Can I use Atlas without internet?

Yes — everything works offline, including the AI:

• AI chat, voice input/output, and the “Hey Jarvis” wake word (the language model, Whisper Base speech-to-text, and Kokoro text-to-speech all run on your own device)
• Notes and vault management
• Hybrid semantic + keyword search
• CRM (people, organizations, topics, graph)
• Plugins and templates
• Daily notes and tasks
• Scheduling and reminders
• Memory and session history

Internet is needed exactly twice: once to activate your license and once to download the AI models on first launch. After that you can pull the network cable and Atlas keeps working.

A few optional features reach the network only if you turn them on: weather, web search, and Google Calendar/Contacts sync. Everything else stays on your machine.

How do I back up my vault?

Your vault is just a folder of plain text files — back it up however you’d normally back up files:

• Copy the folder to an external drive or cloud storage
• Use git: git init inside your vault and push to GitHub or GitLab
• Use a sync service: Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive, Syncthing, etc.

Atlas doesn’t provide built-in backup or sync, but it’s fully compatible with any backup approach you already use.

Can I use my vault with other apps?

Yes. Your vault is entirely plain Markdown files — the same format used by Obsidian, Logseq, VS Code, and any text editor. You can open your Atlas vault in Obsidian, edit notes in VS Code, or push it to GitHub and read it there.

Atlas won’t break if you edit files in another app. The file watcher picks up external changes and re-indexes modified files automatically.

How does Atlas protect my privacy?

Your notes, conversations, and voice all stay on your computer. There is no Atlas server that processes your content — the language model, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech all run on your own device, so nothing you write or say is uploaded.

Performance telemetry is opt-in and off by default; even when you turn it on, it only reports how fast a model ran, never your notes or conversations.

Google Integration Privacy Policy

Atlas integrates with Google services to provide calendar sync and optional contacts import. This section describes how Atlas handles data received from Google APIs, in compliance with Google API Services User Data Policy.

Data Accessed

When you connect your Google account, Atlas requests access to the following data and migrates them to markdown files in your vault, enabling calendar and CRM functions. Your data saves to your computer.

• Google Calendar — Your calendar list, event details (title, description, times, location), and the ability to create and delete events on your behalf.
• Google Contacts (read-only) — Contact names, email addresses, phone numbers, organizations, job titles, birthdays, and photo URLs, for optional import into your local CRM.
• Basic profile — Your Google email address, used to identify the connected account within the app.

Data Usage

• Calendar data is used to display upcoming events in your daily notes, sync tasks from your vault to Google Calendar, and provide the AI assistant with meeting context when you ask about your schedule.
• Contacts data is used solely for optional one-time import into your local CRM (people records in your vault). You choose which contacts to import; Atlas never imports contacts automatically.
• Your email address is displayed in the settings panel so you can see which Google account is connected.

Atlas does not use Google data for advertising, analytics, market research, or any purpose unrelated to the features described above. It only facilitates moving your data from your Google account to files on your computer.

Data Sharing

Atlas does not directly share, sell, or transfer your Google user data to any third parties. Specifically:

• Calendar events and contacts fetched from Google are processed entirely on your local machine by the Atlas desktop app. Google API calls are made directly from the desktop app — data never passes through any Atlas server.
• Google data is not directly shared to any Atlas server or any other external service. When the AI assistant looks up your calendar, it reads from locally synced daily notes in your vault, not from Google directly.
• Imported contacts are saved as local Markdown files in your vault. No contact data is sent to an external service.
• Once imported and saved locally, you control your data as note files on your computer.

Data Storage & Protection

• Once imported, all of your data (calendar events, imported contacts) is stored locally on your machine as plain-text Markdown files within your vault folder.
• OAuth tokens (access token and refresh token) are stored locally in your Atlas configuration file on your device. They are never transmitted anywhere other than directly to Google’s OAuth endpoints for authentication and token refresh.
• Token refresh is handled automatically and locally.

Data Retention & Deletion

• Calendar events fetched from Google are cached locally for display purposes. You can disconnect your Google account at any time in Settings > Calendar, which immediately discards all cached calendar data and revokes the stored tokens.
• Imported contacts become regular CRM files in your vault. Disconnecting Google does not delete previously imported contacts, since they are your local vault data. You can delete or edit them manually at any time.
• OAuth tokens are deleted from your device when you disconnect your Google account.
• To fully revoke Atlas’s access to your Google account, visit your Google Account Permissions page and remove Atlas.
• Since all Google data is stored locally on your machine, you have full control over deletion at any time. Simply delete the relevant files from your vault or disconnect the integration in settings.