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Data management

Settings → Data is where backups, restores and cleanups live. Loach stores everything local-first, so you are the one who decides where your data goes - and you can take it with you.

Storage breakdown

A read-only breakdown sits above the controls, so “how big is this?” is answered before you reach for a destructive one:

• Database - total bytes on disk (the SQLite file plus its write-ahead log and shared-memory files) and its path, itemised into Chats (message text, with message and chat counts), Attachments (inlined into messages and Snippets), Spaces (with source counts), Library (Library items, with their count; the size includes the search index, which also covers Space uploads) and Other - Snippets, snippet variables, global memories, MCP servers, settings, and each chat’s title, instructions and parameters.
• Local models - how many Ollama models are installed and what they weigh, as reported by Ollama. Listed for context, not as something Loach can reclaim: they are stored by Ollama, outside the app-data folder.

The five lines measure the content Loach stores, so they add up to less than the on-disk total. The file itself doesn’t shrink when you delete things - SQLite keeps the freed space and reuses it for new data.

Export data

Export data writes a single JSON backup - loach-export-YYYY-MM-DD.json by default - with every chat (archived ones included), message, folder, Space with its sources and memories, global memory, Snippet, snippet variable and saved fill-in, MCP server and setting, plus your Library - texts, files, links and datasets, and which chats and Spaces use them. Each Space’s and chat’s source mode and image scaling go along too. The native save dialog opens and the app’s backend writes the file; the panel then confirms the path it saved to. There is no size limit, and if writing fails part-way, the unfinished file is deleted rather than left behind looking like a backup.

Some things are deliberately left out:

• Secrets - MCP servers’ HTTP headers and environment variables are scrubbed, and so are credentials in their arguments (passwords and tokens in URLs, secret flags, NAME=value and header-style secrets) and every query value in an HTTP server’s URL - see MCP backups. Your OpenAI-compatible API key and the app lock live in the OS credential manager and are never part of a backup.
• The search index - the index behind Library search is rebuilt from the restored sources after an import.
• Working folders - a chat’s working folder is a path on this machine, so chats come back without one.
• Local models - they belong to Ollama, not Loach.

This is the canonical backup format. Keep one before you do anything risky - OS reinstall, machine swap, experimental settings. Backups are tagged loach/v2: Loach 1.5 and earlier refuse them, while older loach/v1 backups still import here.

Import data

Import data restores a file made by Export data. It replaces everything in the database - chats, Spaces, your Library (texts, files, links and datasets), memories, Snippets, MCP servers and settings - so Loach first shows a confirmation, asks for your current credentials if app lock is on, and only then opens the file picker. A backup made before the Library existed leaves it empty. Your stored OpenAI-compatible API key and the app lock aren’t touched, and while a key is stored the backup can’t change the OpenAI-compatible base URL either: the current one is kept, so your key is never sent to a server the backup names.

The file is checked before anything is written: it has to be a Loach backup, and every MCP server, message role and provider in it is re-validated, so a hand-edited file can’t smuggle in a server pointing at a link-local address. Local (stdio) MCP servers arrive disabled - turning one on asks for your consent again - and so does any server whose host couldn’t be resolved during the import. A server whose name breaks the naming rules is renamed rather than failing the import. Rows that point at something the file doesn’t contain are settled: a chat whose Space or folder is missing comes back outside it, and rows that can’t stand on their own are dropped. On success the panel lists what came in (chats, messages, Spaces, Snippets, Library items, datasets, variables, MCP servers) and Loach reloads.

Archive all chats

Moves every live chat to the archive after a confirmation, unpinning them on the way. Replies still running in those chats are stopped, and the chat on screen is closed. Nothing is deleted - unarchive any of them later from Settings → Archive.

Remove my data

In the Erase & Reset card, click Erase… and pick Remove my data. It deletes all chats and folders, Spaces (with their sources and memories), your whole Library (texts, files, links and datasets, with its search index), global memories, Snippets, snippet variables and saved fill-ins, and MCP servers. It keeps your settings, the stored OpenAI-compatible API key and the app lock, so the app remains usable immediately afterwards.

Use this when you want a clean conversational slate but do not want to redo all your provider setup.

Factory reset

The other option in the same dialog: everything Remove my data deletes, plus all settings, plus the OpenAI-compatible API key and the app lock from the credential store. Loach reloads straight into onboarding, like a fresh install. Irreversible.

Use this when handing the machine to someone else, or as the last step in “start completely over”.