Storage & privacy
Loach is local-first. Your content lives on your machine, and only requests to remote providers ever leave it. Here's exactly what is stored, where, and what (if anything) goes over the network.
Where things live
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Chats, messages, Spaces, Snippets, MCP servers, app settings | SQLite at <app-data-dir>/loach.db |
| OpenAI-compatible API key | OS credential manager (Windows Credential Manager / Linux Secret Service / macOS Keychain) |
| App-lock hash + hint | OS credential manager — same store, separate entry |
| Attached files (images, text) | Inlined into the message at send time — no separate file store |
| App data dir on Windows | %APPDATA%\dev.loach.app\ |
| App data dir on Linux | ~/.local/share/dev.loach.app/ |
Offline by default
Loach launches and works completely offline as long as you stick to local providers. The following are all available without any network access:
- The Models library
- Spaces and Snippets
- Search across chats / spaces / snippets
- The parameter sidebar
- The app lock
- Full chat history
Only chat generations against remote endpoints (OpenAI, Groq, OpenRouter, …) need an internet connection.
No telemetry
Loach does not phone home. There is no usage tracking, no analytics, no crash reporting service. The only outbound traffic the app makes on its own is the update check (which can be disabled).
Secrets handling
API keys and app-lock credentials are stored in your operating system's credential manager via the keyring crate:
- On Windows — the Credential Manager.
- On Linux — the Secret Service (GNOME Keyring / KWallet / equivalent).
App-lock secrets are hashed with Argon2id before they're stored; the plaintext is never written anywhere.
Backup, restore and wipe
From Settings → Data management you can:
- Export your full content (chats, Spaces, Snippets, settings) to a JSON file.
- Restore from a previously exported file.
- Permanently delete all stored data in a few clicks.
API keys are not part of the export — they live in the OS credential manager and stay there until you remove them.