Privacy

Atlas runs entirely on your Mac. There’s no account, no sync, and no telemetry.

Where your data lives

Your tasks and subjects live in a local SQLite database, and your notes are plain markdown (.md) files in a folder you control. Nothing is uploaded unless you use one of the features listed below, and Atlas works fully offline.

No tracking in the app

Atlas collects no analytics and sends no usage data. There are no accounts to create and nothing to log in to.

This website is a separate thing

The app and this site are not the same, so they get described separately. This site uses Vercel Web Analytics, which is cookieless: it sets no cookies, stores no personal data, and builds no profile of you. It tells us aggregate things — how many people opened the download page, and which site linked them here — and nothing that identifies you. That is also why there is no cookie banner.

This changes nothing about the app. Atlas on your Mac still sends no usage data, here or anywhere.

When Atlas reaches the network

Only for the following. Everything else stays on your Mac.

• Update check — Atlas asks GitHub whether a newer version exists, comparing your installed version against the latest public release. There is no account, and nothing about you is sent. An update is downloaded only when you choose to install it.
• Calendar feeds — if you add a TimeEdit iCal subscription, Atlas fetches that URL to refresh your events.
• Apple Calendar — reading and writing happens locally through macOS EventKit, after you grant calendar permission. It stays on your device.
• Ingest — file conversion, OCR and audio transcription run on-device. Which AI Ingest uses is a setting you choose once, in Settings ▸ AI; until you choose, it uses Anthropic if you’ve added an Anthropic API key. With Anthropic, an item’s converted text is sent to Anthropic when you open it for review — for a filing suggestion, along with your subject and folder names — and again when you run cleanup, and Transcribe with AI sends the image or PDF itself. With LM Studio, or no AI at all, nothing leaves your Mac.
• Definitions — when you point at a ::word:: or open the Glossary, Atlas looks the word up and keeps the answer on your Mac. With an AI set up, the word and the note’s topic (its folders and name) go to that AI. Without one, a single word is looked up in a free online dictionary (dictionaryapi.dev), which receives only the word.
• Grammar check, Ask your vault and flashcards — each uses the AI you choose for it in Settings ▸ AI, and with LM Studio they run on your Mac. With Anthropic, Grammar check (off until you turn it on) sends each paragraph a couple of seconds after you stop typing, and when you save; Ask your vault sends your question and the passages from your notes that match it; and Generate flashcards sends the note it’s working from. Note chat and inline autocomplete only ever use LM Studio.
• When LM Studio has no model — a feature set to LM Studio uses Anthropic instead if no LM Studio chat model is set and you’ve added an Anthropic key. Settings ▸ AI says so at that feature’s row.
• Your Anthropic key — nothing goes to Anthropic unless you’ve added your own API key. When you add one, Atlas checks it with Anthropic, sending only the key, and stores it encrypted using your Mac’s Keychain.
• Plugins — browsing plugins fetches the list of available ones from GitHub, and nothing about you is sent. A plugin you install can reach the network only if it declares network access.
• Claude connector — off until you turn it on in Plugins. Then Atlas runs a small server that only this Mac can reach, so the Claude app can read your tasks, schedule, subjects and notes, and change them only if you allow it. What Claude reads is then handled by Anthropic under Claude’s own terms.

Sending feedback

Feedback is only ever sent when you start it. If you submit a bug report or feature request from Atlas, that message — along with the app version and platform, and any log you choose to attach — is sent to us so we can follow up. The server sees your Mac’s IP address, as with any connection, and uses it to limit how often feedback can be sent; it isn’t added to the issue, and our host keeps it in its request logs for 1 hour.

No ads

Atlas is a personal tool. It shows no ads and sells no data.