Your data and safety

Everything you make in Kempt is a plain markdown file in one local folder: your home. Open that folder with any tool and your notes are just text. Copy the folder and you have a full backup. This card renders a real file, byte for byte:

Try this

1. Open your home folder in your file manager.
2. Find a note inside the Workspaces folder and open it in another editor (VS Code, Obsidian, or any text editor). It is clean, readable markdown.
3. Back in Kempt, open a note you edited recently and open its version history.
4. Pick an older snapshot. You see a line-by-line diff of exactly what changed.
5. Restore it. The note goes back to that point.

Nothing about this is special to notes: tasks, goals, and projects get the same snapshots.

Your files are the truth

Your notes, tasks, goals, and projects are markdown files in your home folder. The search index is a rebuildable cache (SQLite); it is never the source. Writes are atomic, so a crash cannot leave a half-written file.

Kempt works fully offline. No account and no network are needed for any local feature.

What is in your home folder

• Your workspaces and notes, under a Workspaces folder by default
• _config: app settings and the search index
• _claude: AI assistant settings
• _templates: your templates
• _agent: what the AI has learned, stored as markdown you can read

Backups

Copy the folder. That is a complete backup: notes, tasks, settings, everything.

Note: Uninstalling Kempt never deletes your data. Your home folder stays where it is.

Version history

Kempt takes automatic snapshots of your notes, and of your tasks, goals, and projects too. Manage it in Settings > Version history.

• Line-by-line diffs, and you can restore any point.
• It is free and stored locally.
• Edits made by the AI are tagged AI, along with what changed (for example, a status change), so you can audit and revert them. See how AI edits work.

Editing with other apps

You can open and edit your home folder with Obsidian, VS Code, or any editor, even while Kempt is running. If a file changes outside Kempt while you are editing it inside, Kempt shows a conflict banner with choices instead of silently overwriting your work.

One home, one window

The same home folder cannot be opened by two Kempt instances at once. If Kempt crashes, the lock is reclaimed automatically on the next launch; you do not need to do anything.

Moving your home

1. Quit Kempt.
2. Move or copy your home folder to the new location.
3. Relaunch Kempt and pick Choose an existing folder, pointing it at the new location.

Kempt recognizes the folder (“Found an existing Kempt Home”) and opens it.

Cloud drive folders

Warning: Keeping your home inside OneDrive, Dropbox, or a similar synced folder is possible, but at your own risk. Sync engines and live files can conflict, and Kempt warns you when you pick such a folder.

Prefer a plain local folder plus your own backups, or Kempt Sync, which is designed for this.

Leaving Kempt

Leaving is the same as backing up. Your files are already in an open format, so there is nothing to export. Point any other markdown app at the folder and keep working.