Reference
Where your data lives
What ArkenOS keeps in your workspace folder, in the app's data folder on your computer, and with your account.
ArkenOS is local-first: your projects, files and chats live on your computer, and agents work there. What a model needs to answer travels with each request through ArkenOS's model gateway; Security and privacy covers that. Knowing which place holds what tells you what to back up, what a teammate gets when you share the folder, and what stays behind when you move to a new computer. Everything ArkenOS keeps sits in one of three places:
| Place | Holds | Travels with |
|---|---|---|
| Your workspace folder | Your files, pages, artifacts, and the agents and memory made for this project | The folder (and git, if you commit it) |
| The app's data folder | Chats, channels, issues, automations, settings | This computer |
| Your account | Your organizations, members, teams and plan | You, on any computer you sign in to |
Your workspace folder
The folder you chose when you created the workspace. Your own files stay exactly where they were. ArkenOS adds hidden folders next to them:
| Path | Holds |
|---|---|
.arkenos/ | Your pages and sections, the workspace's README, and a small file with its name, tags and description |
.arkenos/artifacts/ | Charts, reports and files agents make |
.arkenos/bin/, .arkenos/lib/ | Tools agents write for themselves while they work |
.optimus/agents/ | What each agent keeps for this workspace (standing instructions, memory, skills, extensions, Heartbeat checks), and the agents you create here |
.optimus/skills/, .optimus/extensions/ | Skills and extensions every agent in the workspace shares |
.optimus/history/ | Page versions, and a log of who (you or which agent) last edited each file |
.optimus/trash/ | Deleted pages, so you can restore them |
.optimus/latex/ | LaTeX build output |
.optimus/executions/ | Logs of terminal commands agents ran |
teach/ | Recordings from Teach sessions |
Because these are plain files, they work with git like the rest of the project.
- Commit what the team should share. Pages in
.arkenos/and agent memory in.optimus/agents/are worth keeping in the repository: a teammate who clones it gets the notes and what the agents have learned. - Ignore build output. Add
.optimus/latex/and.optimus/executions/to.gitignoreif you'd rather keep them out of the repository. - Archiving keeps the folder. Archiving a workspace takes it off your list and stops its runs. The folder stays on disk, so you can add it back as an Existing folder any time.
The app's data folder
App state that spans projects, or that belongs to this computer, lives in the app's own folder:
| System | Folder |
|---|---|
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/arkenOS/ |
| Windows | %APPDATA%\arkenOS\ |
| Linux | ~/.config/arkenOS/ (downloaded tools go in ~/.local/share/arkenOS/) |
Inside it:
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Chats with agents, filed by workspace, and specialist runs | agent/sessions/ |
| Channels, messages, reactions, issues and projects, page comments, notifications | local-runtime/arkenos.db |
| Automations, their schedules and their run history | local-runtime/arkenos.db |
| Workspace settings: features on or off, the sidebar layout | local-runtime/arkenos.db |
| Organization notification settings | local-runtime/arkenos.db |
| Your list of workspaces | local-projects.json |
| Model routing, agent settings, integration and web access settings | agent/ |
| Your sign-in, encrypted with your system's keychain | cognito-session.bin |
| Logs from the app's services | logs/ |
| Appearance, recents, favorites, open tabs, window positions | Local Storage/, window-state.json |
Secrets get extra care:
- Integration secrets (from Settings → Integrations) go in your system's keychain.
- Model connections you make while signed in are held by your account's model service, so the keys stay out of this folder.
- Web access keys are saved in
agent/web-search.json, readable only by your user account on this computer.
What that means in practice
- Chats stay on this computer. Chats are filed by the workspace's folder location. Opening the same project on a second computer starts with a fresh chat history there; pages, artifacts and agent memory come with the folder.
- Turning a feature off keeps its data. Switch channels or automations off in Workspace settings → Features and everything comes back when you switch them on again.
- Back up the data folder along with your projects if you want chats, channels and automations to survive a new computer.
- Uninstalling leaves your projects. Deleting the app's data folder removes chats, channels, issues and settings. Your workspace folders, and everything inside them, stay.
Your account
Your organizations, their members and teams, invitations, roles, and your plan and billing live with your ArkenOS account. Sign in on another computer and they're all there. Manage them in Members and teams and Billing.