Offline means available
Keep working when the connection disappears.
Plan, search, and revisit the story on your device. A flight, a cabin, or an unreliable connection should not turn your own project into a locked door.
Local-first
Your story should not need permission to come home.
RedThread is designed around a simple promise: your creative work lives on your devices, remains usable without an internet connection, and can leave the app in a file you control.
Ownership without fine print
The library is yours before it is anything else.
You do not need an account to begin. Your drafts, worldbuilding, connections, and search stay with you. RedThread does not depend on a distant service to remember your characters—or to let you open the work.
Portable means recoverable
One RedThread file can carry the whole story.
Export a portable story archive for backup or for moving the project. It contains the connected story rather than a scattering of partial exports, so you have a practical way to keep another copy somewhere you trust.
No invisible synchronization
Two devices do not mean two devices changing each other.
Pocket and RedThread exchange work through an explicit handoff. You choose when a file leaves one device, review what arrives, and decide how a conflict is resolved. The boundary stays visible.
Privacy here is not a settings page you must discover. It is the shape of the product.
In plain language
What local-first changes for a writer.
Can I use RedThread without the internet?
Yes. Your story library and its search live on your device, so the core work remains available offline.
Do I need an account?
No account is required to begin using RedThread or to open your own story library.
How do I move or back up a story?
Export one portable RedThread story file, then keep it, copy it, or move it somewhere you trust.
Does Pocket synchronize in the background?
No. You start a handoff, move the file, and review what comes back. Pocket never silently changes the main library.
Is my story sent away for search?
No. The search model is included with RedThread and works with the story on your device.
A practical promise
Private by design. Portable on purpose.
RedThread is still in active development, so keeping your own exported backups is wise. The important part is that the product gives you that path.