If Memrith shuts down.
Memrith is a continuity-layer product. That's a long commitment to ask someone to make. So here, plainly, is what happens to your data if Memrith the company stops existing.
Short version
- Your data stays on your disk. Local-first means nothing important to recover is in Memrith's cloud. There's no Memrith database to lose, no sync to fail.
- The app keeps working. Memrith is a desktop binary that runs against an AI provider's API. As long as your provider keys work and your OS still runs the binary, the app keeps working. No license server check after activation.
- The data format is documented. Entries are markdown. Memory, conversations, and uploads are JSON. Schema is open. You can read and process the files with any tool that handles those formats.
- The AI provider keys are yours. They live in your OS keychain; Memrith never had them on its servers. They keep working regardless of what happens to Memrith.
What "shuts down" actually means here
Three scenarios fall under this:
- The company stops issuing updates. Existing installs keep working. No new features, no security patches, but your data is intact and your AI provider continues to read it.
- The website goes offline. Activation has already happened by the time you'd notice; the signed entitlement is on your disk. The auto-update channel goes silent (it was a manifest fetch from memrith.com; once that 404s, updates simply stop). The app itself doesn't depend on the website at runtime.
- The license server gets shut off. Already- activated installs are unaffected. The entitlement is signed + stored locally; the app re-checks against the local file, not the server.
What doesn't happen in any of these: your entries vanish, your memory disappears, your conversations get deleted, your AI provider stops talking to your machine.
What you should do (today, regardless)
Even without a shutdown scenario, this is good hygiene for any long-term continuity layer:
- Back up your data folder. On Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/Memrith/. On Windows:%APPDATA%\Memrith\. Time Machine, Backblaze, or a manual zip — all work. The folder is JSON + markdown + a small embeddings file; it's portable and compact. - Keep your license key email. Polar sends it after purchase. If you need to reinstall on a new machine you'll need it; otherwise you don't.
- Keep your AI provider account. The key lives in your OS keychain, not the email. Your provider account remains yours independent of Memrith.
What we're committing to do if it happens
If Memrith the company is winding down (as opposed to dying suddenly):
- Public notice on memrith.com with at least 90 days lead time, explaining the situation and what users need to do.
- Final release with the activation check removed, so existing licenses continue to activate fresh installs without needing the license server.
- Schema specification published in a standalone document, so anyone who wants to write an importer for another tool has the format reference.
- Open-sourcing of the export pipeline so the format is documented in code, not just prose.
None of these are heroic. They're the bare minimum a calm, long-term-oriented continuity product owes its users. We'd rather say so upfront than have it be a question.
Why we wrote this page: a continuity-layer product is asking you to commit a year, three years, ten years of your thinking to it. That commitment isn't credible if the answer to "what happens if you go under?" is silence. We'd rather give you the boring, plain answer now than have you wonder later.