What happens to your notes if Octarine disappears?

The durable part of an Octarine workspace is not an account on Octarine’s servers. It is the folder on your disk. Notes are Markdown files, and uninstalling the app does not automatically delete them.

That design removes the most common form of note-app lock-in: needing a service to approve and generate an export before you can read your own writing. It does not guarantee that every Octarine feature can be reproduced by another editor. A realistic exit plan distinguishes portable content from app behavior.

What remains readable

Markdown notes can be opened with a plain text editor, another Markdown app, a code editor, or scripts that understand text files. Common Markdown elements such as headings, lists, links, emphasis, and code blocks remain visible even if another app renders them differently.

YAML frontmatter is text at the top of a note. Another tool may not turn the properties into the same table or view, but the field names and values remain in the file. Wikilinks and tags are also readable text. Their navigation behavior depends on whether the next editor supports the same conventions.

Attachments and other workspace files remain on disk as well. Links may need adjustment if a replacement tool expects different attachment paths, but the source files are not trapped in an Octarine-hosted blob store.

Back up more than the visible .md files

A complete continuity copy should include the entire workspace folder. In addition to notes, that can include hidden directories such as:

• .octarine for workspace configuration, AI skills, slash commands, and other workspace-specific settings;
• .attachments and .files for supporting assets;
• .templates for reusable note templates.

The Octarine data-storage documentation is the authoritative map of workspace and device data. Keep a copy of that page with an important archive, because a future recovery should not depend on the documentation website still being online.

Use a backup system that preserves hidden files. Some manual copy workflows and sync exclusions omit dot-prefixed directories, so verify the result instead of assuming they were included.

What does not live entirely in the workspace

Some data is deliberately device-specific. Octarine keeps API keys, license information, provider configuration, and other local settings in .store.dat outside the workspace. Local browser-style storage can contain rebuildable indexes, interface state, and AI chat history.

The Markdown notes do not depend on those indexes; Octarine can rebuild search data from the files. Chat history and some interface state are different: do not treat them as a portable research archive unless you have separately saved the important result into a note.

Credentials should not be copied casually into a workspace backup. Record which providers and sync systems the workflow uses, then plan to reconfigure them on a new device. Store recovery codes and API-account information in a proper credential manager.

Online features need a separate assumption

A note published through Octarine’s public sharing service depends on that hosted service remaining available. Keep the source Markdown and any attachments locally; do not use a public share URL as the only copy of something important. If a link must remain online for years, publish the content to a hosting system you control or maintain a second publication path.

Likewise, update checks, license activation, and downloads involve Octarine’s services. An already installed app and its local files are different from a guarantee that installers or activation infrastructure will always be available. Preserve the latest installer you are licensed to use if long-term offline access matters, and keep another Markdown editor available.

How to test your exit plan now

Do not wait for a company failure to discover what the next editor does with your workspace. Run a recovery drill:

1. Back up the complete workspace to a separate location.
2. Disconnect that copy from any live sync folder.
3. Open representative Markdown files in a plain text editor.
4. Open the copied folder in another Markdown application.
5. Check images, attachments, frontmatter, internal links, and non-ASCII text.
6. Confirm that the backup contains hidden directories and that an older version can be restored.
7. Save important AI conclusions and published material as ordinary notes.

Expect some presentation differences. A view, command, graph layout, or editor interaction is software behavior, not a file-format promise. The key question is whether the writing and the information required to reconstruct its organization remain understandable.

Octarine’s plain-file model gives you a credible exit path, not a magical one. The path works when you know the workspace location, back up the full folder, avoid making hosted links the sole copy, and occasionally prove that another tool can read the result.