Editions overview
Ideafy ships as two separate macOS desktop apps, each distributed as its own DMG. They share a common core (the board, card modal, MCP server, bundled skills) but differ in what's bundled for collaboration and how you get them.
Pick the edition that matches how you work today. You can migrate between editions later without losing your cards — see Data portability.
The two editions
| Public | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Free, open-source DMG on GitHub releases | Paid DMG (license-gated) |
| Storage | Local SQLite only | Local SQLite + cloud sync for team-linked projects |
| Team / Pool | Not included | Included |
| Auth | None (solo mode) | Supabase auth when you sign in; solo mode available if you don't |
| Billing | Free | Subscription (Stripe) |
| Target user | Solo founders, OSS contributors, first-time users | Small teams (3–5 people) sharing work through a pool |
| Remote device / job listener | — | Opt-in |
When to pick which
Public (free)
Choose if:
- You're a solo founder or a one-person dev shop
- You don't need cross-device sync or teammates
- You want to try Ideafy without a license
- You're contributing to the Ideafy open-source repo
You get: the full solo experience — all six kanban columns, all four card-modal tabs, MCP integration with Claude Code / Gemini / Codex, skills, hooks, worktrees, dev servers, conversation history.
You don't get: the pool, my-queue, notification bell, team invites, Stripe billing. These features don't ship in the Public build at all.
Team
Choose if:
- You're 3–5 people working on the same codebase (or adjacent codebases)
- You want shared work surfaces — pool, assignments, notifications
- You're willing to pay for a license and the team features
You get: everything Public has, plus the pool (push/pull/claim), my-queue, notifications, team invites, Stripe-backed subscription, and a hybrid local+cloud architecture — your SQLite database stays the primary store on each machine, and pool-linked cards sync to Supabase so teammates can see them.
Inside the Team edition you can still run solo: create a project and leave it unlinked from any team. That project behaves exactly like a Public-edition project. The distinction is per-project, not per-app — so a single Team install can host a mix of shared and private work.
What's the same in both editions
- The six-column kanban
- The four-tab card modal (Detail, Opinion, Solution, Tests)
- Card chat with per-section conversations and mentions
- The bundled MCP server with its tools
- The three bundled skills (
ideafy.md,human-test.md,product-narrative.md) - The
UserPromptSubmithook - Git worktree + dev server orchestration
- All three AI platforms (Claude Code / Gemini / Codex)
You never have to re-learn Ideafy when you change editions. The workflow is identical — the only thing that changes is the presence of team features.
Moving between editions
Public ↔ Team is supported through local import/export. Ideafy ships an export format so you can take a project's cards out of one edition and bring them into another without losing content, conversations, or metadata. See Data portability and Migrate between editions.
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