FAQ
Is my data local or in the cloud?
Depends on the edition:
- Public: 100% local. SQLite on your Mac, nothing uploaded anywhere
- Team: local by default with cloud sync for team-linked projects. Unlinked projects stay local
Your cards always exist locally — the SQLite database is always the ground truth on your machine. The Team edition additionally replicates pool-linked cards to Supabase so teammates can see them.
Does Ideafy work offline?
- Public: always offline
- Team: yes for local work. Pool syncs are fire-and-forget: they happen online, fail silently offline, and the next mutation retries. Solo projects work the same offline as online
Can I export my cards?
Yes. Project settings → Export project. You get a .ideafy-export.zip with all the cards, content, conversations, and metadata. Importable into any edition. See Data portability.
Can I self-host the cloud backend?
The Supabase schema is documented in the team-setup doc that ships with the repo. Self-hosting means: standing up your own Supabase instance, creating the tables, setting environment variables for the Team edition to point at your instance. This is a deployment path for enterprise / regulated users; not the default.
Can non-developers (product owners, business analysts) use Ideafy?
Yes — and the Tests tab is designed around this. Once a card is in Human Test, the chat panel on that tab gives a non-technical user a direct line to the agent: read the acceptance criteria, exercise them in the browser, report failures in plain English, and ask the agent to fix, commit, and push the result.
With --dangerously-skip-permissions enabled on the session (a toggle when you start the agent from the card modal), the agent stops asking for confirmations and can run the whole edit → test → commit → push cycle while you watch. Because each card works inside its own git worktree, there's no blast radius outside that branch — even a wrong move can be rolled back cleanly.
The typical split is: developers own Ideation through In Progress (where architectural decisions happen); non-developers own Human Test to Completed (where verification and incremental fixes happen). See Card modal — Tests for the full walkthrough.
What AI platforms are supported?
Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI. You pick one as the workspace default (Settings → General → AI Platform) and can override per card. All three can call the same Ideafy MCP tools.
Do I need to know how the MCP works?
No for basic use. Click Install Ideafy in project settings and the agent starts working with Ideafy. If something breaks, the MCP reference gives you the vocabulary for debugging: see Ideafy's MCP server and MCP tools reference.
Does autonomous mean Claude writes my whole feature unsupervised?
No. Autonomous runs the plan → implement → test workflow without you watching, but the card ends up in Human Test and you verify before merging. The "human in the loop" is still there — it's just gated at merge time instead of at every agent turn.
Can I run Ideafy on Windows / Linux?
macOS only today. Linux support is on the roadmap. Windows support is further out — the Electron shell runs everywhere, but several integrations (iTerm2 detection, macOS Keychain) are Mac-specific and need replacements.
Are conversations ever shared with anyone?
Conversations are local only. They never sync to Supabase, never go to teammates, never get included in exports unless you explicitly use the API to pull them. The only thing that leaves your machine is what you send to the AI agent (Claude / Gemini / Codex) during chat, and that's subject to that provider's data policy.
Does Ideafy train on my data?
No. Ideafy is a client — your data doesn't go to Ideafy's servers (there isn't one outside the Supabase database for cloud sync). The agent providers you use have their own policies; Claude Code, Gemini, and Codex each have their own data handling rules. Read theirs for the AI-side story.
Can I have multiple projects pointing at the same folder?
You can, technically, but it's a bad idea. Two projects pointing at the same folder means two task number counters, two sets of worktrees, and very confusing display IDs. Stick to one project per folder.
Can I use Ideafy without Git?
The core board works without git. But git worktrees, dev server allocation, autonomous / quick-fix processing, and the merge flow all depend on the project folder being a git repository. If you turn off Use worktrees in project settings, Ideafy degrades to "just edit the main branch" — which works but loses the per-card isolation that makes autonomous safe.
My card IDs look different from what I expected
Display IDs are {prefix}-{taskNumber} (e.g., KAN-14). The prefix comes from project settings; the task number auto-increments per project. If you change the prefix, existing cards keep their old display IDs — only new cards use the new prefix.
How do I reset a card's worktree without deleting the card?
Card modal → Rollback. This deletes the branch, removes the worktree, clears the dev server state. The card itself stays on the board with gitBranchStatus = rolled_back. You can start work again; a new branch/worktree will be created.
Can I rename a project folder?
No, the folder path is fixed at project creation time in Ideafy. If you need to rename the folder, the easiest path is: export the project, rename the folder on disk, create a new Ideafy project at the new path, and import the export into it.
Is there an API?
There's an internal HTTP API at localhost:3030/api/* used by the MCP server and the Electron app. It's not documented for external use — it's an implementation detail that may change between versions. Build on the MCP tools instead; those are the stable contract.
What happens if I delete my account?
See Sign up & Authentication — 7-day grace period, cancelable. After grace, your user row, team memberships, and cloud-synced cards are removed. Local SQLite data on your machine is untouched — delete it yourself if you want a clean slate.
How do I file a bug or feature request?
GitHub issues on the public repo. For team/cloud-specific bugs, there's a support email on the account page — use that if the issue involves private team data.
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