FAQ & troubleshooting

Is my data locked in?

No — that's the founding principle. Everything is Markdown, BibTeX, JSON and SQLite on your own disk, and ros export --all produces a plain archive at any time.

Is the beta free?

Yes — everything, on desktop and mobile. Beta accounts become Founders and keep 12 months of Pro when plans go live at launch.

Does the AI see my data?

Only when you ask it something, and only what you allow. Any run, note, reference or todo can be individually locked away from the AI, and a global default can make everything opt-in. Where the prompt goes depends on the provider you pick:

Your own API key — Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI (GPT), Google (Gemini) or Mistral: prompts go directly from your machine to that provider; the key never leaves your machine.
Plan credits — no key needed: your question is relayed through your sync server to the model provider and forgotten — never stored or logged. It is the one deliberate exception to "the server only sees ciphertext", used only when you explicitly select it. During the beta, plans include 10 questions per month.
Lab server — if your lab runs its own model, prompts stay on the lab network and reach no outside provider at all.

I forgot my passphrase

Use your recovery code: Forgot passphrase? on the login dialog (or ros account recover). Your data survives intact because the recovery code wraps the same master key. Lost both? Your local data is still on your machines in plaintext — only the server-side ciphertext becomes unreadable. Delete the account and re-register; your devices re-upload everything.

The phone says "Failed host lookup"

DNS. Check the server URL, try the address in the phone's browser (…/v1/health should answer), toggle airplane mode, and if you use an ad-blocking Private DNS, note that newly registered domains are often blocked for the first few days.

The app says the daemon version doesn't match

Desktop app and ros CLI ship together and must match — install the full package rather than updating one half. The installer restarts the background daemon automatically.

What happens on conflicting edits?

Field-level newest-wins with well-defined ordering; for long text fields, the losing version is kept as a revision on the entry — in the logbook, each entry's History button lists the kept versions with one-click restore. For synced project files, the losing version stays next to the file as a .conflict-<device> copy. You never lose a version silently.

Does sync work with the app closed?

Yes. The installed packages register the background daemon to start at login (a systemd user service on Linux; an installer checkbox, on by default, on Windows), and the daemon handles sync and remote-run execution on its own. Opt out with systemctl --user disable researchos-daemon on Linux, or by unchecking the box at install time on Windows.

Is the interface available in French?

Yes — desktop and mobile follow your system language (English or French) and can be switched anytime in Settings → Language. Translation is completed screen by screen during the beta; untranslated strings stay in English. This documentation exists in both languages — use the FR/EN toggle in the top bar.

Can other members read my workspaces if we share a lab?

No. Labs are separate encrypted spaces; your private workspaces stay private — from colleagues, group leaders, everyone. You publish chosen elements into the lab — sharing is per-element and explicit.

Can my lab read my direct messages?

No. A direct message or group chat is an end-to-end encrypted space whose only members are its participants; its key is sealed to their devices and to nobody else's. There is no organization key that can open a member's spaces — a lab admin reads only the spaces they belong to, like everyone else. What lab admins do get is metadata (activity counts, storage, an audit trail) and the progress reports members explicitly publish. This is by design, and stated openly.

What's the difference between a Duo space and a Lab?

A Duo is the Pro plan's own sharing: an encrypted shared space for up to 3 people that you create yourself from Settings (or ros lab create) — with chat, share requests and selective publishing. Any two accounts that already share a space can also message each other directly. A Lab is an organization: teams, a member directory with opt-in expertise profiles, lab-wide conversations and announcements, and metadata-only governance for admins. Labs are provisioned with us as part of the Lab plan's onboarding — see pricing.

How big does the server get?

Operations are tiny; the weight is library PDFs, attachments and — if you enable it — synced project files, roughly a gigabyte per heavy user. Experiment output files stay on the machine that produced them, with one exception: a remote run ships its logs and artifact files (up to 100 MB per file) back to your other devices, encrypted like everything else.

Where do I report a bug?

During the beta: email beta@tramea.org (or reply to the person who invited you) with what you did, what you expected, and what happened. Screenshots help. On Linux, ~/.researchos/daemon.log often contains the story.