FAQ
Is Lar publicly available?
Section titled “Is Lar publicly available?”Yes: the browser app at app.lar.io is available today. Your workspace is stored in that browser, on your device. Install & availability explains how to install it as an app and where your data lives.
Signed desktop installers and native mobile apps are in preparation. Lar is licensed AGPL-3.0; the source release is in preparation, and there is no public repository yet.
Is there a signed installer yet?
Section titled “Is there a signed installer yet?”No, signed and notarized desktop installers are still in preparation. Until they ship, use the browser app; Install & availability lists what the desktop app adds.
Does Lar require an account?
Section titled “Does Lar require an account?”No. Choose Start writing on the welcome screen and everything works offline with no account. You need an account only for Cloud or Self-hosted server sync and for sharing Objects with other people; peer-to-peer sync works without one. See Configure sync and Sharing.
Does the desktop app contact any server on its own?
Section titled “Does the desktop app contact any server on its own?”Only to check for updates. Shortly after launch, the desktop app fetches a small version manifest from release.lar.io/desktop and, if a newer signed build exists, downloads it from the same place. The request carries no note content, account information, or device identifier, only which platform’s manifest to fetch.
To stop the automatic check, turn off Automatically check and download updates in Settings → About Lar; Check for updates then runs only when you choose it. Nothing else leaves the device unless you turn on sync, sharing, an integration, or an AI action. See Local-first and encryption.
What won’t Lar build?
Section titled “What won’t Lar build?”Lar deliberately leaves out:
- A cloud-first product. Local storage is the model; cloud sync is opt-in transport.
- Real-time editing of one document by dozens of people at once. Lar is designed for focused collaboration in small groups.
- A plugin marketplace running arbitrary third-party code. Lar never runs third-party code inside a workspace; extensibility uses controlled integrations.
- AI that sends note content off your device by default. Every AI request is explicit, consented, and logged. See AI consent and privacy.
- Hosting that gives the server your plaintext notes. Publish to web creates a read-only snapshot that is decrypted in the reader’s browser; the key stays in the URL fragment. For conventional, crawlable hosting, export to a standard format. See Publish to web.
How does Lar differ from other note-taking tools?
Section titled “How does Lar differ from other note-taking tools?”Every note in Lar is a typed Object: a Book has an author and rating, a Meeting has a date and attendees, and you can query them like data. Each Object has exactly one Type, while inheritance and Mixins let Types share structure, and relations create backlinks automatically.
Around that model, local-first storage with encryption at rest, end-to-end encrypted sharing through a zero-knowledge relay, self-hosting, standard-format export, and consent-gated AI are foundations, not add-ons. See Objects and Types and the use-case guides.