Local first storage for designers
A local first notes app that works offline
Work with no wifi and no worry.
Grape keeps a project folder in a database on your own machine, so six months after a decision a dead connection changes nothing about what you can open.
Writing, reading, organising, drawing and recording all work offline
You pick where the database file sits
Export any note, or the whole library, as Markdown, HTML or PDF
Run the AI locally through Ollama or LM Studio if you prefer
No account to start
Download, open, write. Accounts only matter for the paid plans.
Your choice of AI provider
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Ollama and more.
Export whenever you want
Markdown, HTML or PDF, one note at a time or the whole library.
You pick where the file sits
Point the database at any folder on your machine, and move it later.
The plane, the tunnel, the cabin
Writing, search, drawing and recording all work with no connection.
Local models if you want them
Run the AI through Ollama or LM Studio and nothing leaves the machine.
01 Outcomes
Three problems, resolved
Not a feature grid. What changes when the sketch and the reasoning live in the same file.
01
The sketch is in one app and the reasoning is in another.
Draw the idea inside the note
An infinite canvas sits in the editor, so a wireframe and the thinking behind it stay together.
02
Six months on, nobody can say why the pattern was chosen.
Explain a decision six months later
Ask why a pattern was chosen and get the note where you argued it out.
03
Research sessions end as a folder of recordings nobody plays back.
Run research without a second tool
Record the session, get the transcript, and pull the quotes into the summary.
04 In use
What that looks like for designers
Three points in a project where the tool changes the work.
Kickoff
Collect the constraints, screenshots and references into one note per problem.
Exploration
Sketch on the canvas, write the tradeoffs underneath and link to related notes.
Critique
Record the feedback session so you are listening instead of typing.
The rest of the app
What Else Grape Does
Every part of the app is built around the same idea: keep what you write, and hand it back when you need it.
07 Questions
Questions Before You Install It
The rest of them live in the help center.
Keep both in the same note.
Drawing canvas, screenshots, research and the reasoning behind a decision in one place, so the rationale survives longer than the file name.