Backups and version history for researchers
Daily backups and version history for your notes
Every day ends with a backup of everything.
Grape backs up a literature review automatically every day on the device you use. One archive restores everything, and version history covers the smaller slips.
One archive with notes, attachments and structure
Made daily on the device you use, not synced between devices
Restore across platforms, so a Mac backup opens on Windows
Backups kept for thirty days and cleared automatically after that
Version history on every note, on the device and never synced
Moving to a new machine
Make a backup, install Grape, restore. That is the whole migration.
The paragraph you deleted
Version history brings it back without touching the rest of the note.
Before anything risky
Grape saves a version before the agent edits a note for you.
Made daily without asking
The device you use writes a copy, so there is always one from yesterday.
A backup crosses platforms
One made on a Mac restores onto Windows with no conversion step.
One archive, everything in it
Notes, attachments and structure in a single file you can put anywhere.
Findings
Three problems this addresses
Stated plainly, without the usual claims. What changes when the library can answer a question.
01
You annotated the paper last year and are reading it again.
Stop rereading papers you already annotated
Ask what your notes say about a method and get the answer with the note it came from, ready to cite.
02
The interview sits as audio for a month before anyone transcribes it.
Turn interviews into text the same day
Record the session, get a transcript in the note, and code it while it is still fresh.
03
The argument is spread across a year of files that never met.
See how the threads connect
Link notes to each other and use the graph view to spot the argument forming across a year of reading.
In practice
What that looks like for researchers
Three points in a project where the tool changes the work rather than decorating it.
01
Reading a new paper
Drop the PDF into a note, write alongside it, and tag it into the theme it belongs to.
02
Fieldwork day
Record on the phone, add photos, and let it all sync back to the desk copy.
03
Writing up
Ask for every note that touches a concept, then pull the quotes into the draft.
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.
Questions
Questions Before You Install It
The rest of them live in the help center.
- Can I keep sensitive research data off the cloud?
- Yes. Grape is local first, so the database stays on your machine unless you turn sync on. If you need AI without sending text to a hosted provider, you can point Grape at a local model through Ollama or LM Studio.
- Does it handle citations?
- Grape is not a reference manager. It keeps your notes, PDFs and transcripts together and answers questions about them. Most researchers keep using Zotero or similar for bibliographies and use Grape for the thinking around them.
- What is Grape, in one paragraph?
- Grape is a note app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android with AI built into the middle of it rather than bolted on the side. You write, record and collect things the normal way, and then you can search by meaning, ask questions about your own notes, and turn any note into a summary, a set of flashcards, a quiz or a mind map.
- What makes it different from other note apps?
- Most note apps treat AI as an extra panel. In Grape the agent works on your workspace: it can read, create, edit, move, tag and delete notes, and every answer points back to the note it came from. Semantic search, voice transcription, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps and the drawing canvas all live inside the editor rather than in separate tools.
- Where do my notes actually live?
- On your device, in a local database, and you can choose where that file sits. Nothing needs to leave your machine for the app to work. If you turn on sync with a Sync or Pro plan, your notes are also stored in the cloud so your devices can stay in step. On Lifetime they sync through your own Dropbox or Google Drive instead, and Grape never sees them.
- Do I need an account to use it?
- No. Download the app and start writing. You only need an account for the paid plans, which is where cross device sync and built in AI come in.
Ask what you already read.
Papers, interviews, field notes and half formed arguments in one local library you can question in plain language, months after you filed them.