Locked notes for researchers
Lock a note. Nobody else can read it, not even us.
A locked note is encrypted on your device with a password only you know. It syncs like any other note, but what reaches our servers is a sealed block of text: no AI reads it, no search indexes it, and we could not open it if we were asked to. On every plan.
Encrypted on your laptop or phone before it syncs, with AES-256 and a key stretched from your password
One password for every locked note, typed once and locked again after a few minutes
A recovery key shown once when you set the password, the one other way in
Left out of search, the AI, the index, widgets and exports while it is locked
Its title stays in the list on every device, so you can tell your locked notes apart
Sealed before it leaves
The note is encrypted on your device. The password never leaves it, and the server holds only a block it cannot read.
A recovery key, once
Grape cannot reset a locked notes password, because it never has it. The recovery key you saved is the one other way in.
One password, every locked note
Type it once and every locked note opens until Grape locks them again: after a few minutes, in the background, or when you say so.
The AI never sees it
A locked note is left out of chat, semantic search, the index and any AI app connected to your account.
Syncs sealed
It travels between your devices encrypted, and opens on the phone with the same password you set on the laptop.
Text notes, for now
Headings, lists, tables, code and links lock. A note with an image or a recording asks you to take it out first.
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.
AI Agent
Chat that reads your library and can act on it
Open
Memory
The agent remembers what you tell it
Open
Semantic search
Search that works on what you meant
Open
Voice and transcription
Meetings become text, with who said what
Open
Web clipper
Save any page from Chrome into a note
Open
Share to Grape
A page from the share sheet becomes a note
Open
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.
- 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.