What stays local
Books, chapters, chapter versions, context notes, saved reviews, drafts, and app library state are stored in a local SQLite database under the user's home directory.
%USERPROFILE%\.novelwriter\novel_writer.db
Privacy and local data
Your writing data is local by default.
Novel Architect is a desktop app before it is a service. Your library is local; the network is used when an account, payment, or AI request actually needs it.
What works offline
Cached remote users and local-only users can still work with local books, chapters, context entries, and versions if the backend is unavailable. Backend-only features such as Google login, payments, story points, and AI requests require reconnecting.
What AI requests send
Chapter generation sends the material you choose for that job: book details, the book-level AI prompt, selected context entries, selected previous chapters, and the skeleton you wrote for the chapter being drafted.
Temporary backend storage for AI jobs
Material selected for an AI job is temporaryily stored in the backend to process that request, and the completed result is saved back into the local desktop app. The provided material will be removed from all backend databases after the AI job has completed.
Writer control
AI output is another version, not the final word.
Generated chapters and revisions are persisted as chapter versions. The author compares, edits, discards, or keeps the result. The product principle remains: AI as a tool, not the author.