Backup and Data Portability

Witsy stores all your chat history, AI provider configurations, and persona settings locally on your machine. Because Witsy is a "Bring Your Own Key" (BYOK) application, your data remains under your control.

Locating Your Data

All Witsy data is stored in a standard application data directory. The exact location depends on your operating system:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/witsy
• Windows: %APPDATA%\witsy
• Linux: ~/.config/witsy

How to find your data path via CLI

If you have the Witsy CLI installed, you can quickly verify your data path by running:

witsy config

The output will include a userDataPath field, which points to the folder containing your database and settings.

Creating a Manual Backup

To ensure you don't lose your conversations or complex MCP configurations, it is recommended to perform regular backups.

How-to: Back up your entire Witsy profile

1. Close Witsy: Ensure the application is completely shut down (check the system tray/menu bar).
2. Navigate to the Data Folder: Use the paths listed in the "Locating Your Data" section above.
3. Copy the Files: Copy the following files/folders to a secure location (External Drive, Proton Drive, etc.):
   • history.json: Contains all your chat threads and messages.
   • settings.json: Stores your API keys, engine configurations, and UI preferences.
   • storage/: (If present) Contains local attachments and index data.

Porting Data to a New Machine

Moving your Witsy setup to a new computer is a simple "copy-and-replace" operation.

How-to: Migrate Witsy to a different computer

1. Install Witsy on the new machine but do not open it yet.
2. On your old machine, copy the contents of the Witsy data folder.
3. On the new machine, navigate to the Witsy data folder (it will be created automatically after installation).
4. Paste and Overwrite: Paste the files from your old machine into this folder.
5. Launch Witsy: Your history, API keys, and MCP settings will be exactly as you left them.

Syncing Across Multiple Devices

While Witsy does not currently have a built-in cloud sync service (to maintain your privacy), you can use third-party tools to keep multiple machines in sync.

How-to: Sync Witsy via Symbolic Links (Advanced)

You can use a cloud-synced folder (like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, or Google Drive) to host your data.

1. Move your witsy data folder to your cloud-synced directory.
2. Create a symbolic link from the original application data location to the new cloud location.

Example (macOS/Linux):

# Move data to Dropbox
mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/witsy ~/Dropbox/Apps/witsy

# Create symbolic link
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Apps/witsy ~/Library/Application\ Support/witsy

[!WARNING] To avoid data corruption, do not run Witsy on two machines simultaneously if they are sharing the same synced folder. Always close Witsy on one machine before opening it on another.

Data Portability & API Access

Witsy is designed to be open. If you need to programmatically extract your data for use in other tools, you can use the built-in HTTP API.

How-to: Export configuration via API

When Witsy is running with "Enable HTTP Endpoints" toggled on in Settings, you can fetch your current configuration via curl:

curl http://localhost:4321/api/cli/config

This returns a JSON object containing your current engine, model, and local data paths, allowing you to build custom export scripts or integrations.