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iCloud Storage & Privacy
FeynmanLM stores your knowledge base in your personal iCloud container. Your sources and knowledge base sync automatically via iCloud; FeynmanLM servers do not store that library.
How it works
All data is written to your private iCloud container — a dedicated, app-specific storage area within your iCloud account. Apple handles sync and encryption:
- At rest: encrypted on Apple's servers with keys derived from your iCloud account.
- In transit: encrypted over TLS between your devices and iCloud.
- On device: protected by your device passcode and the Secure Enclave.
FeynmanLM servers do not store your source library.
What's stored in iCloud
| Data | Description |
|---|---|
| Knowledge database | Sources and their content |
| Source PDFs | Papers, books, and articles you've added |
| Artifacts | Generated explorable explanations and Feynman session records |
Data is stored as flat files and a SQLite database, so sync is fast and reliable.
What FeynmanLM servers do not store
- Your source content
- Your book or article PDFs
- Your podcast transcripts
- Your Feynman session history
There are two important exceptions for traffic you explicitly enable:
- AI providers: if you configure an API key or use an external AI assistant, the selected source content or prompts you send go to that provider.
- Hosted MCP relay: if you connect an external assistant through MCP, requests and responses pass through FeynmanLM-operated Cloudflare infrastructure before reaching your Mac. The relay does not log or store request or response bodies, but it is a trusted relay and is not end-to-end private from FeynmanLM infrastructure.
External-assistant MCP traffic passes through FeynmanLM-operated Cloudflare infrastructure in transit. The relay does not log or store request or response bodies.
Offline access
Your sources live in your iCloud container, which means macOS treats your local disk as a cache of what's in iCloud. When your Mac runs low on disk space — and especially when Optimize Mac Storage is turned on — macOS may remove the local copy of files you haven't opened recently to free up space, keeping only a small placeholder. The file is safe in iCloud, but it's no longer on your Mac.
This is why a paper you added a few weeks ago might fail to open when you're offline: macOS reclaimed its local copy, and without a connection there's nothing to download back. Recently-opened sources are usually still on disk and open fine offline; older, untouched ones are the first to be removed.
FeynmanLM automatically re-downloads removed sources whenever the app is open and online — at launch and each time you bring it to the foreground — so your library tends to stay available. But this is best-effort: under heavy disk pressure macOS can remove files again between those refreshes.
For guaranteed offline access, turn off Optimize Mac Storage so macOS keeps your iCloud files permanently on disk:
- Open System Settings → [Your Name] → iCloud.
- Open iCloud Drive (or Drive).
- Turn off Optimize Mac Storage.
Note that this setting is global — it keeps all of your iCloud Drive files downloaded, not just FeynmanLM's, so it uses more local disk. Only turn it off if you have the space and want everything available offline.
Deleting your data
Since everything is in your iCloud account, you have full control:
- Delete the app: removes local data from that device. iCloud data remains until you remove it.
- Delete from iCloud: go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > FeynmanLM and delete the data.
No need to contact FeynmanLM or request data deletion. You own it all.