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A work history for people whose documents cannot go to the cloud

For work where documents cannot sit on an outside server — legal, accounting, tax, the public sector, healthcare, research — a cloud drive’s version history is not an option from the start. Here is exactly what stays on the computer in Octorium, what leaves it and when, and where the switch is that stops even that.

Published October 28, 2026

Why this article exists

What a security officer asks is not "is it convenient" but "what goes where". The answer here is the behaviour as it is, not marketing copy. The more precise wording is in the Privacy Policy (/en/legal/privacy), article by article.

What stays on the computer

Recording, comparing and going back — all of it. Keeping the folder’s earlier states, comparing two moments and going back all happen on this computer. No internet is needed.
The history itself. It is outside the folder you hand over, in this computer’s data folder (on a Mac, `~/Library/Application Support/app.Octorium.Octorium`). In Settings, Show data folder shows where it is and Move… moves it to another drive (an encrypted volume, for example).
The folder you hand over. No file appears in it. Nothing gets mixed into an export check or a folder sync.
Folder names, file lists, the timeline. Not on the server. Your account knows only your sign-in email and your subscription status.

What leaves — when, and what

Signing in and checking the subscription: When you sign in, the email of your Google account; after that, a request to check that the subscription is valid. Once every 7 days is enough, and in between it works without a connection.
A description request (only when you click): When you click Tell me what changed, the names of the changed files and where they are inside the folder, plus the summarised facts (slide titles, headings, sheet names, counts), go through Octorium’s server to the model. The text of the document, cell values, the files themselves, and the name and path of the folder you handed over do not go. Nothing is sent by itself.

The switch that stops even that

Settings › General › Offline mode. In the app’s own words: "Nothing leaves this Mac. Descriptions state the facts without a model; neither your key nor Octorium's writer is used. Recording, comparing and restoring work as always, and the subscription check needs only one connection a week." A description is then only the facts, set out mechanically, such as "budget.xlsx: changed the formulas in Budget".
Settings › Descriptions › Use my own API key for descriptions. If your organisation has its own contract with Anthropic or OpenAI, description requests go straight to that company without passing through Octorium’s server. The key is kept only in this computer’s Keychain (Credential Manager on Windows).

Side by side with a cloud drive’s version history

Where the file is: Cloud drive: on that company’s server, without exception. Octorium: this computer.
Where the history is: Cloud drive: the same server. Octorium: this computer’s data folder.
What leaves: Cloud drive: the whole file. Octorium: a few hundred bytes of titles and counts when you click for a description; nothing in offline mode.
Disaster recovery: Cloud drive: yes. Octorium: no — it is not a backup. Keep your organisation’s backup arrangements as they are.

30 days free, no card, counted from the moment you press start in the app. Install it from /en/download; the full text of what is transmitted is in Articles 2 and 4 of the Privacy Policy (/en/legal/privacy). Leave a security question through the Contact menu and the person who built it answers it himself.