Sync and devices overview

Trove is local-first. Your Manuscript lives on your machine as plain Markdown. Sync is opt-in: a separate path for keeping the same Manuscript in step across the devices you own.

Two ways to keep devices in step

1. Guild sync (paid, £4/month). Devices paired through Guild exchange edits as encrypted MLS envelopes via the relay. The relay forwards opaque ciphertext between paired devices and stores nothing readable. Works anywhere either device has internet.
2. File-level sync (works today, no Trove involvement). Put your Trove root inside an iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Syncthing, or git-managed folder. The OS or sync tool does the moving. Trove is single-writer per file — keep one device editing a given Scene at a time. See Storage location.

Guild encrypts every byte on the device first. The wire format is MLS (RFC 9420) — the IETF group-encryption standard also used by Apple iMessage. Trove uses the locked ciphersuite MLS_128_DHKEMX25519_AES128GCM_SHA256_Ed25519.

What Guild adds

The Guild is the paid sync tier. The Guild relay:

• Never sees plaintext. Your writing is encrypted on-device before it leaves.
• Routes only. It forwards opaque ciphertext between paired devices and holds envelopes only long enough for an offline device to fetch them.
• Is optional. The app stays fully usable without it. File-level sync covers the same-network case for free.

Pricing is £4/month. One subscription covers every device on your account.

See Pairing for how devices establish trust and Multi-device for how the same Manuscript stays consistent across them.

What sync is not

• Not collaboration by default. Guild sync handles your own devices. For shared work, Circles and Letters ride on the same relay, on the Society subscription.
• Not a backup. Sync propagates deletes. Keep a real backup.