Data, privacy & updates

Everything Remarc captures stays on your Mac. There is no account, no sign-in, and no server holding your comments.

Where your data lives

Remarc stores sessions and comments in ~/Library/Application Support/Remarc/:

• comments.json holds your sessions and comments.
• Screenshots and pasted image attachments are stored as files in images/ by default, and referenced by comments. You can choose a different screenshot folder in Settings if another app cannot read ~/Library. New images use that folder; existing images remain accessible and editable in their original locations. Changing the setting does not migrate files.

Keep custom folders available to Remarc and accessible to any agent that needs to open their files. If a folder is unavailable or a write fails, Remarc does not silently save the image in the default folder.

Agents read and update comments through MCP (Model Context Protocol) tools rather than editing the file directly. See the agents overview.

Voice stays on-device

All three transcription engines (Apple Speech, WhisperKit, Parakeet) run entirely on your Mac. Audio is never uploaded, and transcription works offline once a model is downloaded.

What does touch the network

Nothing you capture leaves your Mac unless you explicitly set that up. Remarc’s network activity is limited to:

• Update checks, described under Updates below.
• Transcription model downloads: choosing the WhisperKit or Parakeet engine downloads the model in-app. Apple Speech needs no download.
• Webhooks you configure: each one sends the comment events you subscribed to, to the URL you entered. Remarc sends nothing unless you add one.
• Agent plugin installs: installing the Claude Code, Codex, or OMP integration runs that harness’s own CLI, which downloads the plugin from the public Remarc agent integrations repository.

The Chrome extension talks to the app over a local WebSocket on 127.0.0.1:9274. That connection never leaves your machine.

Retention

The retention pickers in Settings prune data automatically: comment history, stored images, and dictation transcriptions each have their own setting and schedule. Deleting a comment moves it to History first, where it can be restored until retention removes it.

Image retention also applies to Remarc images in custom folders, including folders you used previously. Removing an image removes its annotation sidecars too. Unrelated files in those folders are left alone.

Debug logging

Release builds write no debug log. If you are troubleshooting a problem with us, you can turn logging on from Terminal:

defaults write com.metepolat.Remarc debugFileLoggingEnabled -bool YES

Then relaunch Remarc. While the flag is set, the app writes ~/Library/Logs/Remarc/remarc_debug.log, readable only by your account. Each launch starts a fresh file and keeps the previous launch’s file next to it as remarc_debug.log.old, so the log stays small and a problem that spans a relaunch is still captured. The log traces app behavior, so it can include fragments of selected text, window titles, and dictation transcripts. That is what makes it useful for debugging, and why it stays off unless you enable it.

Turn logging back off with:

defaults write com.metepolat.Remarc debugFileLoggingEnabled -bool NO

Remarc deletes both log files the next time it launches.

Updates

Remarc updates itself through Sparkle, with automatic checks enabled by default and nothing to configure. Updates are signed and notarized. To check manually, use the “Check for Updates…” button in Settings > About.

Open source

The Remarc app and its agent integrations are open source, so you can verify all of the above yourself.