Reflective

A privacy-first journaling application that runs entirely on your computer. Write, search, and analyze your thoughts with AI-powered insights while maintaining complete control over your data.

>> Live Demo <<

>> Reflective Server <<

Screenshots

Entries

Search

Insights

Settings/Sync

The Problem

Traditional journaling apps force an impossible choice: trust cloud providers with your most intimate thoughts or forgo modern conveniences like search, AI insights, and multi-device sync. As data breaches become increasingly common and privacy concerns mount, personal journaling has become a digital minefield.

The core challenge: How do we provide the convenience and intelligence of modern cloud applications while preserving the privacy and control of local-first software?

The Solution

Reflective is a privacy-first journaling app where your data lives on your computer by default. All AI features—semantic search, theme detection, sentiment analysis—run locally using on-device models, ensuring complete privacy.

Choose Your Privacy Level

Privacy Tier	What Syncs	Best For
LOCAL_ONLY	Nothing	Maximum privacy, single device
ANALYTICS_SYNC	Encrypted metrics only	Cross-device insights, content stays local
FULL_SYNC	Encrypted entries	Multi-device access with zero-knowledge sync

Your keys, your data: Even with full sync enabled, your encryption keys are stored in your operating system's secure keychain and never leave your device. The server stores only encrypted blobs it cannot read.

Core Features

Journaling Experience

• Rich Text Editor with formatting controls and auto-save
• Tag System with colored tags and organization
• Timeline View showing all entries chronologically
• Real-Time Word Count and writing statistics

AI-Powered Intelligence

• Semantic Search: Find entries by meaning, not just keywords
• Theme Detection: Automatic classification across 10 life categories (Personal Growth, Relationships, Work & Career, Mental Health, and more)
• Sentiment Analysis: Track emotional patterns over time
• Keyword Extraction: Discover important topics without manual tagging
• Insights Dashboard: Visualize theme distribution, sentiment trends, and writing patterns

Privacy & Security

• End-to-End Encryption using AES-256-GCM
• Homomorphic Encryption for privacy-preserving analytics
• OS Keychain Integration for secure key storage
• Zero-Knowledge Architecture - the server never sees your encryption keys
• Progressive Privacy Tiers - you control what data leaves your device

Multi-Device Sync

• Conflict Resolution with side-by-side diff view
• Visual Comparison Tools for merging changes
• Sync Status Monitoring with clear indicators
• Privacy-Aware Syncing based on your chosen tier

Technology Overview

Built with Electron, React, and TypeScript, Reflective uses:

• Local SQLite database for offline-capable storage
• Python service for AI embeddings (All-MiniLM-L6-v2)
• Ollama for local theme generation (llama3.2)
• OS keychain for secure encryption key storage

All AI processing happens on your device. No data leaves your computer unless you explicitly enable sync.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+ and npm
• macOS 12+ (for OS keychain integration)
• Ollama (for theme generation) - Install from ollama.ai

Installation

cd reflective-web
npm install

Setup Ollama

ollama pull llama3.2

Development

npm run dev

Build

npm run build

Output will be in out/main/, out/preload/, out/renderer/

Demo Data

For testing and demonstrations, we provide scripts to populate the application with sample data:

Local-Only Demo

./scripts/dev-reset.sh
npm run dev

# In another terminal, after app starts:
node scripts/seed-demo-data.js

This creates 35 realistic journal entries across a 60-day timeline with pre-generated themes, tags, and sentiment scores.

Synced Demo (with Backend)

Requires the backend server running. See reflective-server/README.md for setup.

# Reset backend first (in reflective-server directory):
cd ../reflective-server
python dev_reset.py

# Then reset frontend with auth:
cd ../reflective-web
./scripts/dev-reset.sh
node scripts/seed-demo-data-authed.js
npm run dev

For more details, see scripts/README.md.

Project Structure

reflective-web/
├── src/
│   ├── main/          # Electron main process (database, encryption, sync, AI)
│   ├── preload/       # Secure IPC bridge
│   ├── renderer/      # React UI (pages, components, stores)
│   └── types/         # Shared TypeScript types
├── python-service/    # FastAPI embedding server
├── scripts/           # Development and seeding scripts
└── package.json

Documentation

For detailed technical documentation, architecture diagrams, and implementation details, see ARCHITECTURE.md.