Papyrus Papers is local-first. Your library, notes, PDFs, indexes, and backups are stored on your Mac unless you explicitly choose to export, share, or sync them. No Papyrus Papers account is required.
Summary
- Papyrus Papers does not require a Papyrus Papers account.
- Papyrus Papers does not ship analytics, telemetry, or crash-report SDKs.
- Your data is stored locally on your Mac.
- Some features contact third-party services when you use them, including public metadata providers, your configured WebDAV server, and Apple-provided Foundation Models on supported systems.
Data Stored Locally
Papyrus Papers stores app data on your Mac, including:
- The main library database
- Imported PDFs
- Local full-text search indexes
- Automatic database backups (up to seven rolling snapshots)
- App preferences and state in macOS UserDefaults
- Security-scoped bookmark data for linked PDFs
Credentials and Sensitive Configuration
Papyrus Papers uses the macOS Keychain for secrets that should not live in plain text, including WebDAV passwords. Preparatory OAuth configuration code exists for possible future cloud integrations, but the v1.0 app surfaces WebDAV sync and does not require a cloud account.
System Integrations
- Core Spotlight indexing for local system search
- Security-scoped bookmarks for reopening linked PDFs
- App Group storage for sharing library files between components
Network Requests and Third-Party Services
Papyrus Papers makes network requests only when you use features that need them.
Metadata and Citation Services
Papyrus Papers may send public identifiers or search queries (such as DOI, arXiv ID, ISBN, PMID, title, or author names) to:
- Crossref
- arXiv
- Semantic Scholar
- OpenAlex
- OpenLibrary
- NCBI / PubMed / PMC identifier services
- Zenodo
- doi.org links for DOI-based lookups
These are used for metadata lookup, title repair, identifier conversion, and citation-count enrichment. Papyrus Papers also reads embedded XMP metadata directly from PDFs without a network request.
WebDAV Sync
If you enable sync, Papyrus Papers connects to the WebDAV server you configure. This can include the library database, imported PDFs, sync manifests, and your server URL and username. You are responsible for the WebDAV server you choose.
Apple Foundation Models
On supported Macs and locales, Papyrus Papers can call Apple's system language-model APIs for background metadata synthesis when an enrichment source returns ambiguous or partial data. Papyrus Papers does not operate its own hosted AI backend. Availability and processing behavior are controlled by Apple and the operating system.
What Papyrus Papers Does Not Do by Default
- Upload your library to a Papyrus Papers cloud service
- Require an always-on internet connection
- Share your data with an advertising network
- Run a bundled third-party analytics SDK
Sharing, Export, and Sync
Papyrus Papers can share or export data when you ask it to: sharing via the macOS share sheet, exporting BibTeX/RIS/Markdown, or syncing via WebDAV.
Retention and Deletion
- Deleting items removes them from active use, but older backup snapshots may contain historical data until rotated.
- WebDAV retention depends on your server and backup practices.
- Shared or exported files are controlled by the destination you choose.
Your Choices
You can limit network exposure by:
- Using Papyrus Papers offline
- Skipping metadata lookup features
- Leaving WebDAV sync disabled
- Avoiding metadata enrichment so the on-device language model never runs
- Choosing Copy Into Library or Keep PDFs In Place
Questions
For privacy or data-handling questions, email zdfu189@gmail.com, see the Support page, or open an issue on GitHub.
Last updated: May 19, 2026