Data and Privacy

VidArch is designed to run on your own machine. It does not require a VidArch cloud account.

Persistent Data

• data/vidarch.db : SQLite database;
• data/cookies.txt : imported YouTube cookies, if you enable this option;
• data/.session_secret : locally generated session secret if no secret is provided;
• data/assets/ : cached avatars, banners, and thumbnails;
• downloads/ : archived media, thumbnails, and metadata.

Online searches and downloads communicate with YouTube using yt-dlp or built-in mechanisms. Local mode avoids displaying remote content but does not replace a network rule or firewall.

Never publish cookies.txt, .session_secret, the database, or private media in Git.