Using Blame without an account
Everything you need runs on your computer. An account is optional and adds what needs a server.
You do not need an account. The first screen offers to sign in or to continue without an account, in the same panel, and Blame remembers the choice.
What stays on your computer
Without an account, Blame keeps your projects, stories, conversations, Code Practices, and provider connections on your computer, in a local database. Provider keys are encrypted with a key held by your system keychain.
Agents, worktrees, previews, review, and merge work without Blame's servers: agents only call your AI provider. Under the hood, the desktop app runs the same API as the hosted service, on your computer, on SQLite.
What an account adds
A free account adds what needs a server:
- sync between computers: stories, conversations, Code Practices, provider connections, and MCP servers follow you to another computer;
- web research for agents;
- deployment to Vercel;
- the Blame Cloud services, if you subscribe.
Signing in later
When you sign in, your local workspace is copied into the account and stays on your computer too. Signing in again later only adds what is missing.
Self-hosting
For one person, the backend is already self-hosted: without an account, the desktop app runs the API on your computer. Hosting it for a team is not turnkey yet. The development setup in CONTRIBUTING.md runs the whole stack locally, and the open-source readiness summary tracks what self-hosting still needs.