# Using Blame without an account

> Everything you need runs on your computer. An account is optional and adds what needs a server.

Page: https://blame.so/docs/account/without-an-account

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](https://blame.so/docs/account/free-and-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](https://github.com/rchrp/Blame/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) runs the whole stack locally, and the [open-source readiness summary](https://github.com/rchrp/Blame/blob/main/docs/open-source-readiness.tex) tracks what self-hosting still needs.