Where Hoard Keeps Things

Hoard keeps two sets of things: your downloads, in the folder you choose, and everything else in a private app-data folder that belongs to your user account.

Hoard's app-data folder

Windows	macOS	Linux
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Hoard	~/Library/Application Support/Hoard	~/.local/share/Hoard

The Linux Flatpak uses ~/.local/share/Hoard too (not a folder of its own under ~/.var/app), so it shares a library with Hoard run from source, and Hoard for Unity finds it. Only its copy of Hoard's browser is its own, in ~/.var/app/io.github.soloflighter1010.Hoard/cache.

What	What it's for
sign-ins/	Your store sign-ins, one folder per store, encrypted by your operating system. Never share this folder
config.json	Your settings. See Settings
library.json	Your library list: names, creators, links and picture addresses for what you own
keys/	On Windows: your itch.io API key, encrypted by your Windows account. (On a Mac it's in your Keychain, on Linux in your keyring.) See Stores
tags.json	Your tags
picture-looks.json	How product pictures look (a 64-bit hash of each, by the picture's SHA-256), so copies of one product saved differently by two stores stack. See Library
asset-updates.json	What the last Check for updates found: for each thing you've downloaded, the files its store has that you don't yet. See Downloads
marks.json	What you've archived, hidden or removed, and your hidden library's PIN and recovery words, each only as a salted, slow hash
projects/	One small report per Unity project you've opened Hoard's window in (Hoard for Unity 0.4.0 and newer): its name and folder, which of your assets it uses, and its credits settings. Projects in Hoard shows them; Forget this project deletes one. See Hoard for Unity
library_folders.json	Which products each of your other library folders held when Hoard last read it, so a sync leaves them alone while that drive isn't connected. See Downloads
integrity.key	The key Hoard seals its records with (see Seals). Private to your account
sealed-files.json	Which records this install has sealed, so a removed seal is noticed
cache/thumbs/	Product pictures, saved so the library works offline
cache/inside/	What Look inside read from a package or zip, with its previews, for the 40 you looked inside most recently (4.0). See Downloads
sets.json	Your sets: their names and the products in each, by the same keys your tags use (4.0). See Downloads
package-needs.json	For each package you've downloaded, the IDs of what's in it and of what it uses, so What it needs knows without reading it again (4.0)
logs/hoard-<date>_<time>.log	What Hoard would print, when it runs without a console: what it read, what it downloaded, and any errors (no passwords, cookies or page contents). One for each time Hoard starts, kept for 30 days (the newest 10 whatever their age); a run that writes more than 20 MB carries on in -part2. Open logs folder in Settings opens this folder. (Before 2.9.2, one hoard.log for every run.)
diagnostics/incidents.jsonl	Private local record of recent errors and crash tracebacks, used to build support reports; it is never sent automatically
window/	The window's own storage
window-place.json	The window's size and place when you last closed it, and whether it was maximized, so it opens there again. Delete it to open at the usual size, centred
tasks.json	The Tasks window's list of finished jobs (the last 60): what each did, how it went, and its progress. Delete it, or Clear in Tasks, to empty the list
sync.json	When the last sync started
routine.json	When the routine check last ran, so it knows when the next is due, and how much it found that you haven't looked at yet
update.json	When Hoard last checked for updates, and the newest version it found
updates/	A new version's installer, downloaded and checked, while Hoard updates. Deleted once the update is installed
debug/	Troubleshooting files, only when you run debug or probe

None of this leaves your computer unless you share it yourself.

Support reports

When you choose Create support report, Hoard writes a sanitized ZIP to Documents/Hoard/Support Reports and opens the folder/selects the new report. This export folder is outside Hoard's private app-data so the ZIP is easy to find and attach. The raw logs, sign-ins, library file and other private app-data files are not copied into the ZIP. Review the report before attaching it to a public issue.

Your downloads folder

A Hoard folder in your Documents, unless you chose another in Settings. Products are in <Store>/<Creator>/<Product> folders, and Hoard keeps its records next to them:

What	What it's for
catalog.json	Every downloaded product: store, name, creator, folder, store page, files and tags. Other programs, such as Hoard for Unity, read it
tags.json	Every tag, and every suggested tag, with the products that have it
<product>/asset.json	The same details for one product, in its own folder
<product>/_thumbnail.*	The product's picture
<Store>/_manifest.json	Hoard's own record of what it downloaded from that store and where. Don't edit it
*.part	A download that stopped partway. The next download picks up where it ended
Payhip/_download-yourself.html	Left by versions before 2.5.0, which listed Payhip products for you to download yourself. Hoard doesn't download from Payhip any more (see Stores), so it no longer writes or reads this page: delete it if you like

catalog.json, tags.json and asset.json are written for other programs to read, and promise clean text, plain relative paths and links only to the product's own store. Their exact format is in docs/DATA-FORMATS.md.

Seals

Every record Hoard writes (its library list and marks, and in the downloads folder each store's _manifest.json, catalog.json, tags.json and every asset.json) carries a seal made with integrity.key. When a record was changed by something other than Hoard, the seal shows it, and Hoard:

• tells you, and keeps a copy of the changed file to look at (_manifest.changed-<date>.json, say);
• keeps the records, but not their links, and fetches the links from the store again on the next refresh or sync (an edited marks.json keeps your choices but drops the hidden library's PIN).

hoard-cli verify checks every record in the downloads folder, then rebuilds the catalog files. A damaged file (not valid JSON, say) is kept aside as <name>.damaged-<date>.json, and Hoard carries on without it.

One downloads folder, two computers

Each computer's Hoard seals its records with its own key, so each would treat the other's records as unverified ("saved by Hoard on another computer") and fetch store links again. To share one downloads folder, on a NAS say, copy integrity.key from Hoard's app-data folder on one computer to the same place on the other.

Backing up, and moving to a new computer

• Your downloads folder is ordinary files, with Hoard's records alongside: back it up, or move it, as a whole.
• Hoard's app-data folder holds your settings, library list, tags, marks and integrity.key. Copy it to the same place on a new computer to keep them, with valid seals.
• Sign-ins don't move. They're encrypted for your account on the computer they were made on, so on a new computer, sign in to your stores again.

If your downloads folder is somewhere else on the new computer, choose it in Settings.

Deleting everything

1. In Stores, choose Sign out of every store. That ends the sessions where Hoard can and removes every store's items from your library.
2. Uninstall Hoard (see Installing Hoard: on a Mac, drag it from Applications to the Trash; the Flatpak, flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.github.soloflighter1010.Hoard).
3. Delete Hoard's app-data folder (above), and your downloads folder if you don't want the files.
4. Hoard's own browser, if it downloaded one: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ms-playwright on Windows, ~/Library/Caches/ms-playwright on a Mac, ~/.cache/ms-playwright on Linux (the Flatpak's goes with --delete-data). Other programs that use Playwright may share it.

The full list, with the reason for each, is in PRIVACY.md.