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Open Net Worth Docs

Where your files live

Everything the app keeps is in one working folder. By default that’s .open-net-worth in your home folder — the same for the server, onw start and the desktop app:

SystemDefault working folder
macOS/Users/<you>/.open-net-worth
Linux/home/<you>/.open-net-worth
WindowsC:\Users\<you>\.open-net-worth
Docker/home/onw/.open-net-worth inside the container, kept in the onw-data volume

It’s a hidden folder (the name starts with a dot). On macOS press ⌘ Shift . in Finder to show hidden folders; on Windows turn on View → Hidden items in File Explorer. In the desktop app, Help → Troubleshooting → Reveal Book Folder opens it for you.

To keep it somewhere else — another drive, a NAS — set ONW_ROOT (see Environment variables); the desktop app lets you pick the folder instead.

What’s inside

~/.open-net-worth/
├── data/
│   ├── onw.db              ← everything: accounts, transactions, budgets, holdings,
│   │                          settings, connector setup, Lucius's memory and chats
│   ├── files/
│   │   ├── attachments/     ← files you've added in chat or Documents
│   │   ├── receipts/        ← receipts attached to transactions
│   │   ├── statements/      ← imported statement files and what was read from them
│   │   └── artifacts/       ← documents and charts Lucius made for you
│   ├── skills/              ← Lucius skills you've created or installed
│   ├── checkpoints/         ← the data behind undoing a Lucius change
│   └── backups/db/          ← automatic safety copies taken just before an upgrade
├── backups/                  ← daily backups, one .zip each
├── cache/                    ← prices, exchange rates, icons — rebuilt on demand
└── logs/
    └── app.log               ← the application log

You may also see onw.db-wal and onw.db-shm next to onw.db while the app is running — they’re part of the database. Never delete or copy them separately.

A hidden .instance.lock file at the top marks the folder as in use, so a second copy of the app can’t open the same book at the same time.

What matters, and what’s safe to delete

FolderIf you lose it
data/This is your book. Back it up.
backups/Your daily safety copies. Keep them — ideally also somewhere off this machine.
cache/Nothing. Delete it any time; prices and rates re-download on next use.
logs/Nothing but troubleshooting history.

Backups

  • Daily backups (backups/): a full copy of data/ as a .zip, made automatically every night and kept for 30 days by default. Turn them on or off, change how long they’re kept, or make one now with Back up now in Settings → Data → Automatic backups. Restore one from Settings → Data → Restore from a backup. See Backup and restore.
  • Upgrade safety copies (data/backups/db/pre-migrate-<time>.db): taken automatically right before the app upgrades its database. The newest five are kept. You normally never touch them — The backend won’t start explains when to use one.

To move to a new machine, stop the app and copy the whole working folder, or use Settings → Data → Export backup (.zip) and import it on the other side with Choose import file…. An exported backup leaves out your password, API token and connector credentials, so you re-enter those after importing.