Concepts

How it fits together

macOS · Android · Web  AI applications
       │ REST + WS        │ MCP
       ▼                  ▼
  storm-server (Rust / axum)  ◄──────  storm-runtime
       │                     dials out Claude Code ·
  ┌────┴─────┐                         OpenCode · shell
  ▼          ▼
vaults/    state/
*.md       indexes · auth.db ·
           agent.db · gateway.db

The apps talk to storm-server over HTTP and a live WebSocket; AI apps use its MCP endpoint; Runtime Hosts connect out to it. Notes stay ordinary files under vaults/, and the server’s own records sit beside them in state/.

The server

storm-server is a program you run on Linux, macOS or Windows. It owns your notes: it merges edits from different devices, keeps each note’s version history, and answers searches. Everything else talks to it.

Vaults and notes

A vault is a folder of ordinary Markdown files under the server’s storage root. You can open, grep, back up or version it with any tool. Storm’s own state — indexes, the account, agent and integration records — lives in a separate state/ folder beside the vaults, never inside them.

A note is one Markdown file. Storm tracks it by an id in its frontmatter, so renaming or moving it keeps its history.

Your account and devices

Storm has one account, with one password. Each app you sign in — on a phone, a laptop, a browser — is a device with its own credential, which you can revoke on its own under Settings › Devices & access. Nothing goes through a cloud account.

Sync and offline

Each device keeps a copy of the notes it has seen and a queue of changes made offline, and sends them when the server is back. When two devices change the same note, the server merges the edits. If it cannot, the conflict is written into the note itself, where you can see it — not into a hidden copy.

Runtime Hosts and sessions

A Runtime Host (storm-runtime) runs coding agents on a machine you choose. It connects out to the server, so it needs no open port, and it holds no notes: an agent reads and writes them through the server, like any other client.

A session is one agent — Claude Code, OpenCode or a shell — running in a workspace on a host. You can start one from a note, which becomes its context, and drive its terminal from any device. An agent can write only to the vault you chose when you started it, and only if Settings › AI access allows agents to write at all. An ended Claude Code or OpenCode session can be resumed.

Integrations and MCP

Integrations are other MCP servers, such as Notion or Linear, that you connect once in the app. The server keeps their credentials, encrypted, and agents call them through the server. You choose which Runtime Hosts may use each one, and which of its tools are allowed.

MCP access works the other way round: it lets AI apps outside Storm read — and, if you allow it, write — your notes. Each app gets its own key, shown once and revocable.

Relays

A relay lets your devices reach the server from outside your network without opening a port: the server connects out to the relay, and the app tries the server’s own address and its relays and uses whichever answers first. A relay stores nothing and checks no credentials, but until end-to-end encryption it can read what it carries, so run your own or use one you trust.