Changelog

July 20265 entries

1. 24 July 2026 · Grove

   Folder sync, and the limits of browser storage

   Maps living in the browser is fine right up until it isn't. Clear the wrong setting, use a different machine, and they're gone — and "back up your data" is advice nobody follows.

   Chrome and Edge on desktop can now write each map straight into a folder you choose. Point it at a folder inside a cloud drive you already pay for and two machines share the same maps, with no Grove server in the middle and no account anywhere. Safari and most phones can't do this, and Grove says so plainly rather than pretending it worked.

   There's also an auto-backup that drops a dated copy in Downloads when you finish editing, for everyone who doesn't have folder sync.

2. 23 July 2026 · Grove

   Proving the API key never leaks

   Your Anthropic key is the one thing in Grove that could genuinely cost you money, and Grove writes a lot of files — exports, backups, .json maps, PNGs.

   So there's now a test that fails the build if the key appears in any of them. Not a code review promise, an actual gate. It felt like overkill until I remembered that the whole pitch is "your thoughts never leave your device," and a key leaking through a backup file would make that a lie.

3. 22 July 2026 · Grove

   AI that proposes and never writes

   Three AI actions shipped: Sort my thoughts groups the tray under branches, Go deeper suggests sub-ideas, and Ask me questions plays Socrates and turns your answers into nodes.

   None of them touch the map directly. Sort produces an editable preview where you can rename a proposed branch, move a thought to a different group, or throw the group away. Go deeper produces dashed ghost buds you keep or dismiss individually. Ask me questions only ever adds the words you typed yourself.

   The rule underneath all three: your words are never reworded. When the AI proposes a new branch title it's a suggestion in your vocabulary, and when it files your thought it files it verbatim. Getting that right meant rejecting a few designs that would have been slicker.

4. 21 July 2026 · Grove

   Capture first, file later

   Rebuilt the whole map screen around a tray at the bottom. Type a thought, press Enter, it lands in the tray. File it onto a branch now or in a week.

   This came from watching myself not use my own tool. The blocker was never typing — it was that typing required first deciding where the thought went, and by the time I'd decided I'd lost it.

   Also added the outline view, which is the better way to read a map on a phone, and made the Map ⇄ Outline toggle keep your place.

5. 20 July 2026 · Grove

   One file, no server, no account

   Started from the constraint instead of the feature list: everything has to fit in a single HTML file you could email to yourself.

   That kills a lot of ideas early, which is the point. No accounts, because there's no server to hold them. No sync, at least not yet, because there's nothing to sync through. No analytics, because there's no way to send them.

   What's left is a mind map that opens instantly and works on a plane.