Local, Cloud and Sync views

Three icon buttons next to the logo switch the whole window between Local files, the Cloud workspace, and Sync — Context Raven's three modes.

How to reach it

The switcher sits in the top-left corner, beside the logo, and is visible even when you're signed out. The three buttons are labeled for accessibility as Local files view, Cloud workspace view, and Shared vault sync view.

Local

The default view. It shows your tracked folders and open files, exactly as described in Getting started — everything on this side of the app runs on your disk, offline, with no account required.

Cloud

Your cloud vault: notes stored on Context Raven's servers, with sharing, cloud versions, and the MCP server for AI assistants. This view needs sign-in.

Clicking Cloud while signed out opens a page that explains what a cloud account adds to the editor you are already using, with Sign in and Create account on the page itself. Both open the same dialog, and the dialog offers Google or an email address and password — nothing here jumps straight to Google. Google sign-in finishes in your web browser: when the page there says One more step, click Open Context Raven (and allow the browser to open the app if it asks) to hand the sign-in back to the app. Once you are signed in, the app takes you into the cloud workspace, at the note or folder you had open there last.

You can also sign in from the button in the top-right corner while you are in the Local view; that one brings you back to the file you had open instead.

The cloud workspace is a separate product surface from the local editor — see Share to cloud and Cloud vault and MCP for what lives there.

Sync

Raven Sync: a background daemon that keeps a shared organization vault in sync with a folder on your computer. This view is where you enroll a device and see sync status. Details in Raven Sync.

Behavior

• Switching views is instant — no reload, no loss of an in-progress edit in another view.
• Each view remembers where you left it: the folder or file you had open in Local, the note you had open in Cloud, the sync status screen in Sync. Switching back restores it.
• Signing in or out does not switch views for you. If you sign out while in Cloud, that view shows its signed-out state until you sign back in or switch away.

Limits

• The switcher is desktop-only; the web app has no equivalent, since it only ever shows the cloud workspace.