SEODesktop

Where Your Data Lives

SEODesktop is a local-first app. Every credential, cached response, export and log file lives on your machine. Nothing is synced to a cloud backend run by us — there is no cloud backend.

This page is a straight reference for where each type of data is written.

Credentials (API keys, license)

Stored in your operating system's secure credential store:

  • Windows — Windows Credential Manager, under the service name SEODesktop.
  • macOS — macOS Keychain Access, item name SEODesktop.

Keys are never written to plain-text config files or logs. Uninstalling SEODesktop does not delete keychain entries — remove them manually if you want them gone.

App settings

Stored as a plain JSON file in the OS application-data folder:

  • Windows — %APPDATA%\SEODesktop\config.json
  • macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/SEODesktop/config.json

Contains: theme, default country/language, cache TTL overrides, export folder path, window size. No secrets.

Cache (DataForSEO responses, AI outputs)

SQLite database in the same application-data folder:

  • Windows — %APPDATA%\SEODesktop\cache.sqlite
  • macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/SEODesktop/cache.sqlite

Contains every DataForSEO response you've fetched, keyed by full request parameters. Also contains AI analysis results. Clear via Settings → Cache → Clear all, or delete the file manually.

Saved results / history

Separate SQLite database tracking your query history with metadata:

  • Windows — %APPDATA%\SEODesktop\history.sqlite
  • macOS — ~/Library/Application Support/SEODesktop/history.sqlite

This is what the History tab reads from. Safe to delete if you want a clean slate.

Exports

CSV / JSON / Excel exports are saved wherever you configured them — by default, your system Downloads folder. Once exported, they're just regular files owned by you.

Logs

Rolling log files (kept for 7 days, 10MB max each) for debugging:

  • Windows — %APPDATA%\SEODesktop\logs\
  • macOS — ~/Library/Logs/SEODesktop/

Logs include request / response timings, error traces and app lifecycle events. They never include your API key, your passwords, or your query responses — only parameters and status codes.

What leaves your machine

Only two things ever go out over the network:

  1. Direct HTTPS calls to api.dataforseo.com carrying your API key and query parameters.
  2. Direct HTTPS calls to the AI provider you configured (Anthropic, OpenAI) — only when you click Analyze with AI. Ollama stays on localhost.

There is no SEODesktop server in the middle. There is no telemetry. There is no analytics beacon.

Auto-update traffic

SEODesktop also contacts our release host to check for new versions (roughly once per day, and once on every launch). This is a simple version-check request — no identifying information beyond the SEODesktop version string you're currently running.