Free and open source. By design.
kindling is MIT licensed. The source code is public. Your data stays on your machine. This isn't a freemium pitch — it's a philosophy.
02 / The reasoning
Why we chose open source
Writers invest months and years in their manuscripts. The tools they depend on shouldn't disappear behind a failed subscription model, a sunset announcement, or a pivot to AI. kindling is MIT licensed — meaning anyone can inspect, modify, and redistribute the code. If the project ever stopped being maintained, the community could carry it forward. Your work is never locked in.
03 / The stack
Built with tools that last
- Tauri 2.x — lightweight desktop framework (under 100 MB installed, not a 200 MB Electron bundle)
- Rust — fast, safe, reliable backend
- Svelte 5 — modern, responsive interface
- SQLite — your projects are single portable database files
04 / Your data
No accounts. No tracking. No cloud.
kindling requires no account and collects no desktop analytics or telemetry. Your manuscripts and references stay in a local database. Writing and editorial review work offline; you choose how to share exported files. Automatic updates and optional feedback submissions use the internet. See the privacy policy for details.
We plan to offer optional cloud sync as a paid feature in the future. It will always be optional — the core app will always work completely offline and for free.
05 / Contributing
Help shape kindling
kindling is built by a solo developer who is also a fiction writer. Contributions are welcome — whether that's code, bug reports, feature requests, or just telling other writers about the project.