How do I protect work saved in the browser?

Browser storage is convenience

The project lives in this browser's storage, which is fast, private to the device, and easy to lose. Clearing site data, a private window, a browser reinstall, a device reset, or simply moving to another machine takes it with no warning. Treat what is in the browser as the working copy and the downloaded checkpoint as the thing you actually keep.

Import must be atomic

A checkpoint is the whole project in one versioned file: dataset context, every folio, value sets, recorded reviews, frozen editions and the event history, with an embedded SHA-256 digest. Import validates the schema version and the digest before it replaces anything, so a truncated or edited file is refused outright and the project you already had is untouched. Restore one into a spare browser profile once, so you know the file you are keeping works.

Integrity is not identity

The digest tells you whether the bytes changed since export. It does not tell you who exported the file, when, or whether anybody reviewed its contents, and it is not a signature. Keep checkpoints where your own access controls apply, because the file carries everything you authored.

Worked example from the sample project

A checkpoint is the whole sample project in one versioned file: the dataset context, all six field folios, the value set, any recorded reviews and frozen editions, and the event history, with an embedded SHA-256 digest. Restoring it brings everything back exactly as it was, including the two fields still marked needs-review.

Edit one character of that file in a text editor and try to import it. The digest check refuses it, and the project you already had is untouched, because import validates before it replaces rather than after. That refusal is the useful behaviour: the alternative is a half-applied restore you discover later.

What this does not do

• The digest detects modification. It does not authenticate an author or a time.
• A checkpoint restores into this product and this schema version only.
• Browser storage is not a backup; the checkpoint you did not download does not exist.

Do this in the studio

Download a checkpoint before anything that could go wrong, not after.

1. Open the Editions station and download a versioned checkpoint.
2. Keep it somewhere you control and can find again.
3. Test a re-import once so you know the file works.

Open the studio at the Editions station

Related reading

• Working offline
• Security and local-data model
• The handoff packet