Trust & data handling
Your files. Your machine. No cloud.
Scamp is a local-first desktop application. It reads and writes plain files inside a project folder you control. It does not upload your designs, does not send telemetry about your layouts, and has no backend for your work to live in.
Quick summary
| Concern | How Scamp handles it |
|---|---|
| Where designs are stored | On your local disk, in the project folder you choose. |
| Cloud sync | None. Scamp has no servers for design data. |
| Account | Not required to use the app. |
| Telemetry | No design data is collected. |
| File access scope | The project folder you open. Nothing outside it. |
| Network calls | Only when checking for app updates or when you explicitly open a link (e.g. GitHub). |
| Source code | Open and auditable on GitHub under BSL. |
| Lock-in | None. Projects are plain TSX and CSS Module files you can keep using without Scamp. |
What Scamp reads
When you open a project, Scamp reads the files inside that project folder so it can render them on the canvas:
- Page files — the
.tsxand matching.module.cssfiles that describe each page layout. - theme.css — your design tokens (colors, spacing, radii, fonts) defined as CSS custom properties.
- agent.md — an instructions file that AI coding agents read so they can edit Scamp projects correctly.
- Image assets — files you reference in your pages (e.g. PNGs, SVGs, user uploads) so the canvas can render them.
Scamp does not read files outside the project folder. Opening a different project means opening a different folder — nothing crosses over.
What Scamp writes
Scamp writes changes back to the same files you opened. Every edit on the canvas is a change to real code on disk — not a database entry somewhere.
- Editing a layout writes the updated TSX and CSS Module files for that page.
- Editing a theme token writes
theme.css. - Renaming a page renames the corresponding files.
- App-level preferences (default project folder, theme) live in your OS user config directory, not in your project folder.
What Scamp does not do
- No cloud sync. Your designs never leave your machine unless you explicitly push them to a git remote or send the files yourself.
- No analytics on your designs. The shapes, colors, and layouts you draw are not reported anywhere.
- No account, no login. Scamp does not have a user directory for you to exist in.
- No plugin marketplace execution. Scamp does not auto-run third-party code from an online marketplace.
AI coding agents & permissions
Scamp has a built-in terminal that opens in your project folder. You can run any CLI coding agent — Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, or whatever else you use — the same way you would run it in a normal terminal.
- The agent runs under your user account. Its file access is whatever your shell already allows — Scamp does not grant extra permissions.
- Approvals are controlled by the agent itself. If the agent requires human approval for destructive actions, Scamp inherits that behavior.
- Scamp reads
agent.mdfor instructions. This file tells the agent how Scamp expects its project files to look. You can read, edit, or delete it. - You can turn it off. The terminal panel is optional. If you never open it, no agent ever runs.
Open source & license
Scamp is source-available on GitHub under the Business Source License (BSL). You can read the code, build from source, audit it, and use it for free. See the repository for full terms.
Reporting a concern
Think you found a security issue or a data-handling bug? Open an issue on GitHub — or, if the issue is sensitive, mark it privately in the repository. We triage reports as they come in.
Want to understand how Scamp works end-to-end? Start with Bidirectional Sync in the docs.