Your files & data
Atlas is local software. Your images stay in the folders they already live in, and what Atlas knows about them stays on your machine. Nothing is uploaded.
Browsing never moves your files
When you browse, Atlas reads your folders in place. It does not move your originals or pull them into a managed library of its own. Tagging, rating, and sorting change what Atlas shows you, not the files on disk.
What does get copied
are the one place Atlas keeps copies. When you add an image to a global folder, Atlas copies it into that collection's folder on disk and manages the copy for you, so a collection is real files you can open anywhere, with nothing to sync. The original stays where it was. A background cutout is the other file Atlas writes, and only when you ask for one.
Where the rest lives
Your tags, ratings, notes, search index, and settings sit in one local file under your Windows app data, where trashed files and any downloaded models live too. Your library is a view built over your real folders, not a copy of them.
Local and offline
No account, no cloud. Atlas works fully offline — it reaches the internet only to check for updates, fetch the background-removal model once, or deliver a crash report or a bug report you send from the app.