Your data: backup, reset, uninstall

Where it lives

Hoku keeps everything in one SQLite database:

~/Library/Application Support/com.hoku.app/hub.sqlite

The same folder can hold hub.sqlite-wal and hub.sqlite-shm, which SQLite uses while Hoku runs. Settings → Privacy shows the path.

If you use the VS Code extension, the same folder also has a vscode-bridge folder. It holds only short-lived files: one per open VS Code window, with its terminals’ process numbers, and a request and reply per click that Hoku deletes within seconds. It’s not part of the index and doesn’t need backing up.

The index is outside the app, so installing, updating or reinstalling Hoku never touches it. Provider data (~/.claude, ~/.codex, Claude Desktop’s folders) isn’t in it, and nothing you do in Hoku changes that data.

Back up

1. Quit Hoku (⌘Q), so the database is fully written.
2. Copy the folder ~/Library/Application Support/com.hoku.app somewhere safe. In Finder, use Go → Go to Folder… and paste ~/Library/Application Support.

To restore, quit Hoku and put the folder back.

What a backup holds: your projects, notes, favorites, follow-ups, recap outcomes, settings and the session index. Sessions themselves stay in their providers. After a restore, a scan refreshes anything that changed.

Start fresh

To reset Hoku without losing anything:

1. Quit Hoku.
2. Rename or move ~/Library/Application Support/com.hoku.app, for example to com.hoku.app.old.
3. Open Hoku. It starts empty, as on the first run.

To go back, quit Hoku and swap the folders again.

To remove only demo data, use Settings → Demo data → Remove demo data.

Uninstall

1. Quit Hoku.
2. Move /Applications/Hoku.app to the Trash (or ~/Applications/Hoku.app, if you installed it there).
3. To remove your data too, delete ~/Library/Application Support/com.hoku.app. This can’t be undone: back it up first if you might come back.
4. Optionally, clean up permissions in System Settings:
   • Privacy & Security → Automation: Hoku’s entries for iTerm or Terminal (there may be one per version you used)
   • Notifications: Hoku.
5. If you installed the VS Code extension, uninstall it in VS Code’s Extensions view.

Uninstalling Hoku doesn’t affect Claude Code, Codex or Claude Desktop, or any of their sessions.