Live Jots - sharing a note for seven days without giving up your data

Jot is local-first. Your captures live in a database on your PC, and nothing goes to a server unless you ask for something that needs one. That is the right default for a capture tool, and it creates an obvious gap: sometimes a note needs a second person. A shopping list for whoever is going to the shop. A checklist for a colleague covering a shift. Agenda points for someone joining the meeting.

The usual answer is to paste the note into a chat or a shared document, which works and then lives forever in someone else’s service. Live Jots are a smaller answer: a temporary, encrypted web copy of one item.

What it does

On an item in the Jot window, choose 7-day web copy. Jot creates a link. Anyone with the link can open the copy in a browser and edit it, no account needed. After seven days, the copy expires. You can stop sharing earlier at any time.

Two details matter:

• It is a copy. Edits in the browser stay in the Live Jot. They do not change your original capture in Jot.
• It expires exactly. Seven days after creation, it is gone, whether anyone looked at it or not.

How the encryption works

The design goal was that the server hosting the copy cannot read it.

1. Jot encrypts the content on your PC with AES-GCM, using a random key.
2. The server stores only the encrypted envelope, plus hashes of two random capabilities: one for editing and one for you, the owner, to revoke it.
3. The decryption key and the edit capability are placed after the # in the share link.

That last step is the important one. Browsers do not send the part of a URL after # (the fragment) to the server in HTTP requests, as the URL specification describes. So the server receives the request for the copy, but never the key. The browser decrypts locally.

The practical consequence: the link is the key. Anyone with the full link can read and edit. Share it the way you would share a password for something low-stakes, not in a public channel.

What it is good for

• Lists another person will update: shopping, packing, a handover checklist.
• Notes for a meeting with someone outside your company.
• A quick set of instructions for a house-sitter or a colleague.

What it is not for

• Long-term collaboration. Seven days is a deliberate limit. For ongoing shared work, use a shared document or task tool.
• Highly sensitive information. The encryption is real, but a link can be forwarded. If it would be a problem in the wrong inbox, do not share it as a link.
• Syncing back. Browser edits do not flow into your Jot. If you want the changes, copy them back.

Why seven days

A temporary share that never expires is just a permanent share people forgot about. Expiry is what makes it safe to create one casually. Seven days covers a trip, a shift rota or a week’s errands, and then cleans itself up.

Where it fits

Live Jots do not change Jot’s main promise: captures stay on your PC, there is no account, and the app makes no network calls unless you use a feature that needs one. This is one of those features, and it only runs when you click it. More on the overall approach in local-first and bring-your-own-key and one seam for the whole network.

Jot is on the Microsoft Store, and encrypted seven-day copies are part of the free tier.

Jot is a quick-capture app for Windows: one hotkey, one line, back to what you were doing. What it is, or what is still unproven.