An offline-first, encrypted file vault for Windows.
Nexus keeps your files, notes, credentials, and personal data behind strong local encryption: no cloud, no account, no telemetry. Encryption, decryption, and license verification all happen on your machine. The one exception is an optional update checker; see Privacy.
Status: Public Beta. Nexus is actively developed by a solo indie developer. It's real software people use, not a demo, but the beta label is on it for a reason. See Known Issues for the current honest list, and please report anything that breaks.
Real frames from the current UI, not concept art.
Lock screen: trust context visible before you even unlock
Media browser |
Import: live encryption progress |
- Encrypted vault: import files and folders into an AES-256-GCM encrypted vault with a master password (Argon2id key derivation). List and grid views, drag-and-drop import, color tags, pinning, and per-file expiry (TTL).
- Personal data, encrypted alongside your files: a credentials manager (with TOTP support), a journal, bookmarks, and a contacts list, all stored inside the same encrypted vault.
- Smart Collections: auto-grouped views of your vault (recent items, large files, images, documents, audio, video, items expiring soon, and color-tagged items) so you don't have to dig through folders.
- Zero-Trace Launcher: launch other apps in a sandboxed session from inside Nexus. Temp files and traces from that session are wiped when it closes.
- Security layer: anti-tamper checks, clipboard guard, screen-capture protection ("Streamer Mode"), honeypot bait files with intruder logging, and a tamper-evident activity log (HMAC-chained, so silent edits or deletions are detectable).
- Recovery: a recovery phrase and a machine-bound bypass path for account recovery if you lose your master password. There is no cloud password reset. If you lose both, your vault is unrecoverable by design.
- Multiple vaults: switch between separate encrypted vaults, with decoy-vault support for plausible deniability.
Nexus is a native Windows desktop application, built with WPF and .NET 8.
Being upfront about this matters more to us than it looks impressive:
- No cloud sync, no server component, no account system.
- No telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting sent anywhere.
- No code signing yet. Windows SmartScreen will show a warning on first run; see Getting Started for what that means and how to proceed safely.
- No mobile or macOS/Linux version. Windows only.
Grab the latest build from the Releases page. You'll also need a license key: see Getting a beta key below and Getting Started for setup.
Every release ships with a SHA-256 hash of the executable. Verify it before running; see SECURITY.md.
Nexus is free during the public beta, but there's no self-serve purchase flow yet. License keys are issued manually. To request access:
- Discord: discord.gg/8UKt8s5FbW
- Email: atharva.patil.cg@gmail.com
The first 20 to 30 active beta testers may receive a complimentary lifetime license, at Northbyte Studios' sole discretion. This isn't a formal program with guaranteed terms, just our way of thanking early testers.
- AES-256-GCM for vault encryption, Argon2id for master-password key derivation.
- Offline-first: encryption, decryption, and license verification all happen locally. The one exception is an optional update checker (GitHub only, no Northbyte Studios server, on by default, can be turned off in Settings). See Privacy.
- No account, no server-side anything.
Nexus is closed-source. This repository hosts release binaries, documentation, and issue tracking, not the application source.
See SECURITY.md for vulnerability reporting and PRIVACY.md for our full data-handling policy.
- Bugs and feature requests: open an issue
- Everything else: Discord or atharva.patil.cg@gmail.com
- See SUPPORT.md for details
Nexus is proprietary software. See LICENSE for the full end-user license agreement.
Built by Northbyte Studios.