Features & roadmap

Heartwood is in early alpha. This page is the honest version: what the app does today, and what we're building toward. Nothing in the roadmap section exists yet.

Here now in the current release

• GEDCOM import that keeps everything

  Import the GEDCOM file from your current tool. The import is immediate and conservative: your original file is retained byte-for-byte, existing citations are honored as cited-but-unverified, and an import report tells you exactly what was recognized and what wasn't — nothing is silently dropped.

• A research dashboard, computed from your own tree

  Right after import, Heartwood surfaces where to dig next: people with no sources, conclusions with no evidence behind them, dates that contradict each other, and end-of-line ancestors. No AI required — it's computed directly from your data.

• An evidence-first data model

  Sources, citations, and the individual claims each source makes are first-class objects, and conflicting evidence stays visible on the person it concerns instead of being silently resolved. Research questions, research sessions, and a research log let you work the way the Genealogical Proof Standard teaches.

• Bring-your-own-AI, with a review gate

  Connect Claude Desktop — or any assistant that speaks MCP, the open standard AI apps use to work with your tools — over a connection that never leaves your own computer. AI-produced content lands in a pending lane, shown beside its source, and enters your tree only when you confirm it. Sensitive operations are propose-only: the AI asks, you approve. An activity timeline shows everything your AI did.

• A documented local API

  Heartwood exposes a documented local HTTP API and MCP tools — the same surfaces the app itself uses — so tools you trust can work with your data on your machine. The reference documentation is generated from the same contract the app runs on.

• Your data, exportable in one click

  Everything Heartwood stores — your full history and every attached file — lives on your disk and can be copied out wholesale at any time as a complete archive. (Export back to GEDCOM is on the roadmap below.) No lock-in by construction.

• macOS today

  Heartwood runs on Apple-silicon Macs. A Windows build is planned. Public builds aren't posted yet — they're coming soon.

On the roadmap being designed and built

These are the directions we're actively working toward, in roughly the order we expect to tackle them. None of them ship in the current release, and we don't announce dates.

• Sources & citations: Evidence Explained templates

  Guided citation entry built on Evidence Explained-style templates, so citations come out right without memorizing the book — and feed proof arguments instead of being formatting-only.

• Research workflow: proof arguments and correlation

  Full support for the research cycle — plans, logs, structured proof arguments, and correlating indirect evidence across the friends, associates, and neighbors of your subject.

• GEDCOM export and lossless round-trip

  Export to both GEDCOM 7 and 5.5.1, designed for fidelity from the start, with a documented inventory of anything a given version can't carry — so you always know exactly what moved and what couldn't.

• Data quality: explainable, conservative merge

  Duplicate detection and merge that never destroys information: conflicting assertions are preserved as evidence, and every merge is fully provenanced and reviewable.

• Sync & collaboration through storage you own

  Multi-device sync and researcher-to-researcher sharing carried over your own cloud folder (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox) — no Twigly Labs server in the path, because there isn't one.

• Charts, reports & books

  Pedigree and descendant charts, scholarly report formats, and narrative output that stays connected to the evidence behind each statement.

• Places & maps

  Hierarchy-true places with historical jurisdictions and geocoding, preserved faithfully through import and export.

• Media that can't break

  Photo and document storage that never loses track of a file — no broken-link repair tools needed — with built-in duplicate detection and media linked to the evidence it supports.

• DNA as evidence

  Structured DNA match tracking that plugs into the same proof workflow as documentary evidence, instead of living in a spreadsheet on the side.

• Search & hints

  Powerful search across everything you've gathered — people, sources, notes, and research logs. Where record providers offer open, permitted integrations, hints you choose to follow up on; Heartwood never fetches records from a platform on your behalf.

Explore the docs