File Paths & Data Directory

The Kinetic daemon creates and maintains several files on your system. It is important to know where these live, especially for backups and troubleshooting.

Default Data Directory

The data directory location depends on your operating system:

Operating System	Default Path
Linux	~/.local/share/kinetic/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/kinetic/
Windows	%APPDATA%\kinetic\

Important Files

Inside the data directory, you will find the following critical files and folders:

File / Folder	Description	Action
identity.key	Your Ed25519 private key (32 bytes). This is the binary form of your identity.	BACKUP. Protect this heavily.
identity.mnemonic	Your 12-word BIP-39 seed phrase in plain text.	BACKUP. Protect this heavily.
api.token	Bearer token for the local REST API. Regenerated on each daemon start.	Safe to delete.
sled_db/	Local embedded database containing network state. Do not manually edit.	Safe to delete (daemon will resync).
zones/	Directory containing your DNS zone files.
zones/NAME.json	Your DNS zone file (e.g., myname.kin.json). Edit this to update records.	BACKUP.
zones/NAME.reveal.json	The VDF proof file generated when you registered the name.	CRITICAL BACKUP.
ca_cert.pem	Local Certificate Authority cert for HTTPS interception (proxy mode).	Safe to delete.
.ca.lock	Lock file for CA generation.	Safe to delete.

Binary Locations

When you install Kinetic via the official script, the executables are placed in your system's path:

• Linux / macOS: /usr/local/bin/kinetic and /usr/local/bin/kinetic-daemon
• Windows: C:\Program Files\Kinetic\kinetic.exe and C:\Program Files\Kinetic\kinetic-daemon.exe

Logs

By default, the kinetic-daemon prints all its logs directly to the terminal (stdout/stderr). If you are running it as a background service (like systemd), the logs are handled by the service manager.

To save logs to a file manually, you can redirect the output:

sudo kinetic daemon > kinetic.log 2>&1