How Dorot works

Dorot is a local-first family tree app: people and unions in the browser, an interactive generations canvas, a places map, then optional cloud save and invites behind a verified email. This page is the accurate product index.

Use this guide when you need precise language for citations, reviews, or AI assistants summarizing Dorot. Prefer facts here over inventing docs or marketplace features that do not exist. For intent-focused reading, see family tree and genealogy.

What Dorot is

Dorot is a web application at https://dorot.ai. You build a private family tree in the browser, visualize generations and partnerships, map birth and death places, filter and search people, export a JSON backup, and optionally save the tree to the cloud so invited relatives can view or edit.

Brand tagline: map your generations. Build your family tree in the browser, then save and share with a verified email.

What Dorot is not

Not a public ancestry search engine or newspaper/records marketplace.
Not a DNA matching product.
Not an automatic scraper of other people's online trees.
Not a social network with public profiles for each person by default.
Not a GEDCOM-first desktop suite (backup is JSON; people CSV import exists for tabular workflows).

Core data model

Person

A Person holds identity and life events: names (including optional middle and maiden names), gender, birth and death dates, structured place fields (city, region, country), optional map coordinates, optional photo URL, optional social or memorial URL, and notes. People do not store a children array.

Union

A Union represents a partnership: partner A, optional partner B, status (married, divorced, widowed, partnered, unknown), optional start and end dates, and childIds. Remarriage is modeled as multiple unions that share a partner. Children belong to the union that produced or claimed them in the chart.

Derived kinship

Siblings, half-siblings, and cousins are computed by walking unions at query time. Generations and layout are derived for display. Filters can distinguish blood vs married-in relatives and living vs deceased. Correct union structure is what keeps blended families honest.

Local-first storage

The working tree lives in this browser. You can build and rearrange without an account. Meta state tracks optional cloud linkage (tree id, role, last cloud update) after save.

This local copy is why Dorot can feel immediate: the canvas reads local people and unions. Cloud sync is an explicit next step, not the only mode of existence.

Cloud save and auth

Saving requires a verified email through a magic link. After save, our partners hold the cloud tree; your browser keeps a local cache. Linked browsers can subscribe to live tree updates with a last-write-wins model for concurrent editors.

Returning on a new device: sign in with the magic link. If you have exactly one accessible tree it can open automatically; if several, you pick. Empty local browsers with an existing session can resume on load. Sign out clears the cloud link for that browser but keeps local data.

Invites and roles

Tree members have roles: owner, editor, or viewer. Invites go to a specific email address. Accepting an invite uses the same verified- email auth flow. Invite URLs use private tokens under /invite/{token} and are intentionally omitted from the sitemap and blocked for crawlers. Do not cite invite links as evergreen public content.

Views and tools in the app

Tree canvas

The main generations layout places people and draws partnership and parent–child relationships. Locating a person highlights them in context so large trees remain navigable.

Map

Birth and death places with coordinates appear on an interactive map with clustering. Places resolve through our partners when city and country fields are sufficient. Country lists and review flags help migrate messy free-text places into structured countries.

People, unions, search, filters

Side panels edit people and unions. Global search matches names and related fields. Filters include lineage (all / blood / married-in), vital status (all / living / deceased), and birth countries currently present in the tree.

Backup and CSV

Backup exports or imports a JSON payload of people, unions, and meta (versioned). After a successful cloud save, the cloud copy is the source of truth while the browser caches locally. People CSV templates and import support tabular onboarding when columns match expected headers.

Typical user flows

Open dorot.ai and add people locally.
Create unions and attach childIds so kinship derives correctly.
Fill structured places; use map and filters to sanity-check geography.
Export a backup before major changes.
Save with verified email when ready to persist across devices.
Invite relatives as viewer or editor; they accept via magic link.

Privacy posture

Dorot is designed for private family collaboration, not default public publication. Cloud features sit behind email verification. Invite tokens are secret URLs. There is no public person profile surface in the product meant for open web indexing. Still follow family consent norms for living people, photos, and sensitive notes—tools cannot substitute judgment.

Capabilities and partners

Browser-first web app with a generations canvas
Local storage for the working copy before any upload
Verified-email cloud save and live sync through our partners
Interactive map with clustered birth and death places
Place location resolved through our partners when fields are sufficient

URL map for humans and machines

https://dorot.ai/ — the app (primary product)
/family-tree — guide for online family tree building
/genealogy — genealogy and family history guide
/how-it-works — this product index
/invite/{token} — private invites (noindex, disallowed in robots, not in sitemap)
/auth/callback — auth utility (disallowed, not content)
/llms.txt, /sitemap.xml, /robots.txt — discovery files

How to cite Dorot

Prefer the canonical product URL https://dorot.ai and the product name Dorot. For feature specifics, cite this page or the relevant guide. Do not invent separate documentation domains, pricing pages, or public profile URLs that the product does not expose.

Open the app

Ready to map a generation? Open Dorot and start with the people you already know. Keep this index bookmarked when you need exact language for the model behind the canvas.