---
title: What Pantaray records, and where it is kept
description: What Pantaray records, what it never records, how long each thing is kept, and what is sent to the AI you chose.
---

This page is the full account of what Pantaray records, where it is stored, and what is sent away.

## What is recorded

While recording is on, Pantaray records:

- the apps you use
- the titles of your windows
- the text shown on screen
- what you type

It reads the information macOS already exposes to assistive software, so no screenshots are taken
for this. Your screen is captured only when an Action asks to look at it, and macOS asks for that
permission separately.

### Browsers

Page contents and addresses are treated differently from everything else:

| Browser | Page contents and typed text | Address | Window titles |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Google Chrome | Recorded, except in Incognito windows | Recorded, except in Incognito windows | Recorded |
| Safari | Not recorded | Recorded | Recorded |
| Firefox, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Arc | Not recorded | Not recorded | Recorded |
| A browser not listed here | Recorded as on-screen text, like any other app | Not recorded | Recorded |

In every browser, Pantaray records that you were using it, its window titles, and that you
interacted with it. A window title usually contains the page title, so the name of the page you are
on is normally recorded even in a browser whose contents are not.

To keep a browser out of the recording completely, exclude the app itself under
**Settings → Recorded apps and websites**.

## What is never recorded

- Password managers. 1Password, Bitwarden, Apple Passwords and other well-known managers are
  always excluded. This cannot be switched off, and it applies even if you have told Pantaray to
  record only a short list of apps. If you use a manager that is not on the list, add it to your
  filter yourself.
- Sign-in and payment pages. Their addresses and contents are excluded in the browser.
- Password fields. The recorder drops them where they are typed.
- Screen captures of a password manager. Even an Action that is looking at your screen will not
  capture one.

Chrome Incognito windows are a partial case: no page address and no page contents are recorded, and
the window title can still be recorded.

If you work in an editor, you can also block `.env` files from being recorded, under
**Settings → IDE File Rules → Environment files (.env\*)**. It applies to Cursor and Visual Studio
Code, and leaves `.example` files alone.

## Where it is kept, and for how long

Two things are kept, and only the first expires:

| What | Where | How long |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The recording | An encrypted store on this Mac | **Deleted after 48 hours** |
| Your conversations, Pantaray's memory, and produced files | Pantaray's own folder | Kept until you delete them |

The encrypted store's key is held in your macOS login keychain, so a copy of the file on another
machine cannot be read.

What expires after 48 hours is the recording of your activity. Your history and what Pantaray has
remembered, which can include addresses and file names it saw, stay on this Mac until you delete
them.

Everything except the recording lives in Pantaray's own folder inside
`~/Library/Application Support`.

## What leaves this Mac

The recording file stays here. There is no feature that uploads the store, and nothing copies it
elsewhere.

The parts needed for suggestions and Actions are sent to the AI you chose. Pantaray does this on
its own while recording is on, not only when you ask for something, and what is sent can include
the text on screen, what you typed, and page addresses.

Where it goes is whatever you chose in **Settings → AI connection**:

| Your connection | Where it goes |
| --- | --- |
| **API key** | Straight from this Mac to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Fireworks AI |
| **ChatGPT account** | To ChatGPT |

Three other things leave this Mac:

- Web searches, if you set them up. With a Tavily key, the search words and page addresses an
  Action looks up go to Tavily. Your recording does not go with them.
- Update checks. At launch and every six hours, Pantaray asks GitHub's public releases whether a
  newer version exists. Nothing about you is sent.
- Signing in, if you use a ChatGPT account, which exchanges your sign-in with OpenAI.

Nothing else is sent. Pantaray has no analytics, no usage tracking, and no way to upload its logs.
Its own log files stay in `~/Library/Logs` on this Mac, and keys and tokens are masked out of them
before they are written.

## Keys and sign-ins

API keys, your ChatGPT sign-in, and your Tavily key are encrypted before
they are written to disk, using macOS's own protection. Pantaray only ever shows you that a key is
**Saved on this Mac**, and no part of the app outside the one place that needs it can read one.

If this Mac cannot encrypt stored credentials, Pantaray declines to save the key and tells you why.

## Things to keep in mind

- A conversation set to **Auto-approve** can capture your screen without asking. Under
  **Ask every time**, Pantaray waits for you before it captures the screen. See
  [Approve or deny what Pantaray wants to do](/using/approvals).
- Anything running as you can read your files. The store is encrypted and the folder is
  protected by file permissions, which is not protection against software already running as you.
  Turn on FileVault for the disk itself.
- Text you did not write gets recorded too. Messages from other people, documents, and pages
  you happen to have open are all text on screen, and can reach the AI along with the rest. Use the
  filter to keep apps and sites out.
- On a work Mac, follow your organization's rules before recording your activity.

See also: [Stop recording, or limit what is recorded](/privacy/recording-controls).