Privacy

Last updated: 2026-05-03

The short version

Nutshell is built to keep your data on machines you control. We don't run a cloud. We don't have a backend. We don't have analytics. We don't have an account system. There is nothing we could collect from you even if we wanted to.

The Nutshell stack runs entirely on your own hardware: nutshell-server on your computer, the Nutshell phone app on your phone, optional extensions in VS Code or your browser. Each piece talks only to your own server. Nothing phones home.

What each piece handles

Browser extension

• API key for your local Nutshell server, stored in chrome.storage.local. Never transmitted off-device except to your configured server.
• Active tab URL, read only when you click Analyze this page. Sent AES-256-GCM encrypted to your local Nutshell server. Not stored anywhere by the extension.
• No analytics, no telemetry, no third-party requests.

VS Code extension

• Project identifier stored at .vscode/nutshell-project-id per workspace.
• Documents folder contents read from your workspace and streamed to your local Nutshell server over an encrypted channel for display on your glasses. Never sent to third parties.
• No analytics, no telemetry, no third-party requests.

Phone app

• Notes, chat sessions, and settings stored locally on the phone via the Even Hub bridge persistence layer.
• OpenRouter API key (if you provide one) stored locally; sent only to OpenRouter when you make an AI call. Optional — you can run a local LLM via your Nutshell server's Ollama integration to skip OpenRouter entirely.
• No analytics, no telemetry, no Nutshell-operated backend.

Server

• Runs on a machine you control. Stores its own API key at .nutshell-api-key in its working directory.
• Optionally writes Claude Code session transcripts under ~/.claude/projects/ when you use Claude Code passthrough — the same location the Claude CLI writes to.
• We have no visibility into your server. It runs on your hardware. Logs stay local.

Third-party services

Nutshell can route AI calls through services you opt into. When you do, your data goes to those services according to their own privacy policies — not ours:

• OpenRouter — if you set an API key for cloud LLM calls.
• Jina Reader — used by the article-ingest pipeline to extract readable text from URLs. Only the URL is sent.
• Anthropic — if you use Claude Code passthrough through your local server. Data goes from your server directly to Anthropic, not through us.

You can run Nutshell without any of these by enabling Ollama on your server and skipping the article extractor.

Data we don't collect

• Personal information (name, email, address, phone number).
• Health, financial, or location information.
• Browsing history (the browser extension reads the active tab URL only on click, never automatically).
• Keystrokes, mouse position, screen recordings, or other behavioral data.
• Anything beyond what's listed above.

Encryption in transit

Every payload between Nutshell components is encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a key derived from your local server's pre-shared API key via SHA-256. The key itself is never transmitted — it's a pre-shared secret. A LAN packet sniffer sees only opaque ciphertext.

Changes to this policy

Material changes to this policy are reflected here with the Last updated date at the top of the page bumped accordingly.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or anything else: open an issue on the relevant GitHub repository under github.com/double-r-squared .