Data and privacy

What stays on your Mac#

ncode is local-first. There is no account to create and no ncode server in the middle: everything it keeps is on your Mac.

One SQLite database, ~/Library/Application Support/SwarmCode/swarm_code.db, holds your conversations, runs, agent steps, settings, provider and search keys, MCP settings, schedules and usage. See where your keys are kept.
Pasted or dropped images are saved as files in attachments inside ~/Library/Application Support/SwarmCode; global memory and global commands live in the same folder.
Project memory, custom commands, workflows and agent definitions you add to a project live in its .swarm_code folder, next to your code.

What leaves your Mac, and where it goes#

Only what the features you set up need:

Destination	What is sent	When
Your model provider	the conversation, instructions, and whatever the agents read or produced (file contents, command output)	every model turn
The search engines and readers you enabled	search queries and page addresses	when an agent searches or reads a page through a reader
Any web page an agent opens	an ordinary web request	when an agent uses `web_fetch`
The MCP servers you added	the tool calls agents make to them	when an agent uses one of their tools

Opening a designed research report may also load web fonts from Google Fonts.

Commands the agents run on your Mac get a cleaned environment by default, so secrets in your shell variables are not handed to them.

What the terminal adds#

cli.json, beside the database, holds this terminal's own settings (theme, side panel, mouse, keys). It is readable only by you (mode 0600) and at most 64 KB.
A log file, cli.log, in the app's logs folder (see Names you may still see), readable only by you and rotated. ncode never writes log lines to your terminal. ncode config path prints its exact location.
Files ncode creates for itself are private to you: it runs with a 077 umask. Commands the agents run in your project keep your own umask, so the files they create look like yours.

Where your keys are kept#

Provider keys, search-engine keys and the environment variables or headers you give an MCP server are stored in the local ncode database on your Mac, ~/Library/Application Support/SwarmCode/swarm_code.db. They are not stored in the macOS Keychain.

What that means for you:

Protect the database like the rest of your home folder: it holds your keys. Anyone who can read your files can read them.
The provider list shows a key only in masked form, and when fetching a model list fails, the key is removed from the endpoint's error text before you see it.
Commands an agent runs get a cleaned environment by default: variables whose names look like secrets are hidden from them. GITHUB_TOKEN and GH_TOKEN are kept unless you change the list.
Deleting a provider or an MCP server deletes its stored secrets with it.

Keys reach ncode only by pasting them into Settings or through ncode config secret … --stdin; they are never read from command-line arguments, and never appear on screen, in the log, in undo, in search or in exports.

Names you may still see#

ncode had a different name before this release. The app and the command are new, but a few places keep the earlier name so your data, your projects and your scripts keep working. You do not need to rename anything.

What	Name that stays
The app's data folder	`~/Library/Application Support/SwarmCode`
The database	`~/Library/Application Support/SwarmCode/swarm_code.db`
The per-project folder	`.swarm_code` in each project
Your own agent definitions	`~/.swarm_code/agents/`
The earlier app	`SwarmCode.app` (replace it with `ncode.app`)
The earlier terminal command	`swarmcode` (still works, as an alias of `ncode`)
Environment variables	`NCODE_…` are read first; the older `SWARM_…` names still work

Two more paths still carry the earlier name:

Deep research writes each research to ~/.swarmcode/research/<id>/.
The app's logs are in ~/Library/Logs/SwarmCode/.