Privacy
Houston is a locally-installed coding agent. You bring your own model and credentials, so almost every privacy question comes down to one thing: which providers you choose to connect. This document explains what Houston stores, what it sends, and where.
The short version
- Houston runs on your device. Conversations, settings, and project data are stored locally on your computer. - There is no telemetry. Houston runs no in-app instrumentation, and the project operates no server that receives your content. The only usage signal that exists is the aggregate download and update-check count our download host keeps for released files, which holds no personal data. - Your data leaves your device only to providers you configure. Prompts, code, search queries, and tool calls go to the destinations you set up, under those destinations' own privacy policies.
Stored on your device
Houston writes the following to your operating system's application-data directory and sends none of it anywhere:
- Conversations: your messages, the model's responses, and a record of tool activity, saved one file per conversation. - Settings: preferences, configured providers and endpoints, model selections, permission rules, and similar configuration. - API keys and credentials: stored in your operating system's secure credential storage (for example, the OS keychain) where available, so they are encrypted at rest rather than kept in plain configuration files. - Window and interface state: window size, panel layout, and the like.
You can delete any of it by removing the conversation or setting in the app, or by deleting Houston's application-data directory.
Sent to providers you configure
Data leaves your device only when you use a feature that reaches the network, and only to the destination you configured:
- AI model providers. When you send a message, the content of your prompt (which may include your messages, selected files, code, images, and related context) goes to the model provider you configured, using the API key or endpoint you supplied. If you run a local model, that data stays on your own machine or network. - Web search and web fetch. Search queries and fetched URLs go to the search provider or website involved. These actions are gated by Houston's approval flow. - External tools (Model Context Protocol servers). Data needed for a tool's calls goes to the server you configured. - Application updates. Packaged builds contact the update service to check for and download new versions. That involves standard network metadata such as your IP address and app version, handled by that service. It does not send your conversations or project data. Like any download host, the service keeps aggregate counts of how often each released file is fetched; those totals are held by that service, contain no personal data, and involve no in-app tracking.
Each of these third parties handles your data under its own policies, which vary by provider and plan: whether they log it, how long they keep it, and whether they use it to train or improve their models. Review a provider's policy before connecting it, and pick providers and settings that suit the sensitivity of your data. Houston is not an intermediary for that traffic. It flows directly from your device to the destination you chose, so the provider is the party to ask about retention, deletion, or access.
Data residency
Because you choose the providers and their regions, you determine where your data is processed and stored. If you have data-residency, cross-border-transfer, or sectoral obligations (GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, HIPAA, or similar), Houston gives you the controls to meet them: which provider, which endpoint, which region, and local versus hosted models. The choices are yours to make.
Security
Credentials go into your operating system's secure credential storage where available, and everything else stays on your device. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure. Keep your operating system, Houston, and your credentials up to date, and revoke API keys you believe may be compromised. See docs/sandboxing.md for how Houston confines what the agent can reach, and `SECURITY.md` for how to report a vulnerability.
Questions
Open an issue on the repository, or for anything sensitive, email [email protected].