Privacy

Ixel has no account, no server of its own, and nothing that reports back to us. It runs on your computer and talks only to the services you set up, when you use them. This page lists every one, and everything it keeps.

In short

• No telemetry. Ixel sends no analytics, crash reports or usage pings. We don't know who uses Ixel or how.
• No Ixel account, and no Ixel server. Your questions go from your computer to the AI companies you chose, and nowhere else.
• Your keys stay yours. Each key goes only to its own company, and never over plain http:// except to your own computer (and, for a git host's token, across your Tailscale network, which encrypts it). On your computer they're encrypted, and the key that opens them is in your system's keychain. On a computer with no keychain Ixel can use (a Linux server, say), they're in a plain-text file only you can read, and Health says so.
• Private keeps it at home. Turn on Private in Settings, and only the models on your own computers answer; every other model sits out. Your questions and their answers stay on your computer or your network, as long as your servers run the models themselves.
• Some companies train on what you send. It depends on the company and how you connect, usually an API key or a sign-in plan. See which ones, and how to keep yours out.
• Little is kept, and not for long. Ixel keeps your last ixel review questions for a day, a log of what Machines did for 30 days (never a command's text), and none of the app's conversations once it stops. ixel forget clears it all. See the full list.

What goes where

Everything Ixel and Handoff send over the internet, and when:

Handoff's plugin talks to your AI apps on your computer only. Handoff itself uses the network for handoff update and the rankings update listed above. It also sends requests to the model server a local worker uses, which can be on another computer and gets a key only if you set one. Otherwise, it reaches the internet only through the programs it starts for you (an agent run, or Ixel).

The app's page and its server run only on your computer. The server listens on 127.0.0.1 with a one-time key, and the page can't load anything from the internet: no fonts, no scripts, no images from elsewhere.

Which companies may train on it

Once your question reaches a company, Ixel can't keep it private. That company's rules decide whether it keeps what you send, uses it to train its models, or lets its staff read it. Mostly it comes down to how you connect: API keys on a paid account usually aren't trained on, while sign-in plans and free tiers often are.

This is what each company says on its own pages, as we read them on October 4, 2026. They change often, so check the linked page before you rely on it. Where the pages we read don't answer, the table says "Not stated", and where we didn't look, "Not checked".

Gemini CLI with a Google sign-in: since June 18, 2026, Google's sign-in no longer works in Gemini CLI for personal accounts (Google's notice, updated Sep 2, 2026). Use a Gemini API key (the rows above), or a work account with Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise, for which Google says what you send isn't collected or used for training.

Handoff works the same way. An agent it runs, or an app you connect to the board (Claude Desktop, Grok Build and the rest), sends what it's given to its own company, under that company's rules for how you connect (a plan or an API key). Answers and reviews it asks Ixel for go to the models on your panel.

Models you add yourself, or through OpenCode:

We haven't checked the others you can add by hand or through OpenCode, such as Z AI (GLM), Xiaomi (MiMo), Mistral or OpenRouter. Read a company's terms before you send it anything you'd mind it keeping.

Two tools Ixel uses only if you switch them on, so read these first:

• Google Antigravity. Google keeps your prompts, code and replies to improve its products and models, and its employees and contractors may read them. You can opt out in Antigravity's Settings, but its terms don't say whether that also stops people reading them. Its FAQ says reaching Antigravity through other tools breaks its terms and can get your account suspended, and points those tools to a Gemini API key. So Ixel leaves Antigravity off until you switch it on, and shows this warning first; a Gemini API key avoids the question.
• Cline, which Handoff can run as a worker once you switch it on. Its free models may use what you send to improve the model, and most come from labs it doesn't name. On Cline's own provider, Cline sees your prompts and code and keeps them for a time its privacy policy (Sep 24, 2025) doesn't state. Your own API key or a local model avoids both.

Keep your questions out of training

1. Use an API key on a paid account

   Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI don't train on API use by default, and Google doesn't once billing is on for the key's Cloud project. What you send with a free Gemini key is trained on and may be read by reviewers, except in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK.

2. On a plan, turn training off

   For Claude Code, the training choice in Claude's Privacy settings. For Codex, Improve the model for everyone in ChatGPT's Data controls, and Include environments in Codex's settings. For Copilot, Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training in your Copilot settings. For Grok Build, leave Coding data, retention, and training (/privacy in grok) off, and turn off Improve the model in Grok's Data Controls.

3. Skip the ones that train with no switch to stop it

   These include Kimi and DeepSeek, unless you've asked them to stop by email or support. Free models in OpenCode Zen and Cline may use what you send, too.

4. Keep it on your computer

   For anything that mustn't leave it, use a local model and turn on Private. Then only the models on your own computers answer; Honest limits says what Private doesn't cover.

Not training on something isn't the same as not keeping it: several of these companies keep what you send for up to 30 days to catch abuse, and longer if it's flagged.

What's kept on your computer

Ixel's files are in ~/.config/ixel-mat (on Windows, %USERPROFILE%\.config\ixel-mat). On a Mac or Linux, that folder is readable only by you.

Add-ons keep their own folder, ~/.ixel:

Handoff keeps each project's board in the project, in .handoff, which stays out of git:

Never written to disk: the terminal chat's conversation and your earlier questions in it (gone when you leave), the app's conversations (kept in Ixel's memory so a reload brings them back, and gone when Ixel stops), pictures you attach (kept in memory for 30 minutes at most), and sound (not kept at all).

Things expire when Ixel runs: if you don't run it for a while, an old conversation.json waits until you next do. ixel forget deletes it at once.

What the AI programs keep

A program on your computer that Ixel hands a question to may save it in its own folders. Claude Code and Codex are told not to. Gemini CLI, Copilot and OpenCode have no such switch, so once each run is over, Ixel removes what that run saved, and nothing else: never a login, a setting, or a session of yours. Grok Build gets a home folder of its own for each run, holding only a copy of your computer's id (Grok Build's agent_id), your default model, and a setting that keeps your skills in ~/.agents out. Ixel deletes that folder afterwards. Your login stays where it is, and Grok Build refreshes it there as it always does. We checked this with Gemini CLI 0.62, Copilot 1.0.91, OpenCode 1.18 and 2.0, and Grok Build 1.0.46.

Removed rows are overwritten, not just marked free. If one of these programs is busy with its database at that moment, Ixel waits two seconds, then leaves it, and your answer isn't affected. An agent you point at a folder of your own (its workdir) is left alone, since your own sessions are kept there too; the folder Ixel gives Grok Build for each run is still deleted.

What Ixel strips or refuses

• Photo details are removed. Every picture you attach is drawn again before it's sent, which leaves out what a camera writes into a photo, such as where it was taken.
• Secrets in code are refused. Code or files that look like they hold a key or a token aren't sent, and Ixel says where they are. Handoff refuses them on the board too.
• Subscription programs don't get your keys. The keys Ixel keeps aren't passed to Claude Code, Codex and the others, so your subscription is what gets used. The one exception is Gemini CLI: it gets your Google (Gemini) key while it isn't signed in another way.
• No redirects. A key is sent only to the address you set, never on to wherever that address points.
• A folder can't change Ixel's settings. Ixel ignores settings files in the folder you run it in, so a project you download can't point your keys elsewhere.

Honest limits

• Your keychain gives your keys to programs you run. The key that opens your saved keys is in your keychain, and on Windows any program you run can ask Credential Manager for it, as can any program in your session once a Linux keyring is unlocked. A Mac asks you first. A copy of your home folder is only as safe as your keychain's password, and a Linux keyring with a blank password protects nothing. On a computer with no keychain Ixel can use, your keys are in plain text, in a file only you can read.
• On Windows and Linux, the app window is Edge or Chrome. Ixel turns off its background services, but two requests to Google are left (above), and Edge's own Microsoft services follow Microsoft's settings, not Ixel's.
• A question typed on the command line (ixel review "…") is saved in your shell's history, like any command. Type it in the ixel chat to avoid that.
• Private covers your questions, not everything. Pictures you make with ixel image still go to xAI or OpenAI, the Board's Review… and Fix… send work to the agent you pick, and a question asked through the plugin came from that app's model in the first place. Opening Settings and checking your models still send your keys to their companies, with no question. An ixel chat already open when you turn Private on doesn't follow it until you start it again.
• Private trusts the servers you add. It can't see what a server on your network does with a question, so a server that passes questions on to a company still counts as yours. Private has the details.
• Your own command-line agents. One you add yourself gets the question on stdin, unless its prompt_via says "flag", "arg" or "auto": then it's on the program's command line, where other programs on the computer can read it.
• Deleting isn't shredding. Ixel and Handoff overwrite deleted text inside their own files, but a disk can keep old copies of a file it rewrote (most SSDs do), and so do backups and synced folders.

Leave as little as possible

1. Use local models, with Private on

   For anything that mustn't leave your computer, add a local model and turn on Private in Settings, under Asking. Then only your own models answer, and nothing is sent if none of them can.

2. Ask in the chat or the app

   The chat and the app keep their conversations in memory only. ixel review "…" keeps your last three questions in conversation.json for a day and puts the question in your shell's history.

3. Clear what's kept

   Close Ixel, then run:

   ixel forget

   It deletes conversation.json, the Machines log and the app window's browser storage, and says what it removed. In the app, Forget at the bottom of Settings clears the first two. Ixel's own Linux window keeps its storage in ~/.local/share/ixel and ~/.cache/ixel, which ixel forget names but doesn't delete: delete those folders too, with Ixel closed.

   For a project's board, handoff delete T-N removes one task with its results, and handoff clean removes finished tasks that haven't changed in 30 days (--older-than DAYS to change that), after listing them and asking. handoff keep 30 has the board do that by itself. Deleting the project's .handoff folder removes everything.

   If you uninstall Ixel, also remove the keychain item named Ixel (account keys): in Keychain Access on a Mac, Credential Manager on Windows (Windows Credentials), or your keyring app on Linux.

4. Turn off the update check

   Add this to config.toml, and run ixel update yourself now and then:

   [updates]
   check = false

This website

ixelai.com has no cookies, no analytics, no tracking, no forms and no accounts. Its fonts, scripts and pictures are served from the site itself, and each page's security policy stops it from connecting anywhere else. These docs read your browser's platform, in the page only, to show your system's steps first; nothing is stored or sent. GitHub Pages hosts the site and, like any web host, logs visitors' IP addresses for security; that log is GitHub's, not ours.

Found something that doesn't match this page? Email openixel.ai@proton.me.