Privacy

Last updated September 2026. This describes BuildGist as it works today. BuildGist was called RunStory before version 0.4: the same service, under a new name. Installed before 0.4? The runstory command still works.

The short version

• Analysis runs on your computer, through Claude Code under your own Claude account, whichever coding agent made the run. To write the explanation, Claude Code sends the run's changes and what you asked for to Anthropic, as it does whenever you use it. BuildGist Cloud does not run models on your code.
• After each meaningful run, BuildGist sends BuildGist Cloud a sanitized record: what you asked your coding agent, BuildGist's explanation of the run, the names and line counts of changed files, the project's folder name and branch, your current task's instructions if a task is open (shown as Current task), and short cited excerpts of changed code (at most 12 lines each).
• BuildGist Cloud does not receive your repository or whole files, and does not see everything your coding agent does: only what BuildGist captured about a run and chose to explain.
• Before anything is sent to BuildGist Cloud, your computer masks secrets, and files named like secrets (such as .env files and keys) are never captured at all. That masking is best-effort: it catches common credential shapes, not every possible secret.
• In BuildGist for Mac, "What BuildGist can send" shows exactly what is sent and "Disconnect this Mac" stops syncing. On the command line: buildgist what-leaves --details and buildgist disconnect. You can delete your account and all cloud data from Settings.

What BuildGist Cloud stores

• Your account: your GitHub user ID, username and display name. BuildGist asks GitHub for your public profile only (no email, no repositories, no organizations) and does not keep GitHub's access token.
• Your computers: a name (your computer's host name unless you choose another), when it connected, when it last synced, and the BuildGist version. The credential it uses is stored only as a one-way hash. So that setup can finish by itself, each computer also reports which supported coding agents it has set up: each agent's name, a setup state such as "ready" or "approval needed", whether the BuildGist app or the command line set it up, and how many folders BuildGist could not record (a number, never a name or path). Nothing about your projects or files.
• Your synced runs, exactly as your computer sent them: the categories listed above, each after local sanitization. Prompts can be kept off BuildGist Cloud (buildgist config set egress.send_prompt_text off), cited excerpts too (buildgist config set egress.send_excerpts off), and a project can send less than the defaults; nothing a repository contains can make it send more.
• Your sessions: a hashed session token per signed-in browser, and a coarse browser label such as "Safari on macOS" so you can recognize it.
• Product activity: which days you signed in or opened the Inbox or the setup page, which explanations you opened, whether you downloaded BuildGist for Mac, how far you got in setting up (a computer connected, a coding agent ready, the first explanation received and opened), and whether a computer was connected with a one-click link or a typed code. BuildGist uses these to learn whether it is useful and whether setup is simple enough. It records nothing about your screen, clicks, scrolling or typing, and uses no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking scripts.
• The waitlist: if you joined it before public signup opened, the email address and coding agent you gave, used only to tell you about BuildGist. Email kayvanandre@gmail.com to have it removed.

Your computer's credential is never stored with your runs; it is only sent to prove which computer is syncing.

How long it is kept

Synced history is kept until you delete your account, up to a per-account storage limit; when the limit is reached, new events stop being accepted and nothing already stored is removed. Nothing is deleted automatically before that. Database backups are kept for 7 days, so data you delete may remain in a backup for up to 7 days before it is gone.

Deleting your data

Settings → Delete my account removes, immediately, your account, every synced project, run, explanation and task, your read history and activity, your connected computers and their credentials, and every session. Computers that were connected stop being able to sync. Nothing on your computer is deleted: BuildGist keeps working locally. Settings → Download my BuildGist data gives you your account, your computers, your activity and every synced run, as JSON, first.

Where it runs, and who else is involved

• Fly.io hosts BuildGist Cloud (United States).
• GitHub provides sign-in.
• Anthropic receives a run's changes and what you asked for when Claude Code explains it on your computer, under your Claude account and Anthropic's terms, not BuildGist's.

BuildGist does not sell your data or share it with anyone else.

Known limits

• Secret detection is best-effort. A secret in an unusual shape, inside code BuildGist cites, could be sent. If that matters for a project, check what is sent ("What BuildGist can send", or buildgist what-leaves --details) or turn excerpts off.
• Explanations are written by Claude, through Claude Code on your computer, and can be wrong.

Contact

Questions or requests: kayvanandre@gmail.com.