Privacy Policy

June 19, 2026 · View on GitHub

Last updated: 2026-06-18

Cortex is a local-first memory server for Claude. It is designed so that your data stays on your machine. This policy describes exactly what data Cortex handles, where it is stored, and what (if anything) leaves your device.

What data Cortex processes

To build and retrieve memory, Cortex reads and processes:

  • Claude Code session data on your machine under ~/.claude/ — conversation transcripts (projects/*/**.jsonl), memory notes (*.md), and session logs.
  • Content you explicitly store via the remember, wiki_write, anchor, and ingestion tools (decisions, lessons, notes, code/PRD references).
  • Derived metadata — keyword/entity extraction, embeddings, heat/decay scores, and cognitive-profile statistics computed from the above.

Cortex does not ask for, collect, or process passwords, payment data, or credentials. If you place such data into a memory yourself, it is stored exactly like any other memory (locally) — avoid doing so.

Where your data is stored

  • Default (SQLite): all memories, entities, the knowledge graph, and profiles are stored in a single local database file at ~/.claude/methodology/memory.db. Nothing is uploaded.
  • Optional (PostgreSQL): if you explicitly configure a PostgreSQL + pgvector database (via the database_url setting), your data is stored in your own database. Cortex never provisions or connects to any database you did not configure.

You own this data. Deleting the database file (or the relevant rows) permanently removes it. The forget tool deletes individual memories.

What leaves your machine

Cortex itself does not transmit your memories, conversations, profiles, or any personal content to the author, to Anthropic, or to third-party analytics. There is no telemetry phone-home; the get_telemetry tool reports local performance statistics only.

The only outbound network activity is:

  1. One-time model download. On first use, the open-source embedding model (sentence-transformers, all-MiniLM-L6-v2) and the reranking model (flashrank, ms-marco-MiniLM) are downloaded from the public Hugging Face model hub. These transfers fetch model files only — no user content is sent. After the first download the models run fully offline.
  2. Integrations you explicitly enable. If you configure optional upstream MCP servers or a remote PostgreSQL database, Cortex communicates only with the endpoints you provided.

Data sharing

Cortex does not sell, share, or disclose your data to any third party. There are no third-party trackers, advertising SDKs, or analytics services in the server.

Data retention

Data persists in your local store until you delete it. Cortex applies a local thermodynamic decay/consolidation process that compresses or prunes low-value memories over time; this is a local maintenance operation, not a transfer.

Your controls

  • forget — delete a specific memory.
  • Delete ~/.claude/methodology/memory.db — remove all SQLite-stored data.
  • For PostgreSQL, manage retention directly in your database.

Contact

Questions about this policy: admin@ai-architect.tools · issues: https://github.com/cdeust/Cortex/issues