Privacy policy

Signalbox is an app you run yourself, on your own Mac and your own Android phone. It gathers what needs your attention (GitHub, Linear, Slack, your calendar) into one inbox. This page says what it reads, where it keeps it, and how you take it back.

The short version: Signalbox has no server of its own. What it reads stays on your devices and in a private git repository you own, encrypted. The people who make Signalbox don’t receive it, and it isn’t sold, shared, or used for ads.

Signalbox is pre-alpha software: it changes often, and this page describes how it works today (see Changes to this policy).

Who runs Signalbox

Signalbox is software, not a hosted service. Each copy runs on the devices of the person who installed it and acts on their behalf. “We” on this page means the people who make the software; they receive none of your data.

What Signalbox reads

Only what you connect, one service at a time, in Settings. Each connection signs in with your own account, and its token stays on your devices.

Source	What Signalbox reads	What it can do there	How it signs in
GitHub	Your notifications: review requests, mentions and assignments, and the pull requests and issues they point to.	Agents you start can search, read and comment on pull requests, open them, and approve or merge the ones you allow.	A token you paste, or the GitHub CLI already signed in on your computer.
Linear	The issues assigned to you, in the states and teams you pick.	Marks issues done, reopens them, moves them and comments when you or an agent you start act on them.	Sign in with Linear (permissions `read` and `write`), or a personal API key.
ClickUp	The tasks assigned to you.	Marks tasks done or reopened, and records agent progress, when you act on them.	A personal API token.
Slack	Messages that mention you, direct and group messages to you, replies in your threads, and messages you saved for later.	Sends a reply only when you write or approve it.	A Slack app you create in your own workspace, with the user permissions `search:read`, `stars:read`, `channels:history`, `groups:history`, `im:history`, `mpim:history` and `chat:write`.
Google Calendar	Your calendars and their events (details below).	Creates or changes an event only when you ask it to.	Sign in with Google.
Webhook	Items that scripts and tools you set up post to Signalbox on your own computer.	Nothing.	A token only your computer knows.
Herdr	The state of coding agents running in Herdr on your computers, so one that needs you shows up as an item.	Hands an item to one when you ask.	Nothing; it runs on your machines.

Also kept, because you create it:

What you type into Signalbox: tasks, notes, checklists, comments, settings, rules and attachments (files you add to a task).
Your devices: each device’s name, model, system and app version, and when it last synced, so your other devices can show them. When an update goes wrong, a short diagnostic of what failed is kept the same way, for your other devices to show you.

Rules, banner settings, focus ranking and category suggestions run on your devices. Category suggestions use Apple’s on-device model on a Mac that has Apple Intelligence; a phone asks your own Mac for one, directly.

Google user data

Connecting Google is optional, and Signalbox uses only your Google Calendar. In Settings, ticking Calendar is what asks Google for the two permissions below. Signalbox reads your calendars and events, and creates or changes an event only when you ask it to. It doesn’t read your mail or files.

Box you tick	Permission (scope)	What Signalbox does with it
Calendar	`https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.calendarlist.readonly`	Lists the calendars in your account, so you pick which ones Signalbox shows. Read-only.
Calendar	`https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events`	Reads the events on the calendars you picked: shows your upcoming meetings next to your tasks, and lets agents you start read your calendar to work on a task. Signalbox keeps each meeting’s title, start and end, from a week back to six weeks ahead. Signalbox creates or changes an event only when you ask it to.

Signalbox reads this data only to provide these features to you, in the app on your own devices. Untick Calendar and Signalbox stops using it, even while Google still holds the permission.

Agents. An agent is an AI coding assistant (for example Claude Code) that you start on a task, on your computer or a machine you choose, under your own account with that assistant’s provider. When a task needs it, the agent may read the Google data above, and what it reads is sent to that provider to do the task, under your account’s terms with them. Signalbox starts an agent only when you ask it to.

Limited Use

Signalbox’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular, Google user data:

is used only to provide and improve the features you see in Signalbox, described above;
is not transferred to anyone else, except as needed to provide those features at your request (such as an agent you start), to comply with law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with your notice;
is not used for advertising, including retargeting or interest-based ads, and is never sold;
is not used to develop, improve or train generalized AI or machine-learning models;
is not read by any person, unless you give consent for specific messages, it is needed for security, to comply with law, or it is aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.

Agents you start

An agent works on one task you hand it, on your computer or on a machine you set up (one you connect with your own command, such as SSH or a container). Signalbox copies a small runner program to that machine, sends the agent the task’s text and the instructions you gave, and shows its progress and results on the task. What the agent reads to do the work (your code, the task, a connected service it is allowed to use) goes to its AI provider under your own account and that provider’s terms. Signalbox itself has no AI service and sends nothing to one on its own.

Where your data lives

On your devices. Everything Signalbox keeps sits in a database on your Mac and your phone, encrypted at rest (SQLCipher, AES-256). Sign-in tokens and keys stay in the Mac’s Keychain and the phone’s secure storage.
Between your devices. Your devices sync directly with each other (peer to peer, WebRTC), and through a private git repository that you own and choose. What goes to that repository is end-to-end encrypted to your devices, so the service hosting it stores only ciphertext.
Nowhere else. Signalbox has no server, no cloud database and no relay that holds your data, not even encrypted.

Some outside servers see that your devices are online, though not your data:

Finding your devices: public Nostr relays (by default nos.lol, relay.damus.io and relay.primal.net, which you can change) carry the encrypted handshake that lets two of your devices connect, and Google’s public STUN server (stun.l.google.com) tells a device its public address. They see your devices’ IP addresses, not your data.
Your sync repository’s host (for example GitHub) sees your devices connect, and stores only ciphertext.
Updates: devices check for and download new versions from the project’s GitHub releases, and a phone hears that a new version exists through the same Nostr relays. These requests carry nothing of yours.

Signalbox’s own services on your computer (its local API, the AI-tool server for assistants on your machine, and the webhook) listen only on your computer (127.0.0.1) and need a token. Notifications are shown by your device’s own system; no push service is involved. Logs stay on the device that wrote them.

The connected services themselves (Google, GitHub, Slack and the rest) of course keep their own copies under their own policies; Signalbox talks to them directly from your devices.

What Signalbox does not do

No analytics, tracking, telemetry or advertising, in the app or on this website. (The durable-work engine Signalbox runs on your devices, Restate, has its own telemetry switched off.)
No selling, renting or sharing of your data.
No accounts with us: there is nothing to sign up for.

This website

This site is static pages, served by Cloudflare Pages. It sets no cookies and runs no analytics or third-party scripts. Like any web host, Cloudflare handles your request (your IP address and browser) to deliver the page. If you email the contact address below, the message reaches the people who make Signalbox and is kept in their email.

How to take it back

Disconnect a service in Signalbox’s Settings. For Google, untick a part to stop using it, or remove the Google account to delete its tokens from your devices.
Revoke Google’s permission at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions. Signalbox then can no longer read anything from Google.
Delete your data: remove Signalbox from a device to delete everything it kept there, and delete your sync repository to remove the encrypted copy. Removing a device from your inbox in Settings stops it receiving new data.

How long it is kept

Data stays on your devices until you delete it, or until the source no longer has it (a finished meeting falls out of the calendar window; a closed issue clears from your inbox). Removing a connection deletes its tokens at once.

Children

Signalbox is not meant for children under 13, and is not knowingly used to collect data from them.

Changes to this policy

Signalbox is pre-alpha software, and this policy may change as it develops. Changes follow the same principles: your data stays on your devices and in your own repository, it isn’t sold, and Google user data stays under the Limited Use rules above. A significant change is announced in the app. The date at the top shows when this page last changed.

Contact

Questions about this page, or a request about your data: write to contact@signalbox.iamshobe.com.