Privacy
Markpion is a local-first app. This page describes what it actually does with your data.
Your documents stay on your computer
- Markpion reads and writes the files you open, where they are on your disk. It doesn't upload, sync or copy them anywhere.
- There's no account, no sign-in, and no cloud service.
- The optional AI assistant is off by default. When you turn it on, add your own Anthropic API key and run an AI command, that command's text is sent to Anthropic (see the table below). If you choose a local model (Ollama) instead, the text goes to Ollama on your own computer and nowhere else.
- Import and export (Word, PDF, HTML, CSV) run entirely on your computer.
No telemetry
Markpion doesn't collect usage statistics, analytics or crash reports, and doesn't send any data about you or your documents.
Help → Send Feedback… and Report a Problem… don't send anything either: they open a new GitHub issue in your browser, or an email in your mail app, with the text you wrote and, if you choose, technical details (version, operating system and recent error messages, which you can edit). You review it there and decide whether to send it. Recent errors are kept in memory only, and forgotten when Markpion closes.
Network access
Markpion works fully offline. It connects to the internet in only these cases:
| When | What happens | Can you turn it off? |
|---|---|---|
| At startup, and when you choose Help → Check for Updates… | It asks GitHub (api.github.com) for the latest version number. Like any web request, this reveals your IP address to GitHub. No document data is sent. | Yes: Settings → Startup → Check for updates when Markpion starts |
| When you choose Update Now (Windows) | It downloads the new installer from GitHub Releases. | Don't choose Update Now |
When a document you preview contains an https:// image | The image is loaded from its web server, as in a browser, which reveals your IP address to that server. | Yes: Settings → Preview → Show pictures from the web in the preview (off: a placeholder is shown instead) |
| When you click a web link in the preview | The link opens in your browser. | |
| When you choose Pull or Push in the Git tab, or File → Publish → Folder to GitHub Pages | Your Git contacts the repository's remote, with your Git credentials, as on the command line. Nothing else is sent. | Don't choose Pull or Push |
| When you save an Anthropic API key, or run an AI command (only if the AI assistant is turned on) | Saving the key checks it with api.anthropic.com. An AI command sends the selected text (or the paragraph at the cursor, or up to 6,000 characters before it) and the instruction to Anthropic's Claude API, under your key. Markpion asks before the first one. | Yes: it's off by default; Settings → AI Assistant |
The app's Content Security Policy limits the interface's own network requests to api.github.com. AI requests are made by Markpion's native part, which alone can read the API key.
What's stored on your computer
Markpion keeps these in your user profile (see Configuration for the exact folders):
- Settings and the list of recent files and folders.
- Your Anthropic API key, if you added one, in Windows Credential Manager or the macOS Keychain (on Linux, a file in the settings folder that only your account can read).
- File history: the previous version of a file each time you save it (30 per file), so you can restore it.
- Crash recovery: snapshots of unsaved documents, so they can be recovered after a crash.
- Logs: operations and error types, never document content, with your home folder shown as
~.
Delete those folders to remove everything; uninstalling leaves them in place so a reinstall keeps your settings.
Limited file access
The part of the app that displays the interface has no direct access to your files. Every file operation goes through native code that only allows the files and folders you've opened yourself (and their contents), rejects path tricks such as .., and resolves shortcuts and links before checking. A document you open on its own can show pictures from its own folder and the folders inside it (so a README finds its images/), but not from hidden folders, and only from beside it when it sits directly in your home folder or at the top of a drive.
Safe documents
Documents can contain HTML, so the preview removes anything that could run code (scripts, event handlers, iframes, forms) and opens links only in your browser. Opening a Markdown file from someone else can't run code in Markpion.
This website
This documentation website is a static site hosted on GitHub Pages. It uses no cookies, analytics or tracking scripts of its own; your light or dark theme choice is remembered in your browser's local storage. GitHub may log visits as described in GitHub's privacy statement.
Questions
Ask in GitHub issues.