CopperlightPrivacy
What you type stays on your Mac.
Copperlight has no account, no analytics and no crash reports, and it uses no AI service. It only reaches out when you ask for something that lives elsewhere, like a stock price or the weather, and then only with what that answer needs. Here is all of it.
Every server it contacts
Searches and links open in your browser, so they’re between you and the site you chose. Everything Copperlight asks for itself is below. The source is open, so you can check every line.
Public lists, with nothing about you
| Server | When | What it sends |
|---|---|---|
| api.coinbase.com | When you open the launcher, at most every 5 minutes | Nothing: it asks for every currency’s rate at once, so it never learns which ones you convert |
| formulae.brew.sh | Once a week | Nothing: it downloads Homebrew’s whole public app list, so it never learns which apps you have |
| Each app’s homepage | Once per app, for the apps in Homebrew’s list that you have | A plain request for the page, to read its one-line summary |
| itunes.apple.com | Once per app you got from the App Store | The app’s bundle id, to read the App Store’s description |
These let you find an app by what it does, like “draw” or “noise”, and convert currencies offline. [apps] online = false turns the app descriptions off.
Only when you ask
| Server | When | What it sends |
|---|---|---|
| query1.finance.yahoo.com | In the Stock chip (stock aapl, then Tab), once you pause typing | The ticker |
| api.open-meteo.com | In the Weather chip, once you pause typing | The city you typed or set, or where you are, rounded to about a kilometer |
| language.wikipedia.org | In the Wikipedia chip (wiki lisbon, then Tab), once you pause typing | What you typed, in your Mac’s first language |
| api.ipify.org | Enter on the Public IP row (ip) | Nothing besides the request: it answers with your public address |
| Apple’s servers | Enter on speed | The speed test macOS runs itself |
| Homebrew, and the app’s site | Enter on Install, on an app you don’t have | The download of that app |
| api.todoist.com | Only with Todoist picked in Settings and your key saved: Enter on add todo, on Show in due, or on a to-do | Your key, with the to-do and its date; a request for today’s and overdue tasks; or the task to complete |
Typing alone never sends anything: an answer from elsewhere waits for its chip and a pause, or for Enter. Translation, the dictionary, spelling, and the text in photos and on screen are all read on your Mac.
Every permission it can ask for
None are needed to start. macOS asks the first time a feature needs one, and saying no turns off only that feature.
| Permission | What it turns on | Without it |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | Pasting into your app, window commands and layouts, menu search, the media keys, opening on the text you selected | A paste copies instead |
| Automation | Your browser’s open tabs; the files you selected in Finder; :empty trash, :dark, :restart, :log out; your to-dos in Things, when you pick it | Those don’t work |
| Calendars | add event; meetings, week, month, free and the next meeting | No events |
| Reminders | add todo, and the ones that are due | No reminders |
| Contacts | Finding people as you type their name | No people |
| Location Services | The weather where you are, and the name of your Wi-Fi network for wifi password | Set a city in Settings, or type the network’s name |
| Camera | camera: seeing yourself before a call; nothing is recorded | No camera |
| Bluetooth | :connect: your paired devices | No devices |
| Screen Recording | copy text: the part of the screen you drag over | No text from the screen |
| Photos | The text in your photos, read on your Mac | Photos aren’t searched |
| Notifications | The end of a pomodoro or a timer, and errors | Those end silently |
| Full Disk Access, by hand | Safari’s bookmarks and history, and codes from Messages | No Safari, no codes |
What it keeps
Everything is in ~/.config/copperlight/ on your Mac, and nowhere else: your settings, notes, clipboard history (readable only by you), what it learned about what you open, and cached currency rates and app descriptions. Copies made in password managers are never recorded, and a link you copy loses its tracking (utm_, fbclid). Settings has a Forget button for what it learned; deleting the folder removes everything. One thing is kept outside it: your Todoist key, if you save one, in your Mac’s keychain, until you forget it in Settings.
Contacts, browser tabs, reminders and events are read when you open the launcher and kept in memory only. codes reads only the last 15 minutes of Messages, when you type it. A Wi-Fi password is shown only after macOS asks for your Mac’s password, and kept in memory for 10 minutes.
Turning things off
Any feature can be turned off in Settings › Features, or in config.toml. Off means off: no rows, no background work, no network, no permission asked.
Questions
Does Copperlight collect any data about me?
No. It has no account, no analytics, no crash reports and no AI service. What you type stays on your Mac, and what it keeps is in ~/.config/copperlight/ on your Mac, apart from a Todoist key you save, which stays in your Mac’s keychain.
Does Copperlight work offline?
Yes. Apps, files, math, units, clipboard history, snippets, notes, windows and translation all work without a connection. Stocks, the weather, Wikipedia, currency rates and the speed test need one.
Why does Copperlight ask for Accessibility?
To paste into the app you were in, move windows, search menus and read the text you selected. Without it, a paste copies instead.
The full list, kept with the code: PRIVACY.md. Checked October 2026.
Try it in a minute.
Download it, drag it into Applications and press ⌥Space. The first launch takes one extra click.