Privacy policy

Last updated: October 24, 2026

1. Who is responsible

The controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the Mushroom project, reachable at the addresses on the imprint. E-mail: hello@mushroom.rest, or @mushroom on X.

2. The Mushroom app

2.1 Data that stays on your Mac

Everything the app knows about you is stored locally on your Mac in a single database file: reminders, habit logs, chat history, notepad content, pet state, and settings. This data is never transmitted to us, and no file on your Mac is either, unless you switch on file sharing and drop one on the pet yourself (section 2.8). You can export, import, or delete your data at any time in Settings.

Chat and natural-language reminders are processed by Apple's on-device foundation models (Apple Intelligence), or by a small model you download once and run locally. Conversations are processed entirely on your Mac and are not sent to us or to Apple's servers by the app.

Settings, Chat has an option to point chat at a server of your own instead (OpenAI, Ollama, LM Studio, or any other server that speaks the OpenAI chat API). It is off by default, and turning it on, or changing the address, asks you to confirm first. With it on, everything you type in chat, including reminders you ask the pet to set, is sent to that server, and its replies come back from there. When you press Summarize in the news window, the headlines and feed descriptions in view go there too. When you ask chat about your settings, your Stash or your shared files, or ask it to change a setting, what it looks up goes there as well: the names of your settings and the values it reads or changes, the titles, addresses and notes of matching Stash items, and the names of shared files. A shared file's link is shown to you directly and never sent there, because it carries the file's key. Anyone who pointed chat at a server before version 1.60 is asked once before any of this is sent. Nothing else about Mushroom is sent. This is a server you choose and point the app at yourself: we do not operate it, do not receive anything from it, and cannot see what is sent.

2.2 Weather, sunrise and sunset

If you ask the pet about the weather, the app looks the place up with Apple's MapKit service and requests a forecast for those coordinates from Apple's WeatherKit. The request contains the coordinates and your IP address. No name, account, or identifier is sent. While a place is set (below), the Mac also makes that same request on its own every 30 minutes, for the little weather emoji beside the pet. Clear the place and it stops. See Apple Weather attribution.

When you do not name a place, the app uses whichever of these you set up. Neither exists until you create it:

• Home location, a place you type in Settings, General. It is stored in your own database on the Mac and geocoded the same way any other place name is. It needs no permission.
• Use my location, off by default. Switching it on is what asks macOS for permission, and the app requests the reduced-accuracy fix only, which is roughly town level rather than a street address. The coordinates are used for that request and are never stored or sent anywhere else. If you refuse, the setting switches itself back off. You can withdraw the permission at any time in System Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services.

The sunrise and sunset notification is off by default and uses the same location and the same WeatherKit request. Without one of the two sources above it does nothing.

Home location is one of the settings iCloud sync carries (section 2.7), so with sync on, a place set on one Mac turns the weather emoji on for your other Macs too.

On Windows, which has no WeatherKit, the weather emoji works only once you type a town in Settings, Daily. The app looks it up with OpenStreetMap's Nominatim search, which receives the place name and your IP address, and keeps the answer in memory while it runs. Every 30 minutes it then asks MET Norway (api.met.no) for the forecast at those coordinates, which receives the coordinates and your IP address. Neither is sent a name, account, or identifier. Empty the field and both stop.

2.2a Daily quote

The daily quote is off until you turn it on. When it is on, the app requests the quote of the day from ZenQuotes (zenquotes.io) once a day. The request contains your IP address and nothing else: no name, account, identifier, or anything about you. The quote is shown exactly as received. See ZenQuotes.

2.3 News

The news window fetches the RSS or Atom feeds you listed in Settings (News on the Mac, Daily on Windows) when you open it, at the times you choose for it to open by itself (off until you turn that on), and, only if you pick it, every 1, 3 or 6 hours in the background. It fetches them directly from those publishers (the starting suggestions are Kagi News, NPR, and Al Jazeera, and you can remove or replace all of them). Each publisher receives what any feed reader sends: your IP address and the request for the feed file. Nothing about you, your reminders, or your chats is included, and the feed list stays on your Mac. Headlines are read straight from the feed and never sent to us. If you press Summarize, the headlines and feed descriptions in view go to the model chat uses: the one on your own computer (Apple Intelligence, or the model you downloaded), or your own chat server if you pointed chat at one (section 2.1). Never to us.

2.4 Tool plugins

You can add optional tool plugins (small JSON files) that let the pet call web services you choose, for example a public facts API. These requests go directly from your Mac to the endpoint configured in the plugin file. Which services are contacted, and what they receive, is defined entirely by the plugins you install and enable.

2.5 Licensing and updates

• Balance check: when you turn the license on, and at most once a day afterwards, the app asks a public Solana RPC node for the token balance of the wallet address you pasted into Settings, License. A wallet address is public by nature and says nothing about you; the RPC node sees your IP address, as any web request does. The app never asks for a seed phrase or a private key, and never signs or sends a transaction, so it cannot move your coins.
• No account: nothing about the check is tied to a name, an email or an Apple Account, and we keep no purchase record. There is no activation email, because there is nothing to activate.
• Update check: the app periodically fetches an update feed hosted on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA). Cloudflare receives your IP address as part of serving the file. No identifier is sent.

Older builds, bought with a card or on the Mac App Store before 1.62, still check their key with the payment processor and still get updates the way they did when you bought them. Nothing about those installs changes.

Legal basis for these requests: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the license agreement) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in providing updates).

2.6 Features that never leave your Mac

Calendar awareness and appointment reminders read events already on your Mac through Apple's EventKit, after you switch them on and grant access. Access is read only, Mushroom never writes to a calendar, and event titles are never sent to the model or to us. Emergency contacts, the notepad, read aloud, stats, and streaks are entirely local as well. Backups are a copy of the local database written to a folder you pick; if that folder happens to sit in iCloud Drive or a similar service, that service moves the file under its own terms. You can encrypt backups with a passphrase (Settings, Data): the file is then sealed on your Mac before it reaches that folder, and the passphrase stays in this Mac's keychain, never in the backup and never with us. Without it the backup cannot be opened, by anyone. Backups are separate from iCloud sync (section 2.7) and are unaffected by whether sync is on.

Three optional settings let Mushroom notice something about your surroundings, and all three are off until you switch them on, ask for no permission at all, and send nothing anywhere. "Quiet during calls" asks macOS whether your microphone is currently running, so that nudges can wait; it never opens the microphone, never receives any audio, and cannot tell what is being said or by whom. The dark room nudge reads the ambient light sensor that laptops have and desktops do not, and only to know whether the room has gone dark; it exists only in the version downloaded from this site. The check-in that asks how you are doing keeps your answer on your Mac, where it is counted in Stats and nowhere else.

Reacting to Claude Code and Codex (Settings, General, off by default, and only in the version downloaded from this site) works only from what those two tools already keep or hand over on your computer. Exactly this:

• ~/.claude/sessions/: Claude Code's own small file per running session, for whether it is working or waiting and the folder it runs in.
• Claude Code's status line: when Claude Code draws it, it hands the status line program a summary, and Mushroom keeps only your usage limits and the session's cost. Your own status line still runs and gets the same summary.
• Codex's hooks: at five moments (a session starting or ending, a prompt being sent, a permission question, a reply finishing) Codex tells Mushroom which moment it is, the session and the folder. The prompt moment also passes the prompt itself; Mushroom ignores it and never stores it.
• The last 64 KB of Codex's session log, to find its usage limit lines. Only those lines are read for anything; the rest is ignored.

What Mushroom keeps from all of this, in a small folder beside its own data: whether each agent is working, waiting or done, its folder, your limits and the cost. It never reads your API keys or logins (~/.claude/.credentials.json, Claude Code's Keychain entry, ~/.codex/auth.json), never stores a prompt, a reply or a command, and sends nothing anywhere: the limits come from what the tools already wrote, not from asking a server. Switching it on adds Mushroom to Claude Code's status line setting and to Codex's hooks file, after asking you, with a copy of each file kept beside it; switching it off takes those changes out again.

2.7 iCloud sync (optional, off by default)

Mushroom can keep several of your own Macs in step using Apple's CloudKit. This feature is switched off until you turn it on in Settings under Data, and while it is off nothing at all is sent.

When it is on, the following are copied into the private database of your own iCloud account: your reminders, your emergency and video contacts, your notepad, the settings that are not specific to one Mac, and the content of any optional features you have switched on.

These stay on each Mac and are never synced: your chat history, your stats and streaks, your reminder history, your license, and anything tied to one machine such as the pet's position and size or your keyboard shortcuts.

We are not a party to this transfer. The data goes to Apple as part of the iCloud service you already use, is stored in the private area of your account, and we have no access to it and no ability to read it. Apple processes it under Apple's Privacy Policy and your iCloud terms. Apple Inc. is a US company; transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and/or EU standard contractual clauses.

Turning sync off in Settings stops any further data leaving your Mac immediately. Copies already in your iCloud are left alone, because your other Macs may still be using them; you can remove them yourself by deleting the app's data in your iCloud settings, or by deleting the records in iCloud. Deleting a reminder, contact or note in Mushroom removes it from your other Macs as well.

2.8 Temporary file sharing (optional, off by default)

This is the only part of Mushroom that puts a file of yours on a server of ours. It is switched off until you turn it on in Settings under Sharing, and while it is off nothing is uploaded and no account is created for you anywhere.

When it is on, dropping a file on your mushroom uploads that file, and only that file, to storage we run on Cloudflare R2. The file is kept in Western Europe. So that uploads are quick wherever in the world you are, Cloudflare may first write it at a location closer to you and copy it across a moment later, and that first location can be outside the EU (see section 4). You get back a link with an unguessable address.

We cannot read the files you share. Since version 1.39.0 your Mac encrypts each file before it is uploaded, and the key is put in the part of the link after the # sign. Browsers never send that part to the server, so the key does not reach us even in a log, and what we hold is a file we have no way to open. When your recipient opens the link, the page we serve them decrypts the file in their own browser. This does mean anyone who has the whole link can open the file, and there is no password on top of it. Treat the link like the file itself and only send it to people you mean to send it to. It also means we cannot inspect a file that is reported to us (section 2.10): we act on the report by deleting the file, not by looking at it.

What is stored while a file is live: the encrypted file, its name, its size, its file type, the time it went up and the time it expires, an identifier for the Mac that uploaded it, and the wallet address the upload was licensed under, shortened to its first and last four characters. The name and the type are not encrypted, because your other Macs list them for you; the contents are. We never store a key or a full address, and the shortened form cannot be turned back into the real one. It is kept so that a file reported as harmful can be traced to the install behind it, which nothing else on the record can do.

How long: the file stops being downloadable exactly 24 hours after it goes up, and is normally erased from storage within the hour after that. A storage lifecycle rule removes anything still present as a backstop. The bookkeeping record survives up to 7 days longer, with the filename erased, purely so an old link can say "this expired" rather than nothing at all. You can delete any file sooner, from any of your Macs, in the Shared Files window; that removes it straight away and the link stops working.

Because the feature is tied to your license rather than to one machine, every Mac using the same license can see the names of, and delete, the files shared under it.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, performing a feature you asked for by switching it on and by dropping a specific file. Cloudflare, Inc. acts as our processor for this storage. Turning the feature off stops any further uploads; files already shared run out their own 24 hours unless you delete them.

Unless you run the server yourself. In both versions, Settings under Data lets you point file sharing and messaging at servers your own organization runs, which is how a company keeps this data on hardware it controls. You have to type both addresses and confirm the change. While that is set, this section and the next describe your servers rather than ours: nothing in either feature reaches us, we are not the processor, and the server software is open source so you can read exactly what it does before you run it: the source ships with each release. It can run in your own cloud account or on hardware you own.

2.9 Messaging your friends (optional, off by default)

This is the only part of Mushroom that carries a message of yours to another person. It is switched off until you turn it on in Settings under Friends, and while it is off no identity is created, nothing connects, and no notifications are requested.

When you turn it on, your Mac creates a messaging identity for itself: a private key that is stored in this Mac's keychain and never leaves it, and a matching public key that our server holds so friends can encrypt to you. Adding a friend works by an invite code you send them yourself, through whatever you already use. There are no usernames, no directory, and no contact discovery: we never read your address book, and nobody can find you without a code you handed them.

We cannot read your messages. Each message is encrypted on your Mac with a key derived from your key and your friend's, using Apple's CryptoKit. Our server receives and stores only the encrypted form. This is end to end encryption, but it does not offer forward secrecy: if the private key on your Mac were taken, messages that Mac already received could be read.

There is a second limit to that promise and it deserves saying plainly, because it is about us rather than about your Mac: our server is also what hands your friend's public key to your Mac. A server that gave each of you a key it held the private half of could read everything you sent, and nothing on either Mac would look wrong. So Friends shows a safety number for every person, in the panel behind the name at the top of a conversation. Read it out to them some other way, on a call or in person. If it is the same on both Macs, nobody is in the middle. Mushroom also checks that the key it is handed for someone really belongs to them, because a person's identity on the server is a hash of their own public key, so once you have a friend their key cannot quietly be swapped for anybody else's. The safety number is what covers the moment you add them, which is the one moment that check cannot.

What is stored on our server while a message is undelivered: the encrypted message, the identities of the sender and recipient, the time it was sent, and its size. What is not stored: the text of the message, the name you gave your friend (that stays on your Mac), your address book, and your license key, of which we keep only a one-way hash.

Separately from any message, our server holds your friend list for as long as each friendship lasts: for every friend, their identity, their public key, whether you have blocked them, and the date you added them. It does not expire on its own, because it is what lets a friend reach you at all. Removing a friend, or deleting the conversation, deletes their entry with it.

How long: a message is deleted from our server 30 days after it arrives, or sooner once you delete the conversation, which removes it from the server as well as from your Mac. The copy on your own Mac is yours and stays until you delete it.

If you switch on "Show when I'm online", our server also knows when your Mac is connected and passes typing indicators between you and your friends. This setting is symmetric: with it off you neither share your status nor see anyone else's. It governs what is sent and shown, not what is noted: when a friend who shares their status connects, the time is recorded next to their entry in your friend list either way, so that switching the setting on has something to show straight away. Whether it is on or off, our server can see that one identity sent something to another, and when. It cannot see what.

Notifications: if a message arrives while Mushroom is closed, we ask Apple's Push Notification service to wake your Mac. That notification contains no message text and no names, only a generic alert that your Mac itself turns into readable words. Apple therefore never receives the content of a message either. Your Mac's notification token is stored so we can reach it, and is removed when Apple tells us it is no longer valid.

Blocking someone stops them sending you anything further and is applied on our server as well as on your Mac. Your messaging identity is per Mac and is not synced anywhere, so replacing your Mac means exchanging invite codes again.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, performing a feature you asked for by switching it on and by sending a specific message. Cloudflare, Inc. acts as our processor for this relay, and Apple Inc. for the notification delivery described above. Turning the feature off closes the connection and stops notifications; messages already on the server run out their own 30 days unless you delete the conversation.

2.10 Reporting a shared file

Anyone who receives a Mushroom share link can report it at mushroom.rest/report. That page opens your own mail app with the link already in the message, so a report reaches us as ordinary e-mail (section 5) and this site stores nothing about it.

A report contains the link, whatever you write about it, and your name and email if you include them. They are used only to come back to you about that report and are deleted 30 days after it arrives; the rest is deleted after 180 days. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in keeping the file sharing feature from being used to distribute harmful or unlawful material, and in some cases Art. 6(1)(c) where the law requires us to act.

3. This website

mushroom.rest is a static site hosted on Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA). When you visit, Cloudflare processes the technical data needed to deliver the page, such as your IP address and browser information (server logs). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in serving the site securely. The site sets no cookies of its own; no third-party script runs on it at all.

For visitor statistics we use Cloudflare Web Analytics. It is cookieless: it stores nothing on your device, does not fingerprint you, and does not track you across sites. We only see aggregate numbers (page views, referrers, country). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used.

Downloading sends nothing to us. There is no download counter, no notification mail and no beacon: the file comes from the CDN and the log stays there.

There is no checkout on this site: no card field, no VAT calculation, no account. Tokens are bought wherever you already buy Solana tokens, from a wallet you control, and this site only tells you what holding them unlocks.

Tool submissions

Plugin files are sent to us through X, by you, at @mushroom. This site has no upload form, no captcha widget and no storage bucket, so nothing you submit passes through mushroom.rest. X's own privacy policy governs the message. Please do not put personal data or API keys into a plugin file; a plugin file never needs either. To have a submission removed, write to hello@mushroom.rest. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest in reviewing tools before publishing them.

4. Data transfers outside the EU

Cloudflare, Apple and ZenQuotes are US companies, and any Solana RPC provider used for the balance check is wherever that provider is hosted. Transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and/or EU standard contractual clauses.

5. E-mail contact

If you write to hello@mushroom.rest, we use your e-mail address and message only to answer you (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR) and keep the correspondence no longer than needed.

6. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), and objection (Art. 21). You can also complain to a data protection supervisory authority. Note that for everything stored by the app itself, you are in direct control: the data is on your Mac and can be exported or deleted in Settings.

7. Changes

We will update this policy when the app or website changes in a way that affects your data. The current version is always at mushroom.rest/privacy.