What leaves your computer depends entirely on which providers you pick in Settings. Below is the complete list of connections, files and permissions — so your IT department or data protection officer can check it rather than take our word for it.
This is every outbound connection the app makes. The first six depend on your choice in Settings — pick a different provider and the connection is never established.
| Function | Endpoint | What is sent | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cues — Claude | api.anthropic.com |
A slice of the transcript and conversation context | When the selected provider is Anthropic |
| Cues — OpenAI | api.openai.com |
A slice of the transcript and conversation context | When the selected provider is OpenAI |
| Cues — Gemini | generativelanguage.googleapis.com |
A slice of the transcript and conversation context | When the selected provider is Google |
| Cues — local | localhost:11434 |
Never leaves the machine | When Ollama is selected |
| Transcription — Deepgram | wss://api.deepgram.com |
The audio stream | When Deepgram is selected |
| Transcription — Whisper API | api.openai.com |
Audio chunks, one per utterance | When Whisper over API is selected |
| Transcription — local | a process on your machine | Never leaves the machine | When whisper.cpp is selected |
| Licence | api.lemonsqueezy.com |
Licence key and computer name — nothing else | On activation, then a check once every 24 h |
| Updates | dl.sidecuehq.com |
A version-number lookup | Handled by the Windows update mechanism |
The AI and transcription endpoints are those providers' public APIs. Sidecue does not proxy that traffic: you connect directly, with your own key, and settle your bill with them without us in the middle. The data-processing terms that apply are therefore theirs — worth reading their terms and data processing agreement before your first confidential call.
For conversations that must not go to the cloud, Sidecue can be configured so that no content whatsoever leaves the machine:
http://localhost:11434 — no key, no per-token cost.The data path is then: audio → whisper.cpp → context → Ollama → the panel on your screen. It works with no internet connection at all.
api.lemonsqueezy.com once a day and sends only the licence key and the computer
name — never conversation content. The app keeps working for 7 days without
a connection, so an air-gapped machine is workable but needs to be reconnected periodically.
If you need a licence that runs entirely offline, write to
[email protected].
You do not have to trust us on this. With local mode configured, run a network monitor
(Windows Resource Monitor, or a firewall that logs connections), hold a conversation, and
check whether Sidecue.exe opens any connection beyond localhost.
The strictest test is a firewall rule blocking the app's outbound traffic entirely —
in local mode Sidecue runs normally with it in place.
| What | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | %APPDATA%\Sidecue\settings.json |
Provider, device and preference choices. No API keys. |
| API keys and licence | Windows Credential Manager | Entries named Sidecue:*, protected by your Windows account.
They never enter the settings file. |
| Diagnostic log | %APPDATA%\Sidecue\sidecue.log |
Application flow. Conversation text is recorded as a length only
(e.g. [128 zn.], a character count) unless you deliberately turn on
diagnostic mode.
The file rotates at 1 MB. |
| Conversation transcript | not written | Lives in memory for the duration of the session. |
| Audio recording | not written | In local mode a single utterance briefly touches a temporary file and is deleted as soon as it has been recognised. |
| Meeting summary | wherever you save it | A file exists only if you click save and choose a location. |
Uninstalling the app does not remove %APPDATA%\Sidecue or the Credential Manager
entries — delete them by hand if you are passing the computer on.
Every window the app opens is marked with the system flag
WDA_EXCLUDEFROMCAPTURE. In practice the cue panel does not appear in a shared
screen or in a screenshot — not even when you share the whole desktop. On your own monitor
it looks perfectly normal.
The flag covers all Sidecue windows, not just the panel — Settings and the summary too. The panel shows the status itself: while the protection is active, a green line confirms the window is hidden from screen sharing.
--allow-capture switch, which turns the protection off — it exists for
recording tutorial material and never engages on its own.
Ctrl + Alt + M; muted audio is not passed on anywhere.graphicsCaptureWithoutBorder)
— OCR mode only. Windows draws a yellow outline around a window being captured; that
outline appears on your screen alone and never reaches the other side of the call, so all
it does is distract the person using the app. Turning it off requires your consent —
Windows asks once and you may refuse, in which case the border stays. The permission
does not widen what is read: still only the window you point the app at.
The app has an optional feature that mirrors the cues to a phone on the same Wi-Fi.
It is off by default. Once enabled it opens port 8750 on the
local network and requires a one-time token in the address; Windows will ask for a firewall
exception, and the private network profile is enough. The traffic never leaves your network,
but if company policy does not allow this, simply leave the feature off.
No. There is no infrastructure to receive it — the content never reaches an address of ours. Even if we wanted to hand something over, there would be nothing to hand: all that reaches us is the fact that a licence key was activated.
Not by us. In cloud mode this is governed by your agreement with the provider you chose — business API terms at the major providers generally exclude training on API data, but those are their terms and they are the ones to check before processing confidential material. If you would rather not have to settle that question, use local mode and it disappears.
No. The app's windows are excluded from screen capture at the Windows level — the details and the limits of that protection are described above.
It writes no recording file. Audio is processed as it arrives and is gone once the text has been recognised. The transcript is not written to disk either — the only thing that persists is what you save yourself.
In Windows Credential Manager, under entries named Sidecue:*, protected by your
Windows account. They are not in the settings file, not in the log, and are never sent
anywhere but to the provider they belong to.
In local mode, yes. The licence check needs a connection once a day, with 7 days of slack — after that a session will not start until the app can refresh the licence.
Technically, local mode is built for exactly this case: content never leaves the computer, so no third party is entrusted with the data. Whether your profession and situation permit using a tool that processes the conversation — and whether the other party must be told — is your assessment to make as the data controller. We are happy to answer the technical questions that assessment needs.
In local mode there is nothing to entrust — no data reaches us. In cloud mode the processing is entrusted to the AI provider you selected, and that is who you sign with. If your legal team needs written confirmation of the scope of processing on our side, write to [email protected] and we will prepare it.
Write to [email protected] with a description and steps to reproduce. We treat those reports first and will not pursue claims against anyone conducting security research in good faith.
Write to [email protected]. If it comes from an IT department or a data protection officer, you will get specifics back — including what the app cannot do.
See also the getting started guide, which walks through choosing providers step by step, including the fully local setup.