> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://alike.help/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # What leaves your machine > The data that Alike's hooks and transcript capture send, and what Alike keeps. Read this page before you use Alike on real work. It lists everything that the installer's hooks and transcript capture send to Alike. ## Two ways data reaches Alike | | Live hooks | Transcript capture | | - | - | - | | **When** | During each session, as it happens | In the background, after an agent finishes a turn, and when you run `--sweep` | | **What** | Events from the current session | Your agents' saved session files | | **Which agents** | Every agent with hooks. See [Supported agents](https://alike.help/get-started/supported-agents.md) | Only the agents that you chose at install | | **Turn it off** | Uninstall Alike from the agent. See [Controls](https://alike.help/privacy/controls.md#stop-all-sending-from-an-agent) | Answer no at install, or use `--capture=` | > [!WARNING] > > Your transcript-capture choice does not control the live hooks. If you answer no to capture, the hooks in that agent still send your prompts, the agent's replies, and tool calls. To stop all sending from an agent, remove Alike from that agent. ## What the live hooks send | When | Data sent | | - | - | | A session starts | The git branch, the repository name (`owner/name`), the project folder path, a ticket ID found in the branch name, and the names of the files that you changed. Not the file contents | | You send a prompt | The text of your prompt | | A tool call ends | The tool name, if it worked, the tool's input, and the tool's output. The output can contain file contents or command output | | The agent finishes a turn | The agent's final reply | | Before the agent uses a file | Nothing. This check runs on your machine | Long texts are shortened before they are sent. The full remote URL of your repository is not sent. ## What transcript capture sends For each agent that you chose, capture uploads the complete session files that the agent saves on your machine. This includes the prompts, replies, reasoning, and tool calls in each session. * **The first capture includes your past sessions.** It uploads the full history of each chosen agent, newest first. Later captures upload new and changed sessions only. * **Open sessions are uploaded as they grow.** A session that is still running can be uploaded more than once. * **Capture keeps a local copy** of each session in `~/.alike/archive/`. See [Files on your machine](https://alike.help/reference/local-files.md). * Very large sessions are refused and not sent again. ## What Alike does with the data * **It stores the data as received.** Alike does not remove passwords, API keys, or other secrets from the stored copy. * **It builds search text** from each session, so that you and your agents can search past sessions. Alike removes common credential formats from this search text. This does not catch every secret. * **It writes a short summary** of each session when the session ends. * **It finds tasks and decisions** in your sessions and adds them to your Alike workspace. New items are marked as not yet confirmed. * **It uses outside AI providers** to process session text, for example to build search data, summaries, and extracted items. > [!WARNING] > > Do not paste secrets into a coding session that Alike captures. This includes API keys, passwords, tokens, and customer data. If a secret reaches a session, change (rotate) the secret. You cannot delete one session from Alike. See [Delete your data](https://alike.help/privacy/delete-data.md). ## What your teammates see Your teammates never see your raw transcripts, prompts, or tool calls. But with the default sharing setting, they see summaries of your sessions, the folder and branch of each session, and the tasks and decisions that Alike found in them. See [Who sees what](https://alike.help/privacy/who-sees-what.md). ## Other data that reaches Alike * **MCP tool calls.** When your agent calls an Alike tool, Alike receives the tool's input, for example a search query or a decision that the agent records. * **Usage data.** Alike records which tools your agent calls, if each call worked, and how long it took. It does not record the tool input for this purpose. ## Before you use Alike on sensitive work **1. Choose your sharing level first** Set your sharing level in **Settings → Privacy** before you run the installer. To open Settings, first select **Continue** on the **Connect your agents** page. See [Controls](https://alike.help/privacy/controls.md#choose-a-sharing-level). **2. Choose capture per agent** At install, capture transcripts only from agents that you use for work you can share with Alike. **3. Keep secrets out of sessions** Load secrets from files or environment variables that the agent does not print. **4. Remove Alike from agents you use for private work** The live hooks send data from every wired agent. See [Remove Alike from one agent](https://alike.help/install/update-and-uninstall.md#remove-alike-from-one-agent-only). For the legal terms, read the [Alike Privacy Policy](https://alike.network/privacy-policy). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.