ColdStoreEncrypted on your device. Always.
How ColdStore keeps your projects private, and what it never does with them.
Encrypted here
Before anything leaves your computer. Storage sees unreadable blocks.
Never deletes
Clean up and uninstall move things to the Trash or Recycle Bin.
Your keys stay
The recovery key and your secrets stay on your computer.
No tracking
Your organization sees counts only, never names or files.
What happens to a project
- Files are cut into 4 MB chunks. Each chunk is identified by a keyed hash, so a chunk that's already stored isn't stored again, and the hash says nothing about the content.
- Chunks are compressed (DEFLATE) and encrypted with AES-256-GCM on your computer, then packed into files of about 16 MB.
- Your storage provider sees only random pack files: no file names, no folder structure, no code.
- Before anything local is removed, every chunk is read back from storage and verified. The project is checked for changes and open files, and only then is the folder swapped for a small placeholder. A crash at any point is finished or rolled back on the next launch.
Your keys
- The encryption key lives in your login Keychain on Mac, or Credential Manager on Windows.
- A recovery key opens your data on any computer. Keep it somewhere safe: nobody else, including us and your organization's server, can decrypt your files.
- Phones get access only after you approve them on a computer that's already set up. The grant is sealed to the phone's own key and passed through the server, which can't open it.
What's never uploaded
.env files, keys, certificates, keystores and similar private files stay in the placeholder on your computer. They're only uploaded if you or your organization explicitly choose to include them.
What the license server sees
When the app checks in, it sends counts and versions: data in the cloud, space freed, number of projects in the cloud, storage types, the app and system version, and a random ID for the computer. Never file names, paths, project names, contents, tokens or keys. The license key is not the recovery key.
An open format
The storage format is documented, with test vectors and a sample storage, so your data never depends on this app.
Safe by design on your computer
- Projects open in an editor or terminal are skipped; so are caches of apps that are running.
- Settings changes are shown for review first and kept in an undo journal.
- ColdStore never restarts Finder or the Dock unless you ask.
- Updates are installed only if they're signed with ColdStore's release key.
Found a security issue? Please write to security@coldstore.si. We read every report.