Local-first privacy in Ollama Client
Ollama Client is designed around local-first AI chat. The extension stores user data in browser storage and sends prompts only to the provider endpoint you configure.
What stays on your device?
Section titled “What stays on your device?”These data types are stored locally by the extension:
- Chat sessions and messages
- Uploaded-file metadata and local retrieval indexes
- Knowledge sets and embeddings
- Provider settings and model mappings
- Provider-opaque continuation blocks needed to resume signed or encrypted reasoning
- Web-search configuration
- Browser permission state and feature settings
- A bounded, seven-day local diagnostic event buffer containing technical codes and timing only
Chat history uses SQLite-in-WASM persisted to IndexedDB. Vector storage and knowledge sets use local IndexedDB storage.
Some reasoning-capable remote providers return signed or encrypted continuation blocks that must be echoed back unchanged during tool use. This is part of the Anthropic extended-thinking and OpenRouter reasoning protocols. Ollama Client stores those opaque blocks locally with the related assistant message, separately from the reasoning text shown in the UI. They are never rendered or written to diagnostic logs. Because they are part of chat continuity, they are included in chat-history backups alongside the messages they belong to.
What can leave your device?
Section titled “What can leave your device?”Prompt data leaves your device only when needed for the provider you choose.
If your provider is local, such as Ollama at http://localhost:11434 or LM
Studio at http://localhost:1234/v1, requests stay on your machine. If you
configure a remote OpenAI-compatible server, prompts and selected context are
sent to that remote server.
The OpenRouter preset uses its OpenAI-compatible endpoint and adds only static Ollama Client application-attribution headers. It does not send the URL of the page you are viewing as attribution. OpenRouter can route requests to other model providers, so their retention and processing policies also apply.
Optional web search can contact the backend you configure, such as SearXNG, Brave Search, or Tavily.
Browser permissions are explicit
Section titled “Browser permissions are explicit”Browser features such as tab access, recently closed sessions, screenshots, and downloads are controlled through extension permissions and visible settings. The model-tools inventory in Privacy & permissions shows which tools are available and why.
Page and tab context are scoped
Section titled “Page and tab context are scoped”Ollama Client can read current-page or tab context only when the related setting and browser access allow it. Excluded and unreadable URLs are filtered before content is used for chat or model-callable tools.
Uploaded files and local RAG
Section titled “Uploaded files and local RAG”Uploaded files are processed locally for retrieval. The extension can store chunks and embeddings in browser storage so future chats can retrieve relevant context.
Web search is optional
Section titled “Web search is optional”Web search is off unless configured. When enabled, the model can use the selected web-search backend through the tool system. API keys are stored locally and are not logged by the extension.
Diagnostics stay local
Section titled “Diagnostics stay local”The extension records up to 200 content-free diagnostic events for seven days, with a hard serialized-data ceiling of about 128 KiB. Events are batched before device-local browser storage writes to avoid write amplification. The pending in-memory batch is separately capped at 50 events and about 32 KiB serialized. Events can include an operation name, request ID, status, duration, retry state, and support code. They cannot include prompts, responses, file or page content, credentials, headers, full endpoints, cookies, or browser history.
In Help → Diagnostics & support, you can run local self-tests and preview the complete support bundle before copying or downloading it. Nothing is uploaded automatically. Clearing diagnostic history removes the local event buffer.
Reset and backup
Section titled “Reset and backup”The Data & backup settings let you export or reset local data. Reset maps include provider configuration and API keys so a provider reset removes stored secrets.
Is Ollama Client private by default?
Section titled “Is Ollama Client private by default?”It is local-first by default. Privacy still depends on the provider endpoint and optional features you enable.
Does Ollama Client index browser history automatically?
Section titled “Does Ollama Client index browser history automatically?”Browser knowledge features are optional and permission-gated. Keep them disabled if you do not want browser history or bookmarks available for local retrieval.
Where should I check permissions?
Section titled “Where should I check permissions?”Open Privacy & permissions in settings. It shows browser permissions, tool families, and per-model tool availability.