Usage data

pal counts a few things so its author can see what is installed, used and kept, and whether a release reached people. This page lists all of it; the code that sends it is core/src/usage.rs.

It is on by default and off with one switch: Settings › General › Share anonymous usage (general.usage = false in the config file).

What identifies you

A random id made on first run and kept in pal's data directory (usage-id). Nothing else: no account, no name, no hostname, no path. A config file restored on another machine does not carry the id. pal.cagdas.io does not keep IP addresses; it keeps the country at most.

Turning sharing off deletes the id; turning it on again makes a new one.

Separately, pal keeps a local record of which extensions you open (extensions-used.json in its data directory, a name and the last time), so the ones you use carry over when fewer come bundled. It is kept whether sharing is on or off and is never sent.

What is sent

Every request pal makes to pal.cagdas.io (registry, packages, updates) carries User-Agent: pal/<version> (<os>; <arch>), and X-Pal-Install: <id> while sharing is on. The app's own update check asks https://pal.cagdas.io/update/<target>/<arch>/<version>, with ?i=<id> while sharing is on: a query parameter rather than the header, since the site redirects that request to GitHub, which never gets the id. On top of that, while sharing is on, pal sends batches to POST https://pal.cagdas.io/api/events:

{
  "pal": "0.8.0", "os": "macos", "arch": "aarch64",
  "events": [
    { "at": 1790000000, "kind": "install", "ext": "weather", "hash": "…", "seq": 1790000000, "from": "search" },
    { "at": 1790000100, "kind": "fail", "ext": "hue", "from": "auto", "error": "download" }
  ],
  "daily": {
    "day": "2026-09-30",
    "installed": [{ "ext": "weather", "hash": "…" }],
    "third_party": 1,
    "source": 0,
    "opens": { "calc": 12, "weather": 3 }
  }
}

kind: install, update, remove, rollback, fail, enable, disable.
from: where it started: store, settings, search, games, welcome, web, deeplink, migration, reconcile, auto, cli.
error: a kind only (download, verify, load, offline, incompatible), never a message.
daily, once a day: extensions installed from pal's own registry with their build, how many come from other registries or from source (counts, no names), and how many times each extension's palettes were opened.

Nothing about extensions from other registries, what you type, what you pick, or any row's content is ever sent. Other registries receive only the requests needed to fetch their index and packages, without the id.

Events wait in usage-queue.jsonl in the data directory while offline and are dropped after 30 days unsent.

Rendered from docs/usage.md in the pal repo, 2026-09-30.