Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 24, 2026

Overview

Stella is a local-first application. Your files, your searches, and your data stay on your device. We built Stella with privacy as a core principle — not an afterthought.

Data We Collect

Stella does not collect, transmit, or store any personal data. Specifically:

• No files or file contents leave your device
• No search queries are transmitted
• Minimal anonymous telemetry is collected (see below) — no personal data, file contents, or search queries are included
• No accounts or sign-ups are required
• No cookies are used

Local Processing

All indexing and search operations run entirely on your machine. Stella uses on-device machine learning models to understand your documents. No internet connection is required for core functionality.

File Access

Stella only accesses directories you explicitly select for indexing. It reads file contents solely to build a local search index stored on your device. You can remove indexed folders at any time, which deletes the corresponding index data.

Third-Party Services

Stella does not send your files, search queries, or personal data to any third-party service. The external services Stella communicates with are:

• Sentry — anonymous error reporting (see below)
• PostHog — anonymous app launch events to measure retention (see below)
• Update server — checks for new versions

Error Reporting

Stella automatically sends error logs to Sentry to help us diagnose and fix bugs. These reports include technical information such as stack traces, app version, and OS version. Before any data is sent, user home directory paths and filenames are automatically redacted — only file extensions are preserved to help us identify which file types are affected. No file contents, filenames, or search queries are ever included in these reports.

Anonymous Telemetry

Stella sends a single anonymous event each time the app is launched. This event includes only a randomly generated device identifier, the app version, and a timestamp. No personal information, file data, filenames, or search queries are included. This data is sent to PostHog and is used solely to measure how often people return to Stella (retention), which helps us decide whether the product is useful enough to keep building. No user profiles are created from this data.

Updates

Stella may check for software updates. This check transmits only the current version number — no personal or file data.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected on this page with an updated date.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach us at ayush@trystella.co.