Simple answers about PonoLens.

PonoLens helps you see what your AI coding tools do. It keeps a private history on your Mac and shows your prompts, changed files, and possible private information. PonoLens is not a firewall or antivirus app.

No. PonoLens checks supported activity on your Mac and saves its activity list there. Your prompts, commands, warnings, and private information are not sent to the PonoLens website. Account and payment services receive only the small amount of information needed for your account and purchase. If you change saved-prompt redaction while signed in, account synchronization sends only the preference and its decision time, never prompt contents.

Yes. Saved prompt redaction is on by default and recommended. The option appears in Getting Started and Settings. Turning it off requires accepting a security warning because future prompt text may be saved in readable form and may contain private information. The choice affects only future prompt text; commands, file paths, tool inputs, and other receipt fields remain redacted. PonoLens saves the choice and time locally immediately. When you are signed in, it also records the preference and original decision time on your account in the background, without uploading prompt contents. If Keychain, the network, or the account service is unavailable, the local choice still works and account recording remains pending for a later retry. Turning redaction back on also redacts previously readable prompt text. Text that was already redacted cannot be restored.

Stop the AI task and check the PonoLens activity card. If you sent a password, API key, or access token, turn it off and make a new one right away. If you sent customer, health, payment, work, or other private information, tell the person in charge and follow your incident steps. You can ask the AI provider or account owner to delete the chat, but deleting it does not undo the original send.

When a supported AI tool exposes the command, PonoLens flags commands that may install or remove software, use elevated permission, change files, permissions, services, or settings, administer a remote service, or upload or download files. This includes common Homebrew, package-manager, Git transfer, deployment, release, cloud-storage, and file-transfer commands. When the tool also reports a completion result, PonoLens uses it to distinguish completed and failed activity. Coverage still depends on what the AI tool provides.

It flags script commands with stronger warning signs, such as running from Downloads or a temporary folder, installer, deployment, update, or removal script names, risky inline code, a download piped into an interpreter, or making a file executable and immediately running it. Routine scripts are recorded only when ordinary experimental command monitoring is on. Commands run in an unrelated Terminal window are not visible.

PonoLens works with Codex, Claude CLI, Cursor, and Windsurf, with Report Only coverage for Grok Build, Muse Code, Google Antigravity, OpenCode, the Oh My Pi (OMP) CLI, and macOS Harness. With Codex chat, PonoLens can show what happened after a prompt was sent, but it cannot stop that prompt first. Muse Code uses submitted-prompt and pre-action tool hooks; PonoLens never stores Muse tool output. OpenCode CLI and Desktop use a Report Only plugin. OMP uses a Report Only extension. macOS Harness activity is reported only when its invocation is exposed by a configured Codex or Claude CLI parent session; PonoLens does not receive an independent macOS Harness prompt stream, output, screenshots, or unrelated Terminal activity. Claude Desktop is not supported.

No. An AI tool must give PonoLens a supported way to check the prompt before it is sent. “Report Only” is the normal setting. “Redact” and “Block” are test features and work only with supported before-send connections.

Green means PonoLens did not find private information or unusual movement. Orange means it found something you should review. Red means a supported connection truly stopped the action before it finished.

AI coding tools may send your words, code, files, passwords, email addresses, health details, or payment information to an online service. PonoLens helps you see what supported tools send and warns you when private information may be included.

Each installation has one 30-day free trial, started by its first owner account. Creating another account does not restart it. Personal Annual is $11.99 a year. Lifetime purchases are not currently offered. Family / Small Business is $24.99 a year for up to 6 accounts. Medium Company is $149.99 a year for up to 25 accounts. Each account can use up to two Macs.

Yes. Select a purchase option and enter a valid promotion code in Stripe Checkout. Coupon availability, discount amount, eligible plans, redemption limits, and expiration are controlled by the promotion code configured in Stripe.

PonoLens keeps collecting activity locally, but activity sections, Search, reports, policies, and detail pages show the subscription screen until access is restored. Choose a plan on the Purchase page to reopen them.

No. One Firebase UID owns an installation and its local database. An owner can request a transfer in desktop Settings. If Support approves it, PonoLens deletes the previous owner’s local database before the new owner is confirmed. The installation’s trial history remains, so a transfer does not create another trial.

In the Mac app, select Generate Report below Support. Choose the dates, activity, AI tool, outcome, and project. PDF is easy to read and share, CSV works well in a spreadsheet, and JSON works with technical tools. Summary reports show totals. Detailed reports also show the signed-in email, user ID, device ID, plain-language command type, and likely purpose. You can choose whether to include saved prompts, redacted commands, and file or folder locations. Each included prompt identifies whether it was redacted before storage. PonoLens creates the report on your Mac and does not email or upload it. Review it, then email or upload it yourself if a manager or client asks.

The Mac app keeps your login and proof of purchase in macOS Keychain, which is the Mac’s secure password storage. Simple display choices, such as text size, may be saved in the app’s local browser storage.

No. PonoLens can help with privacy work, but it cannot promise that you meet every law or rule. If private information was already sent, deleting it later does not undo the send.

PonoLens Personal runs on macOS 13 or newer. There are separate downloads for Apple silicon Macs and Intel Macs. Windows and Linux are not supported yet.

On the Download page, choose Apple silicon for newer Macs with an M-series chip, or Intel for an Intel Mac. Open the DMG, drag PonoLens.app onto the Applications folder, and then open PonoLens from Applications. This beta has not finished Apple’s signing and approval steps, so macOS may show an extra safety message.

Open Settings in PonoLens. The App version & updates section compares the version on your Mac with the latest website version. If an update is available, select Update now. You can also choose Help → Check for Updates. Quit PonoLens, open the new DMG, drag PonoLens into Applications, choose Replace, and reopen it. Your local history and settings stay in ~/.ponolens. This beta does not install updates by itself.

First install the supported AI coding tool. Keep PonoLens open, go to Agent status, and select Scan again. Find the tool and select Enable system-wide. Fully quit and reopen that AI tool so it loads the PonoLens connection. Expand its row and use Test connection, then use a made-up test prompt or Test event. Detection only means PonoLens found the tool; the test confirms that its PonoLens connection is ready.

This beta does not yet have a one-click remove button. Removing a connection requires editing that AI tool’s hook settings. Back up the settings file first, then remove only entries that mention ponolens-hook.mjs, src/adapters/hook.mjs, or the ponolens MCP server. Do not delete the whole settings file because it may contain your other tools and hooks. Fully quit and reopen the AI tool afterward. If you are not comfortable editing a settings file, ask PonoLens Support for help.