Byline
What leaves your machine
What Byline collects, exactly
Byline only sees what you connect. Nothing is scanned, discovered, or collected by default.
GitHub connection. We read your own pull requests, issues, reviews, and commits with read-only permissions. We never read your organization's data. We store titles, bodies, diff statistics, and links.
The collector (your machine). You add repos one at a time. Each repo has a tier you choose:
| Tier | What leaves your machine | What never leaves |
|---|---|---|
| full | Commit messages, file paths, diff statistics | Your code |
| titles | First line of each commit message, diff statistics | Bodies, file paths, your code |
| counts | Weekly totals: commit count, lines changed | All text, all names, your code |
Your code never leaves your machine at any tier. Diff statistics are numbers, not content.
Repos with a work remote default to the titles tier. Before the first upload from any repo, the collector shows you the exact payload and waits for your yes.
Secret patterns (keys, tokens, credentials) are scrubbed from every outbound field at every tier, always.
A caution about work repos
Your employment agreement may restrict what you can share about your work, even privately. Commit messages can contain confidential names and details. Before you connect a work repo:
- Prefer the titles or counts tier. When unsure, choose counts — numbers only.
- Read the first-sync preview. It is the exact payload.
- If your agreement is strict or unclear, ask your employer before connecting the repo.
Byline gives you controls and previews. It cannot judge your agreement for you. This page is not legal advice.
What Byline never does
- We never publish anything. You publish, entry by entry, and you can unpublish at any time.
- Our software never widens who can see your data on your behalf. Machine actions can only keep or reduce visibility. Widening — publishing an entry, raising a repo's tier — is always your explicit act.
- We never sell your data or show it to your employer. Org features, when they exist, require your individual opt-in.
Removing your data
byline remove <repo> plus one click removes a repo's data from your ledger. Deleting an entry removes it from every surface. A lapsed subscription freezes synthesis; it never touches your data or your public page.