Trust, permissions and privacy
What can reach your files and network, how plugin permissions work, what leaves your computer, and what HiveHub learns.
Hivemind runs on your own computers. This page says what can reach what, and what leaves your machine.
Paste this into your coding agent to review what can reach your files and your network, without changing anything.
Show the prompt
Review my Hivemind setup for what can touch my files and what leaves this computer, using the "Trust, permissions and privacy" page. Run only read-only commands: `hive plugins list --json`, `hive grant list`, `hive network show` and `hive config get network`. Tell me: which tool plugins are switched on (they run with my access), which API tokens exist with their roles and expiry, which network and servers this computer uses, and whether the update check is on. Suggest what to switch off or revoke, but do not change anything. REFERENCE https://hivemind.griiken.com/guide/security-and-privacy.md
- Runs as you: agents, in your terminals, and tools, inside the app. They reach your files, programs, logins and network.
- Sandbox: views, in a frame with no Node, and widgets, in a worker. No files, no network. They reach the workspace only through the permissions they asked for.
- Guests come in with a role, your programs with an API token. A call the role does not allow is refused before it runs.
- Your server sees only encrypted traffic: see Encrypted end to end.
- HiveHub files are checked before they install: see below.
Permissions
- A view or widget lists its permissions in its file. You see them in words, under What it can do, before you install it. An unknown one is refused.
- Each message it sends is checked against them. With
workspace:prompt, you also confirm each prompt it writes. - What each permission allows: Permissions. What else the sandbox stops: The sandbox.
Sites in a Browser tile
A site in a Browser tile asks before it uses your camera, microphone or location, shows
notifications, or opens a link in another program (mailto:, zoommtg:, slack:). The question
shows over the top of the page and names the site and what it wants, with Block and Allow.
They take a click once the question has been on screen for half a second, so a click meant for the
page cannot answer it. Your answer holds for that site until you quit the app. A question you leave
for a minute, or whose tab you close, is a no.
The Site permissions button by the address lists what the site you are on may use: notifications, the camera, the microphone, the location, and anything else you answered. Choose Allow, Block or Ask for each. Allow a site that only checks whether it may and never asks, or take back a Block.
As in Chrome, a site does not ask to go full screen, copy, hold the pointer or the keys (holding
Esc gives them back), keep the screen on, or keep its data when the disk runs short. A site never
opens a link that runs code or opens files here (file:, javascript:, search-ms:), and never
gets your USB, serial or input devices, a speaker or your screen: the app has no chooser for them.
A view, or a page a tool shows in its tile, never gets any of these. A tool's own code runs in the
app's page and gets what the app uses: notifications and copying.
With Agent browser control on, an agent drives Browser tiles over the Chrome DevTools Protocol, and through it can give a site any of these without asking you. Switch it on only for agents you trust with your browser.
Tools start switched off
A tool you install starts switched off, and you turn it on yourself. The tools that ship with
the app start on. If a tool breaks the app, start it with HIVEMIND_SAFE_MODE=1 hivemind: only
the tools that ship with the app load.
What you install from HiveHub
HiveHubThe catalogue Hivemind installs agents and plugins from.Glossary → lists every file of a plugin with its hash, and Hivemind checks each file before it installs: see Files stay in the author's repository.
hive agents install, from HiveHub or from a repository, prints what the agent runs first. It installs only when you run it again with--yes.- When you install from HiveHub, the app sends one request to count the install. It carries no id, no machine name and no headers of its own. HiveHub counts the same plugin from one address once a day.
- A plugin installed from a folder is never counted.
What leaves your computer
| What | Where to | Turn it off |
|---|---|---|
| The update check | GitHub, for new versions of the app | Settings → About and updates → Check for new versions |
| The plugin list | HiveHub, for new versions of the agents it adds for you | The same switch. You still reach HiveHub when you browse plugins yourself. |
| Traffic to your other devices and guests | Directly, or through the relay of your own network server | Stay on Local network in Settings → Servers |
With the update check off, the app reaches nothing your network does not name, until you browse plugins yourself. Your agents' own programs talk to their providers as they always do.
Before you let someone in
Both screens show three words. If they differ, someone sits between you: press Deny. An
invite link gives at most terminals. How: Share a workspace.
Related
- Devices and hive-net
- Make an API token
- Open the app in a browser tab: anyone with its link can use your terminals.
- Plugins
Last validated for Hivemind 2026.10.3.