Data, credentials, and privacy

RouteKit keeps credentials and daemon state under ROUTEKIT_HOME (default ~/.routekit) and router config under ~/.config/routekit/router.yaml. Gateway access requires a bearer token.

Files stored on your machine

Path	Purpose
`~/.config/routekit/router.yaml`	Canonical singleton configuration, mode `0600`.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/secrets/data-token`	Private owner data-plane token, mode `0600`.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/subscriptions/<kind>/`	Enrolled subscription credentials.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/env/daemon.env`	Allowlisted supervised-service environment, mode `0600`.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/integrations/native-clients.json`	Native-client token IDs and target ownership; no plaintext tokens.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/usage/leaderboard-rollups.v1.json`	Optional durable usage rollups, mode `0600`.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/services/daemon.json`	Private daemon record.
`$ROUTEKIT_HOME/services/daemon.public.json`	Secret-free record used for peer discovery.

Router YAML rejects inline credentials. API keys come from provider environment variables, and subscription OAuth credentials live in private account files.

Gateway authentication and network access

The gateway binds to loopback by default. Non-loopback binding requires an explicit authentication token, and enrolled remote clients use named tokens instead of the owner token. Tokens are compared through fixed-length digests and constant-time comparison.

Coding tool credentials

Persistent Codex and Claude Code installs receive dedicated gateway tokens. RouteKit stores only their token IDs, target ownership, and client config paths in $ROUTEKIT_HOME/integrations/native-clients.json; plaintext tokens are shown once and must be kept by the user or external secret manager. uninstall revokes a tracked token and removes only RouteKit-owned client configuration.

Where model traffic goes

Model traffic goes to the providers you configure. Aggregator routes such as OpenRouter forward prompts to upstream providers under their terms. Provider terms, subscription eligibility, quotas, and billing still apply.

See the routes and billing disclosure for credential ownership, egress, fallback, and qualification status by route.

Optional telemetry

Product telemetry is off by default and requires routekit telemetry on (or a truthy ROUTEKIT_TELEMETRY). Enabled events go to PostHog US by default using RouteKit's bundled project token; a non-empty ROUTEKIT_POSTHOG_KEY can override it. Events use a random anonymous install ID. DO_NOT_TRACK=1 always disables capture. No PostHog client or request is created while disabled.

Telemetry records fixed command/operation names and hourly bucketed gateway usage and reliability summaries. It never includes prompts, bodies, credentials, account/principal labels or IDs, paths, CLI arguments, raw errors, hashes, exact cost, exact token counts, or exact timestamps. Canonical provider and model names are included only in aggregate gateway summaries.

Use routekit telemetry status, routekit telemetry category <usage|reliability|adoption> <on|off>, routekit telemetry schema, and routekit telemetry reset to inspect or change controls. Remote commands follow the consent policy of the daemon they contact. This product telemetry is separate from local call attribution/leaderboards and operator-configured OTLP tracing. See the complete telemetry inventory.