Does whydid replace my version control?

No — it runs alongside whatever you already use and fills a different gap: why a change happened, tied to your actual AI prompt, plus a safety net for the moments in between commits.

Where does my code go?

Nowhere, unless you turn on AI annotations. Then only a redacted diff and your own prompt go to whichever provider you configure — Anthropic or OpenAI — using your own API key. whydid's own servers never see your code.

Is there a subscription?

No. It's a one-time payment, yours forever. Your only optional ongoing cost is your own LLM usage, billed to you directly by your provider if you turn on AI annotations.

Privacy Policy

Last updated October 2026

whydid is built local-first on purpose: your code, diffs, and checkpoint history live in a .whydid folder on your own machine and are never uploaded to any server we operate. This page explains exactly what the small amount of data we do handle is, and where it goes.

What never leaves your machine

Your project’s source code, file contents, diffs, and checkpoint history. The local dashboard reads this directly from your own disk over a connection bound to 127.0.0.1 — nothing about your project is transmitted anywhere by default.

AI annotations (optional, off by default)

If you turn on AI annotations and add your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key, whydid sends a redacted diff and your prompt directly to that provider, using your key, to generate a summary. This traffic goes straight from your machine to your chosen provider — it does not pass through or get logged by any server we operate. Diffs are scanned and redacted for likely secrets (API keys, .env values, credentialed URLs) before being sent. You can turn prompt-sharing and diff-sharing off independently in Settings, and AI annotations are entirely optional — checkpoint, restore, and fork all work without them.

Anonymous usage data (optional, off by default)

In Settings, you can choose to help improve whydid by sharing anonymous usage data. It is off until you turn it on — nothing is sent before then. When enabled, this is limited to: which CLI commands and dashboard pages you use, your whydid version and OS, and whether AI annotations succeed or fail. It never includes your code, file names, file paths, prompts, diffs, or project name — see telemetry-server/src/validate.ts in whydid’s own source for the exact, enforced allowlist: anything not on it is rejected by the server, not just omitted by the client. It is tied to a random identifier generated only if you opt in — never your license key, email, or machine fingerprint. Turn it off in Settings at any time.

What we do collect

Purchase information (your email, payment details) — collected and processed entirely by Dodo Payments, our payment processor. We never see or store your card details; see Dodo’s own privacy policy for how they handle payment data.
Your license key and a one-way hashed fingerprint of each machine you activate it on — used only to enforce the two-device activation limit on your license. This fingerprint is derived from a stable OS identifier (not your IP, name, or any personal detail) and cannot be reversed back into anything identifying about your hardware.

What we don’t do

No cookies, no analytics, and no tracking scripts on this website. No ads, no data brokers, no selling or sharing of anything we collect with third parties beyond what’s required to process your payment (Dodo Payments) and enforce your license. The optional anonymous usage data above is never sold or shared either, and never includes anything that could identify you or your code.

Data retention

License and device-activation records are retained by Dodo Payments for as long as your license is active, per their own retention practices. If you want your purchase/account data deleted, contact us at hello@whydid.dev and we’ll coordinate deletion with Dodo Payments directly.

Questions

Email hello@whydid.dev with anything this page doesn’t answer.