What Pace never does
Each limit is enforced in code, not left to the model, and the code is open. Here is what each one means and where to check it.
Answer anyone but you
Pace runs with your login, so it answers only the Slack member you set as its owner. Anyone else who mentions it gets a note only they can see. Teammates each run their own Pace.
Check it: How it works
Answer in private channels or DMs
The Slack app asks for no private-channel or DM scopes, and Pace answers only in public channels it has been invited to. When it cannot tell whether a channel is public, it does not answer. Its answers leave out your tasks from private channels and DMs, too.
Check it: the Slack app's scopes
Send messages for you
It replies only in the thread you asked in. Replies it drafts for your tasks are shown to you to copy, and nothing is posted until you post it. Draft PRs and Jira issues or comments are written only through connections whose Write you turn on in Settings > Tools; Write starts off.
Check it: Your tasks
Change your files
On your Mac, the CLI gets read-only access to one folder you choose and never your credential folders, such
as ~/.ssh or your AI tools' logins. In the built-in sandbox, each answer runs in a Linux VM that
reaches only the domains you allow and is thrown away afterwards. With GitHub's Write on, Pace edits code only in
its own copy of a repository and pushes it to a pacenote/ branch as a draft PR; your working copy
is left as it is.
Check it: Reasoner sandbox
Hand your credentials to the model
Slack and hub tokens never reach the CLI, and Pace takes its own secrets out of every answer. With connections on, SSH keys and cluster, GitHub and Jira tokens stay in a separate broker, which the model asks for read-only lookups and, where you turn on Write, draft PRs and Jira issues or comments.
Check it: Tools
Open a public endpoint or phone home
It connects out to Slack over Socket Mode, so nothing on your Mac accepts connections from the internet: only your own Macs reach it, on your own network: ones you paired or set up with the same Slack app, once you turn that on, or a new one while Add a Mac waits for it. There is no telemetry; everything it contacts is listed below.
Check it: How it works
Charge you
Pacenote is free and open source. Answers run through the official CLI on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for, and count toward its usage limits.
Check it: the Apache License 2.0
What leaves your Mac
Local does not mean private from your AI service: the thread you ask about goes to it. Pick a plan whose data terms fit your work.
| What | Where it goes | When |
|---|---|---|
| The thread you ask about, with its files | Anthropic or OpenAI, through the CLI you signed in to | Each time you mention Pace |
| Pace's answer | Slack, in that thread | Each answer |
| Mentions and answers, with a team hub | Your team's hub, on its way to Slack | Only if you pair with a hub |
| Slack messages read while collecting tasks or drafting a reply | Anthropic or OpenAI, through Claude Code's Slack connector or ChatGPT's Slack app in Codex | When you press Collect now or Draft a reply; off until you turn it on |
| Task titles and commit lines for a recap | The AI you chose in Settings > Todo: Anthropic or OpenAI through Claude Code or Codex, or the model you set up in opencode, such as a local model or one you host yourself | When you press Write it up |
| The last turns of a quiet session, to say whether its task looks done | The same AI you chose | When a task's session has been quiet for 10 minutes; off until you turn it on |
| Lookups through connections and, where you turn on Write, draft PRs and Jira issues or comments | The services you connect: your hosts and clusters, GitHub, Jira | When Pace uses them; off until you turn them on |
| Your tasks, decisions, work log, recaps and areas | Your other Macs, paired or with the same Slack app, directly and encrypted, on your own network | Only once you pair them or turn on Settings > Macs on each |
| Your Slack app's tokens, who Pace answers and how Todo collects; with no Slack app, the key your Macs know each other by and how Todo collects | A Mac of yours, directly and encrypted, once, after both show the same 6 digits and you Allow | Only when you click Add a Mac |
| An update check | GitHub | Shortly after start, then every 12 hours |
| Sandbox images | GitHub's container registry and the hosts the images are built from | When you set up the sandbox |
What stays on your Mac
Settings, run history, your tasks and recaps live in ~/.pacenote, a folder only you can read. Run
history is kept for 30 days unless you change it. With Settings > Macs on, your tasks and recaps are kept on
your other Mac too. Uninstalling keeps the folder; delete it to remove them.
This website
pacenote.dev counts its visits with Google Analytics: the pages you view, the site that sent you here, whether you copy the install command, and your rough location and device, kept in a cookie Google sets. It helps tell what people read. The app has nothing of it and sends nothing to Google.
The page a teammate's link to a team hub opens counts nothing. The hub's address is after the # in that link, which your browser never sends, so the site never sees it.
Report a security issue
Report it privately through GitHub's vulnerability reporting for the repository. The report stays between you and the maintainer until an advisory is published, so please keep the details out of public issues.
Try it on your Mac
brew tap ashon/tap
brew trust ashon/tap
brew install --cask pacenote