AVL Code

Part VI — Trust and troubleshooting

This part covers Chapters 26–28: the security and privacy boundary, troubleshooting and FAQ, and a set of proven best practices.

26. Security and privacy

AVL Code treats user data as sensitive by design.

26.1 Where data lives

  • Sessions are stored locally and never uploaded to a third party.
  • Only when you explicitly invoke a model does the corresponding message content go to the chosen provider over their protocol.
  • Decompilation, on demand, sends relevant disassembly to the decompilation model; only fires when you explicitly call it.

26.2 Credential management

  • Sign-in credentials, model API keys, external-service credentials are all stored protected on disk.
  • Provider API keys and external-service credentials are never sent to the model alongside conversation content; only attached to the relevant tool call's HTTP headers.

26.3 Special protection of the samples directory

samples/ is hard-isolated; execution-type tool calls in it are unconditionally rejected — this policy can't be loosened.

26.3.1 Path guards on deletion

Deletion operations (including "Close project workspace and clear data") now resolve paths through symlinks before comparing them against the home directory and the system blocklist. Previously, if the home directory ($HOME) was reachable via a symlink the guard could fail to recognise it, leaving a risk of wiping it wholesale — the comparison is now made against the resolved real path, closing that hole.

Command execution is likewise immune to working-directory hijacking: a file in the workspace that happens to share a common command's name is never taken as the program to run.

26.4 Audit

Every tool call, every approval decision and every plan edit is recorded as its own card — usable as a complete audit trail.

Trace exports are redacted: when you export a run's trace to a file, "Redact" is ticked by default — the rules from Settings → Data masking are applied before writing, so you can hand a run record to someone for troubleshooting without leaking sensitive content; untick it when you need the verbatim text (see §9.4.2).

26.5 Network access

  • AVL Code talks to the account service to fetch sign-in state and plan quota.
  • It talks to the model provider you've selected per your model config.
  • Only when you use SBOM online audit / sync does it reach the OSV vulnerability database (api.osv.dev, the OSV dump bucket) and the CISA KEV catalog; air-gapped sites can point these at an internal mirror or use offline import, with no network access at all.
  • It doesn't actively phone home for analytics.

26.6 Upgrade safety

Upgrade packages are signature-verified; failure auto-rollbacks, defeating man-in-the-middle replacement.