Privacy policy

Effective October 25, 2026 · Ridgeline Apps LLC (Ohio, USA) · [email protected]

This page covers this website and buying a BotForge license (Part A), and the BotForge app (Part B, the same policy that ships inside the app).

Part A. This website and purchases

This website

This website doesn't use cookies or analytics, and it has no advertising, tracking pixels, sign-up forms or waitlist, so we don't collect any data from you through it. It is hosted on Cloudflare, which processes standard request data (such as your IP address, browser type and the page requested) to deliver the site and protect it from abuse, under Cloudflare's privacy policy. If you email us, we get what you send and use it only to answer you.

Buying a license

Checkout is not open yet. When it opens, payments will be handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number. Stripe processes your payment details under Stripe's privacy policy and shares with us what we need to provide your license: your name, email address, country or postal code, what you bought, the amount, and the payment and subscription status.

Our license server (on Cloudflare) keeps a small record for each purchase: your email address, the Stripe customer and subscription ids, the plan, and whether it is active, refunded or disputed. We use it only to issue your license key, renew it while your subscription is active, email it to you if you ask ("Email me my key"), and handle refunds and support. If email delivery is turned on, keys are sent through our email provider (Resend).

When BotForge renews a subscription key (about once a day while you're online), it sends only the license key to our license server. The key contains your email address and Stripe customer id. Like any web request, this shows your IP address to the server. We don't keep logs of these checks beyond Cloudflare's standard short-term request logs.

Why we use it, how long, and your choices

We use purchase data to perform our contract with you (your license), to meet legal and tax duties (we keep transaction records as long as tax law requires, generally up to 7 years), and to prevent fraud. We don't sell or rent personal data, and we don't use it for advertising. You can ask us to see, correct or delete your data at [email protected]. We'll delete what the law doesn't require us to keep. Deleting your purchase record means we can no longer restore or renew your key.

Children

BotForge and this site are not meant for children under 13. We don't knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If we change this policy we'll update the date at the top. Big changes will be announced on this page before they take effect.

Part B. The BotForge app

Same text as the policy inside the app (Privacy & legal).

  • Effective date: October 24, 2026
  • Publisher: Ridgeline Apps LLC (Ohio, USA) ("we", "us")
  • Contact: [email protected]

BotForge is a Windows desktop app for building and running your own AI bots with your own API keys or local models. This policy explains what happens to your data. Short version: BotForge has no accounts and no telemetry. We do not receive your bots, chats, keys or files. Everything is stored on your PC. The app connects to the services you set up, and to the few other places listed in section 3 (for example license renewals on paid plans, and a spell-check dictionary download).

1. What we collect

BotForge does not include analytics, telemetry, crash reporting, advertising or tracking code. The app sends nothing to Ridgeline Apps LLC, except license renewals on paid plans (section 3). If you email us for support, we receive only what you choose to send. If you buy a license, Stripe processes the payment and shares your name, email, country and purchase with us so we can issue your license and provide support. We never receive your full card number.

2. What is stored on your PC

All app data lives in your Windows user profile, in %APPDATA%\BotForge:

  • API keys and site logins you enter: encrypted with Windows DPAPI (through Electron safeStorage), so only your Windows account on this PC can decrypt them. They are kept in the app's background process and are never shown back in the UI, written to logs or given to AI models (site passwords are typed directly into the website).
  • Remote access passcode (only if you turn on Settings → Remote access): encrypted the same way, in remote.json. If you choose your own remote password, only a salted scrypt hash of it is kept there (encrypted the same way), never the password.
  • Your license key (if you bought one): encrypted the same way, in license.json, with the plan and the time of the last license check in the local database.
  • Bots, settings, chat history, shared memory, skills, usage and cost records, approvals and an audit log, in a local database (botforge.sqlite). Secret values are removed from the audit log.
  • An app log (botforge.log) for troubleshooting, with known secret values redacted.
  • Bot workspaces (files bots create) and browser profiles for bots that use the built-in browser (these hold the cookies and logins of websites the bot visits, like any browser profile).

This data stays on your PC unless you send it somewhere yourself. You can view and delete memories, chats, keys and logins in the app. Uninstalling does not remove your data folder; delete %APPDATA%\BotForge to remove everything.

3. What is sent to other services, and when

BotForge sends data directly from your PC to third-party services only when you configure them. We are not in the middle and do not see these requests. Each service handles data under its own privacy policy and terms.

  • AI model providers you add (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, xAI, NVIDIA): your messages, the bot's instructions, relevant chat history and memories, tool results and, if you turn on vision for a Computer bot, screenshots. NVIDIA requests go to integrate.api.nvidia.com under NVIDIA's own terms for its hosted (free-tier) models. Local models (Ollama, LM Studio and similar) run on your own PC or network.
  • Memory search embeddings: if you saved a Gemini key and embeddings are not set to "local", memory text is sent to Google's embedding API to improve memory search. Otherwise embeddings are computed on your PC.
  • Tool services and connectors you add (for example web search, weather, GitHub, email, cloud providers, MCP connectors such as Notion, Linear, Sentry, Supabase, Exa, Hugging Face, Airtable, Todoist, Zapier, PayPal, Firecrawl, Tavily, Perplexity or Google Maps): the requests a bot makes with those tools, using the keys you entered for them. When a connector uses Sign in with browser, you sign in on that service's own website; BotForge receives a sign-in token from it and keeps it encrypted on your PC (never sent anywhere else).
  • Import from other apps: when you click it, BotForge reads the connector settings files of other apps on this PC (Claude, ChatGPT/Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, LM Studio, Gemini CLI). Nothing is sent anywhere; nothing in those apps is changed; keys found in them are only saved (encrypted) if you click Import.
  • Websites a bot opens with its browser, and cloud browser or sandbox services (Browserbase, Steel, E2B) if you choose them instead of your local browser and shell.
  • Downloads the app makes on demand: a Chromium browser (from Microsoft's Playwright download servers) if no Edge or Chrome is found; connector packages through npx or uvx (npm or Python package registries) when you add such a connector; skills or plugins from a GitHub URL you enter.
  • Update checks: off unless an update feed is configured. When it is, BotForge asks that feed (an HTTPS address or a public GitHub releases page) whether a newer version exists and downloads it only after you click "Download and restart". Like any web request, this reveals your IP address and app version to that server.
  • License checks (paid plans only): the Free plan makes no license requests. Licenses are sold on our website and payment is handled by Stripe under its own privacy policy. Your license key is checked on your PC without going online. BotForge contacts our license server (run by Ridgeline Apps LLC on Cloudflare) only to renew a subscription key: it sends the key at startup and about once a day while online. If you ask to have your key emailed again, BotForge sends the email address you type. Our license server keeps your Stripe customer id, email address, plan, subscription status and dates, and the keys it issued, so it can renew and resend keys. Your IP address is used only in rate-limit counters that expire within an hour. Emails with your key are sent through our email provider (Resend). Like any web request these calls reveal your IP address to Cloudflare. The key itself is stored encrypted on your PC (DPAPI).
  • Your own AI subscriptions (off unless you turn them on): if you choose to use a Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot subscription, BotForge runs that provider's own command-line program on your PC (for example Claude Code, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot CLI), signed in with your own account. Your messages then go to that provider through its program, under the provider's own terms and privacy policy. These programs are made by the providers, not by us, and may send their own usage or diagnostic data to the provider. BotForge turns that off where the program offers a setting BotForge uses (currently Gemini CLI). BotForge never reads, copies or stores your sign-in for these programs.
  • Spell check: like other Chromium-based apps, BotForge's built-in spell checker may download a dictionary file for your language from Google's servers. This request does not include anything you type, but like any web request it reveals your IP address.
  • Remote access (off by default): if you turn it on and run a Cloudflare Tunnel (cloudflared), the pages and chats you open on your phone travel through Cloudflare's network under your own Cloudflare account (or, for a temporary "quick link", Cloudflare's free trycloudflare.com service). This includes your bot list, chat messages and replies, pending approvals and task status, never your API keys, settings or files. We are not involved and see none of it. Turning remote access off stops the server and any quick link.
  • Demo mode uses canned answers built into the app and makes no AI or network requests for chat.

Actions that send, spend, delete, submit or change things on your accounts wait for your approval unless you change that yourself.

4. Microsoft Store

If you install BotForge from the Microsoft Store, Microsoft may collect data about the installation and purchase under the Microsoft Privacy Statement. We only receive aggregated reports that Microsoft provides to app publishers.

5. Children

BotForge is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data (we collect no data at all).

6. Security

Keys and site passwords are encrypted at rest with Windows DPAPI. Anyone who can sign in to your Windows account can use the app and its stored keys, so protect your account. You are responsible for the third-party accounts and keys you connect and for the costs they incur.

7. Your choices and rights

Because your data stays on your PC, you can access, export (bot YAML, files in your workspaces), correct or delete it at any time from the app or by deleting the data folder. For data held by AI providers or other services you connected, use their tools or contact them. Questions or requests: [email protected].

8. Changes

We will update this policy when the app's data handling changes, and change the effective date above. The current version ships inside the app (Privacy & legal).