Privacy

Privacy policy

Last updated 23 September 2026

Cadent is a macOS application that reads a student's own course materials and turns them into a plan for the day. This note describes what it collects, where that goes, and what it never does.

It is written to be read. If anything here is unclear, ask: support@cadent.work.

The short version

Your coursework stays on your Mac. Syllabi, assignments, calendar events, captured pages, your plan and your conversations are stored in an encrypted database on your own machine. I do not have a copy.
Parts of your material are sent to AI providers to answer your questions, and only the parts needed for the question you asked.
Nothing is ever sold, and there is no advertising or tracking.
You can delete everything from inside the app or by removing it.

What is stored on your Mac

Cadent keeps a local, encrypted database containing:

course materials you connect or upload: syllabi, assignments, announcements and files from Canvas, messages from Outlook, calendar events, documents you upload, and web pages you capture with the browser extension;
the text of PDF files attached to your Canvas courses, which Cadent downloads and reads so that a schedule or reading list posted as a document becomes part of your plan (see "Files from your Canvas courses" below);
the plan Cadent builds from them, including your actions, estimates and completions;
the tasks and events you write yourself, including anything you choose to add to them: a note, a location, a meeting link, a deadline, a breakdown into steps, and how often it repeats;
your questions to Ask Cadent and the answers, with their citations;
your preferences, including your name and appearance settings.

The encryption key is held in your macOS Keychain. Deleting the app's data removes the database; deleting the Keychain entry makes it unreadable.

Credentials. Your Canvas access token and Outlook sign-in are stored using macOS safeStorage, which is backed by the Keychain. They are never sent to me and never leave your machine except to Canvas and Microsoft themselves.

What is sent off your Mac, and to whom

To Cadent's server

Cadent runs a small server (the "gateway") that holds my AI provider keys, so that the app does not have to. Two different things send material to it, and an earlier version of this policy described only one of them.

When you ask a question or Cadent builds a plan, it sends:

the specific passages from your own materials that are relevant to the request, not your whole library;
the question or instruction itself;
your account identifier and the app's version.

When Cadent first reads a source, it sends more than that, and you should know it. To make a document searchable, Cadent breaks it into passages and sends every passage through the gateway to be summarised in one line and turned into numbers (an "embedding") that let it find the right passage later. That happens once per document, when it is connected, uploaded or downloaded, not every time you ask something.

So the honest statement is: the full text of the course material you give Cadent passes through the gateway once, on its way to the AI providers below. The gateway still records usage only: which account, which operation, how many tokens, how long, and what it cost me to run. The content is not stored on the server, during ingestion or afterwards.

The server forwards these to the AI providers below, returns the answer, and records usage only: which account, which operation, how many tokens, how long it took, and what it cost me to run. The content of your requests and answers is not stored on the server.

To AI providers

Anthropic (Claude) generates plans and answers.
Voyage AI turns your text into numerical embeddings so Cadent can find the right passage.
OpenAI is used for some small, high-volume classification steps.

These providers process the text Cadent sends in order to return a result. Each has its own terms; under their current API terms, data sent through the API is not used to train their models. I do not control their policies and you should read them if this matters to you.

To your own connected services

Canvas and Microsoft receive requests directly from your Mac, authenticated with credentials you supplied. Cadent's server is not in that path.

Downloading a Canvas file also reaches Instructure's file storage (instructure.com, instructuremedia.com), because that is where Canvas keeps the bytes and it redirects there. Your Canvas access token is not sent to that host; the download link Canvas hands back already carries its own short-lived permission, so the token stays with Canvas itself.

Files from your Canvas courses

Cadent looks at your courses' Files tab and their modules, and downloads PDFs only, up to 25 MB each. This exists for one reason: instructors routinely post the term's schedule and readings as a PDF, and a plan built without it is a plan missing most of the work.

PDFs only. Spreadsheets, videos, archives and everything else are left alone; Cadent does not download them.
Only files you can already open. Cadent reads with your own Canvas credentials, so a file locked to you stays unread. It sees nothing in Canvas that you could not see yourself.
A scanned PDF is skipped, not transcribed.
The text becomes part of your local library and is embedded through the gateway exactly like a syllabus (see above).

Disconnecting Canvas in Settings → Connections stops this, with the option to delete what it imported.

Your account

To use Cadent you sign in with your email address. What is stored:

your email address;
an account identifier;
when you signed in, and the tokens that keep you signed in;
your daily usage totals, so the daily limits can be enforced.

No password is stored, because there isn't one: you sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email.

Feedback you send

If you use Settings → Feedback, I receive exactly: your message, your email address, and the app's version and platform. Nothing else: not your plan, not your courses, not your conversations. Your address is included so I can reply, and it is what a reply goes to.

What never happens

Your data is never sold or rented.
There is no advertising, and no analytics tracking in the app.
I do not read your coursework. It is not on a server of mine to read.
Your data is not sent to anyone who is not listed above.

How long things are kept

On your Mac: until you delete them. Settings → Privacy & data can clear your conversation history; deleting the app's data folder removes everything.
Usage records on the server: retained so the daily limits can be enforced. They contain no request content.
Your account: until you ask me to delete it.
Feedback emails: kept as ordinary email correspondence.

Your choices

See or delete your data. It is on your machine. Settings → Privacy & data clears conversations; removing ~/Library/Application Support/Cadent removes everything local.
Delete your account. Email me at support@cadent.work and I will remove your account record and usage history.
Disconnect a source at any time in Settings → Connections, with the option to delete what it imported.

Students and age

Cadent is intended for university students and is not directed at children under 13. I do not knowingly collect information from them.

Educational records

If you connect Canvas, Cadent processes material that may constitute an educational record under FERPA. That material stays on your Mac; only the passages needed to answer a specific request reach an AI provider, and none of it is stored on my server. Cadent is not endorsed by or affiliated with any university, including UNC.

Security, stated honestly

Your local database is encrypted, credentials use the macOS Keychain, and all network traffic uses TLS. Cadent is a project I build and run on my own, and no system is perfectly secure. If you find a vulnerability, please tell me at support@cadent.work before disclosing it publicly.

Changes

If I change this note in a way that materially affects you, I will say so in the app or by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Email me at support@cadent.work.