Your code, AI and local history
Field runs on your machine. You can edit and run Kotlin, make the first drawing, and use native graphics without an AI key. This page describes Field's built-in services; code you write or libraries you load can make their own network requests.
What stays on your machine
Your documents and their backups live in your workspace. Field also keeps local settings, caches and diagnostic logs. Local code-use history is an on-by-default SQLite history of compiled and executed code: full source snapshots, document and box names, compile diagnostics, exceptions, timings and launch events. Field and its AI tools use it to find related code and to look into failures. It is not an upload to OpenEndedGroup or an audience analytics feed.
The database normally lives at ~/.afield/code-use/field-code-use.sqlite. The AI → Local code-use
history → Open browser control on Welcome shows it. AFIELD_CODE_USE_PATH changes its location.
Stop Field before deleting that database and its -wal and -shm companions; Field can create a new
history when restarted. Deleting it does not delete document files or other logs.
In the background, Field also reads the code in that history to work out which Field functions and
types each snippet uses, so AI tools can find related code by what it calls rather than by its text.
This analysis runs in a separate helper program on your machine. If you point
AFIELD_CODE_USE_SEMANTIC_SIDECAR_URL at a server elsewhere, the code is sent there to be analysed instead.
To pause the background analysis, tick quiet mode under Welcome → Preferences → Other.
Quiet mode does not stop Field recording local code-use history.
Source and diagnostics can contain private information, so review them before attaching logs to an issue.
What optional AI sends
When you use AI chat, AI edits, completion or documentation assistance, the configured provider or agent receives the request and its context. That can include selected code, surrounding document content, conversation history, retrieved source/docs, diagnostic messages, and images you supply. An agent's tools can read more code, files or local code-use history while answering a request; tool results then become model context. A selected line is not a guarantee that only that line leaves this machine. Review the tools and provider you enable for confidential work.
Providers and model/account settings appear in Welcome → AI. With Local AI, requests go to the model endpoint you choose, which can run on this computer or another machine you own. Hosted-provider requests use your own API key or configured agent account and can incur that provider's charges. Provider retention and data handling are governed by that provider's settings and terms. Field does not supply a shared API subscription. Background documentation or tool-review tasks also use the configured agent when you start them. If you want to try Field without any external model, leave AI unconfigured; nothing in your first five minutes needs it.
Saved provider keys are stored under ~/.afield/, outside your documents. Conversation and tool
logs may also remain locally. Do not attach keys, private documents or unreviewed logs to a public bug report.
Optional speech transcription downloads a model and runs its transcription worker locally; sending
the resulting prompt to an AI assistant follows the same rules above.
Downloads and network access
First installation downloads runtimes and dependencies. Optional model services can download models or call their own services; each has separate requirements. Remote JS, URLs in your documents and third-party libraries make their own requests, which nothing on this page covers.
By default Field's server only accepts connections from your own machine, and refuses requests made by other websites open in your browser. If you open it to your local network, anyone who can reach it can run code on your machine without logging in: read server access before enabling it.
License
Field's code is AGPL-3.0-or-later; see the repository's LICENSE. Vendored components and optional integrations can have their own licenses.