> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.elanotes.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Privacy

> Notes in private/ stay on your machine. The cloud never sees them — not in results, logs, or caches.

A note in Ela is a file in your folder. Cloud reach is optional. `private/` is not.

## The folder is yours

Your markdown folder is the source of truth. The hosted copy, when you use one, is a replica. Cancel cloud and the folder on disk still works.

We do not train models on your notes. Logs never contain note text.

## private/

Notes under `private/` are locked with your passphrase. If you lose it, those notes are unrecoverable — there is no reset, and we do not hold a copy of the key.

On a vault with private notes enabled, use the same passphrase on each device via `ELANOTES_E2EE_PASSPHRASE`. There is no reset.

**Cloud never sees `private/`.** Sync skips it. It never reaches Postgres, cloud API responses, logs, or caches. Search coverage names the exclusion instead of dropping those notes silently.

## Local vs cloud

| Surface                         | `private/`                                                     |
| ------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Web and desktop on this machine | Indexed locally when you unlock with the passphrase            |
| [Local MCP](/mcp-local) (stdio) | Indexed on the device. The passphrase never leaves the machine |
| Cloud MCP and `GET /v1/search`  | Excluded. Coverage says so                                     |

That boundary is tested on every release.

## Related

* [Search](/using-search) — coverage and exclusions
* [Agents](/agents) — what remote tools can see