Privacy and trust

In one file that you chose: on your own computer, or in your own Google Drive. Idea Matrix has no accounts and no database. The site you loaded is a folder of static files; there is no server-side code at all.

On your computer, you can see the file in Finder or Explorer. You can copy it, back it up, put it in a folder your iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive client syncs, or open it in a text editor. It is plain JSON. In Google Drive it is the same file, in the folder you picked, and you can download it from there.

1. Open your browser’s developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac) and choose the Network tab.
2. Use the app: score an idea, add a conversation, park something.
3. Watch the list. After the page has loaded, nothing else is requested. The one exception is a small file called build.json, fetched from this same site when you open Settings or this page, so the app can show its fingerprint. There are no calls to any server, because there is nothing to call.

If you keep your matrix in Google Drive, you will also see requests to googleapis.com: one to read or write your file, and one every half minute to ask whether it changed elsewhere. Those go to Google, on your account, with the file’s contents. Nothing goes anywhere else.

Two of Google’s own scripts load, from accounts.google.com and apis.google.com, and only after you choose Drive: one for signing in, one for the file picker. Google signs you in on its own page and hands the app a key that lets it read and write files in your Drive for about an hour. That key stays in this browser, in its local storage, so a reload or a new tab does not ask you to sign in again. It is gone when the hour is up or when you sign out in Settings, and there is no server of the app’s to send it to; after that, one click gets a new one.

The permission the app asks for is the narrowest Google offers: only files the app created, or that you picked in the file picker. It cannot list your Drive, and it cannot read anything else in it. You can take the permission away at any time in your Google Account under Security, Third-party apps.

Google can see the file, because it is plain JSON in their storage, the same as any document you keep there. If that is a concern, keep the file on this computer instead.

A cached copy of your matrix and a pointer to your file live in this browser’s private storage, so the app opens instantly and works offline. They never leave the browser. Clearing site data removes them; your file is untouched.

On a return visit the browser asks for one click before the app may write to your file again. That prompt is the browser’s, not the app’s, and it is a good thing.

A small service worker, part of the app, keeps the app’s own pages, scripts, styles and icons in the browser’s cache, so the app opens and works without a connection and can be installed as an app. It only ever answers requests for this site’s own files; anything else, Google Drive included, goes straight to the network. A new version downloads in the background, and the app asks before switching to it.

No analytics, no crash reporting, no usage pings, and no third-party scripts beyond Google’s two, which load only if you choose Drive. There is nothing in the code that could send your ideas, or anything about how you use the app, anywhere.

Idea Matrix comes with a small program you can install so Claude Desktop, Claude Code or a local model can read and update your matrix through the Model Context Protocol. It runs on your computer, on the same file as the app. When you use it, the text of the idea you ask about goes to whichever assistant you connected, on your account, and nowhere else. There is no server of the app’s in between.

Idea Matrix is made and maintained by Andrew Blair (abcd.ca), one person. There are no investors, no ads and no accounts.

It pays for itself when someone books a fixed-rate build-planning session with me: I go over the idea and how to build it with them, and they leave with a written plan covering the feature set, which technologies to use and how to get started. Book a session. The link is the same for everyone, and nothing you write in the app changes it.

Idea Matrix is open source under the MIT licence. The code is at github.com/abcd-ca/idea-matrix. Every pull request runs the same checks, and the rule that nothing leaves your machine is written into the contributor guidelines.