Trust & Privacy

How we designed NIKI to keep your code and data safe

Our Approach

We designed NIKI with a simple principle: do one thing well, and do it safely.

Unlike general-purpose AI agents that control browsers or have broad system access, NIKI focuses exclusively on job monitoring.

✅

You're Always in Control

Every command NIKI proposes requires your explicit approval:

NIKI:

Would you like me to check?

cat /etc/os-release
Run Cancel
  • • Review every command before it runs
  • • Edit commands if needed
  • • Cancel anytime

NIKI proposes. You decide.

🏠

Self-Hosted by Design

Your Server
(NIKI runs here)
→
Your Bot
(Telegram/Slack)
↓
Your LLM API Key
  • • NIKI runs on your server
  • • Uses your bot tokens
  • • Uses your API keys
  • • No NIKI servers in between
  • • No data collection by us
🎯

Focused by Design

NIKI does one thing and does it well.

NIKI Does NIKI Does NOT
✓ Monitor jobs you start ✗ Browse the web
✓ Read logs you specify ✗ Access arbitrary files
✓ Propose commands (you confirm) ✗ Execute without permission
✓ Send notifications to your bot ✗ Connect to external services
✓ Store history locally ✗ Send data to us
🛡️

Command Safety

NIKI blocks dangerous commands automatically:

  • ✗ Destructive operations (rm -rf /)
  • ✗ System modifications (shutdown, reboot)
  • ✗ Sensitive data exposure (private keys, credentials)
  • ✗ Dangerous downloads (curl | bash)

View the full blacklist:

niki learned show-blacklist
📁

Your Data Stays Local

All data is stored on your server:

~/.niki/ ├── config.toml # Your settings ├── history/ # Command history ├── learned/ # Learned patterns └── skills/ # Your custom skills

Nothing is sent to NIKI developers. Ever.

📜

Full Audit Trail

Every command NIKI executes is logged:

niki cmdhistory show niki cmdhistory export --format md

Know exactly what NIKI has done, anytime.

📖

Open Source

NIKI is 100% open source under the MIT license.

No black boxes. No hidden behavior.

💰

Cost Transparency

NIKI is event-driven, not always-on:

Event Tokens Used
Job completes ~500-1000
You ask a question ~500-1000
Idle time Zero

Typical cost: Less than $0.01 per job with most models.

Run dozens of jobs for pennies — not dollars per hour like browser agents.

Questions?

Contact: Min Dai — dai@broadinstitute.org