Telemetry

OpenTabs collects completely anonymous telemetry data to help improve the platform. This page explains what is collected, why, and how to disable it.

Telemetry is enabled by default. You can opt out at any time with a single command.

Why is telemetry collected?

Telemetry helps us understand how OpenTabs is used in practice — what platforms people run it on, how many plugins are loaded, and whether the server starts in dev or production mode. This data guides decisions about which Node.js versions to support, when to optimize startup time, and where to focus testing.

We do not collect any personally identifiable information, plugin names, tool calls, or anything about what you do with OpenTabs.

What is collected?

A single event — server_started — is sent each time the MCP server starts. It includes:

That's it. No plugin names, no tool calls, no file paths, no environment variables, no error messages, no browsing data.

How is identity handled?

Each installation is assigned a random UUID (v4), stored at ~/.opentabs/telemetry-id. This ID contains no personal information — it is a random string used solely to count unique installations. It is never correlated with any other identifier.

You can view your anonymous ID:

opentabs telemetry status

How to opt out

CLI command (recommended)

opentabs telemetry disable

To re-enable later:

opentabs telemetry enable

Check the current status:

opentabs telemetry status

Environment variable

export OPENTABS_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1

Or use the community-standard DO_NOT_TRACK:

export DO_NOT_TRACK=1

Config file

Set telemetry to false in ~/.opentabs/config.json:

{
  "telemetry": false
}

The check order is: OPENTABS_TELEMETRY_DISABLED → DO_NOT_TRACK → config file. The first match wins.

Verifying what is sent

Set the debug environment variable to print telemetry events to stderr instead of sending them:

OPENTABS_TELEMETRY_DEBUG=1 opentabs start

Events are printed to stderr in the format [telemetry] event_name {"key":"value"}. Nothing is sent to the network in debug mode.

Data handling

Telemetry is sent to PostHog (US region). Events are fire-and-forget — telemetry errors are caught silently and never affect server operation. The telemetry module has a 2-second shutdown timeout so it cannot delay process exit.

We do not sell telemetry data. Aggregated, de-identified data may be used to report on platform adoption.

Last Updated: 30 Mar, 2026