NetworkWhat leaves your Mac
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What leaves your Mac
RoachNet goes online in these cases, and no others:
- To fetch what you ask for: models, maps, packs, archives and catalogs. What a paired device asks for goes over https only, redirects included (since 1.1.4).
- To check for its own updates, on GitHub. A downloaded installer must match the release's published SHA-256, or it's deleted.
- To refresh the catalog lists (map, Kiwix and Wikipedia collections and the pack catalog) from apps.roachnet.org, over HTTPS. Offline, the bundled lists are used.
- For features you turn on: a RoachNet account, web chat, RoachTail to your own devices, trace export, cloud providers you add keys for, and Claude or ChatGPT plans through your own CLI.
- For RoachArcade's player, once you say yes: EmulatorJS and its cores from
cdn.emulatorjs.org, or from the address you set as EmulatorJS data in Settings › Arcade. Since 1.1.4 the player asks before it loads anything from the internet; a local EmulatorJS folder asks nothing and loads nothing.
Network-backed features can't refresh or download offline. Everything already on your Mac keeps working.
What listens
| Listener | Address | When |
|---|---|---|
| Loopback API | 127.0.0.1, a fresh port each launch |
While RoachNet runs |
| Model server | 127.0.0.1:36434 |
While RoachNet runs |
| Companion bridge | 127.0.0.1:38111 |
While the bridge is on |
| Setup service | 127.0.0.1, an ephemeral port |
Only while RoachNet Setup is open |
| Cluster | Port 7419 on every interface, advertised over Bonjour |
Only while Cluster is on |
The four local servers refuse a Host header that isn't a loopback name and a request from another website, so a web page can't reach them through your browser. Cluster is the one listener on the network, and it's off until you turn it on; every Cluster connection has to prove it holds your pairing code.
Your data
- Your Vault, models, maps, Org and traces stay in
~/RoachNet/storageon your Mac. - Traces are scrubbed of secrets before they're written. Export is off until you set it up.
- RoachClaw's local context (Vault file names and excerpts, project names, captured site titles, model and route names) goes only to models on your own machines, unless you turn on Cloud models too, and then cloud models get the names and counts, never a file's contents. Dev's assist sends the start of the open file to whichever model answers, a cloud model included (RoachClaw).
- The iOS companion caches your Mac's state on the phone, and talks to the Mac only over HTTPS, your tailnet, or on the device itself.
- An account is optional. Installing from RoachNet Apps doesn't need one. An account keeps your RoachClaw web conversations, the apps you save and a short list of the devices you sign in from; nothing in
~/RoachNetgoes to it.