UGT: Use the GitHub Thing UGT: Use the GitHub Thing

Privacy

UGT gets GitHub projects running on your own computer, and keeps as little as it can to do that. This page covers ugt, the program you install, with its plugins and its bundle for Claude Desktop; the catalogue service at api.usegithubthing.com; the hosted MCP server at mcp.usegithubthing.com; and this website. Last changed 3 November 2026.

Your files stay on your computer

Recipes run in UGT's own Linux engine on your computer. Your files go only to the recipe you give them to, there, and never to UGT. A recipe reaches the internet, a folder or a device only as its recipe declares, and one from outside the catalogue asks you first before it reaches more than the internet and the folder you use it in. A secret a recipe needs, such as an API key, stays in your system's secret store. Results land in your UGT folder.

What ugt sends, and when

  • Finding a recipe. When you or your AI app look up a project or search, ugt asks the catalogue service which recipes it has, by the project's owner and name or the words you searched, and downloads the recipe's files by their hash.
  • Running a recipe. ugt downloads what the recipe needs: UGT's Linux engine and verified images from GitHub's package registry, and the project's own source and images from where the recipe pins them, each under that host's terms.
  • Run reports, only if you agree. The first time a catalogue recipe does not work, ugt asks whether to send reports, and ugt reports on or off changes it any time. A report says which recipe and revision ran, whether it worked, the step that failed and what UGT diagnosed, your computer's architecture, the version of ugt, and a random ID made on your computer. Never your files, paths, output or anything you typed.
  • Sharing a recipe, only when you ask. ugt login signs you in to GitHub in your browser, and ugt recipe submit opens a pull request from your GitHub account. The sign-in stays in your system's secret store.
  • Updates. ugt update asks GitHub for the newest release, only when you run it.
  • Your AI app. What you say to your AI app goes to that app's provider, under its terms. UGT receives only the tool calls the app makes to it.

What is kept

  • Lookups: the catalogue service counts each lookup by the recipe it found, or the project it had none for. Never who asked.
  • Run reports: as sent, with their random ID.
  • Both are kept for 90 days, then only as daily totals with no ID in them.
  • The access log: the server that runs the catalogue service and the hosted MCP server keeps a standard web server log of each request's address, time and path for 14 days, to run and protect the service.

The hosted MCP server

The server at mcp.usegithubthing.com only reads the catalogue: it answers your AI app's questions about projects, recipes and how to install UGT, and runs nothing. It counts lookups as the catalogue service does, and keeps nothing else about your requests. Its rate limit counts requests per address in memory only.

This website

usegithubthing.com uses Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Cloudflare Web Analytics to see how people use it. Clarity never sees what you type: the GitHub link, your task and your searches are hidden from it, and it is off on search pages. A search's words stay out of page titles and addresses. When you give the home page a GitHub link, your browser asks GitHub about the repository directly, and your task stays in that tab.

What UGT does not do

It does not sell anything about you, show ads, or train models on your files or requests. It has no accounts.

Who handles data for UGT

Amazon Web Services runs the catalogue service and its database. Cloudflare serves this website and sits in front of the service. GitHub hosts the code, the releases and the images. Google and Microsoft run this website's analytics.

Questions and deletion

Ask through auscaster.com/studio. Run reports expire after 90 days; ask, and they are deleted sooner. ugt uninstall removes everything UGT set up on your computer.