What data Omnibar sends

Last updated 8 October 2026. Describes Omnibar from version 0.3.0.

Filename searches run locally, against an index Omnibar builds and keeps on your Mac. Clipboard history, snippets and saved conversations are stored on your Mac. AI requests can send text or attachments to the assistant you chose, and other features make the requests listed below. This page describes the requests Omnibar initiates, the data they include and the controls available from version 0.3.0. It also shows how to read the exact daily usage summary and turn it off. The privacy policy is the formal statement. From version 0.3.0, Settings, Privacy in the app also lists what leaves your Mac.

Requests Omnibar makes

What	When	Where it goes
Your question, earlier messages in the conversation, and anything you attached: a file's extracted text, the clipboard or a screenshot	When you ask a question	The assistant for that conversation: Claude Code, which sends it to Anthropic; Codex, which sends it to OpenAI; or OpenRouter. A conversation can use a different assistant from the one chosen in Settings.
The file's name and the text Omnibar extracts from it, up to 60,000 characters	When you choose Ask About This File (Command-Shift-A) on a file	The assistant you chose
The selected text and the command	When you run an AI command, such as Fix Spelling and Grammar	The assistant you chose
A search that reads like a sentence, with today's date	In the Everything mode, after you stop typing for 0.7 seconds, without pressing Return, when the text has at least four words and at least two words such as "find", "my", "from" or "last week", and Answer sentences automatically is on. It is on by default. Also when you press Return on the row "Search files for:" or choose Ask, whether the setting is on or off.	The assistant you chose
Your OpenRouter key	When you save it for validation, and with AI requests to OpenRouter. Model-list requests do not include the key.	openrouter.ai only
A request for the list of OpenRouter models, without your key	When Settings, Assistant first shows the OpenRouter rows while Omnibar is running	openrouter.ai
A request for the European Central Bank's reference-rate feed. It does not include the conversion you typed.	When you convert a currency and the stored rates are a day old	The European Central Bank
Activation: your license key, this Mac's name, the Omnibar version and the Mac model. Validation: your license key and this Mac's activation ID.	Activation when you enter a key. Validation when Omnibar starts, and then when the weekly check is due.	Polar, which sells Omnibar for us, so a key can be limited to three Macs
A request for the list of available versions, and the download of a new version	Once a day, and when you choose Check for Updates	getomnibar.com
The anonymous daily usage summary, unless you turn it off	After activity starts on a new UTC day	getomnibar.com
A web address that contains what you typed	When you open a quicklink that takes a search, such as a Google or Wikipedia search, or open a meeting link	Your default browser opens the address. Omnibar does not send it itself.

Questions go to an AI provider only when an assistant is set up. With no assistant, none of the first four rows apply. Omnibar leaves your ChatGPT and Claude login credentials to their command line tools. It stores an OpenRouter key in the macOS Keychain and sends it to OpenRouter. This table describes what Omnibar itself sends. Claude Code and Codex are separate programs, and what they send besides the text Omnibar gives them is set by Anthropic and OpenAI.

A normal launch of Omnibar opens no port or socket for other programs to connect to.

The anonymous usage summary

Usage data is on by default. Omnibar explains it the first time you open the app, in setup or in a message titled "Omnibar counts how it is used", with the buttons Keep It On and Turn It Off.

After activity starts on a later UTC day, Omnibar queues the summary of the previous day it recorded activity on, and attempts to send queued summaries to https://getomnibar.com/api/usage. If Omnibar was not used yesterday, the previous recorded day can be an earlier day. If sending fails, it keeps up to seven queued summaries and tries again later. Every value is a word from a fixed list, a range or a number:

Field	What it holds	Example
`schema`	The format version	`1`
`day`	The UTC day the counts cover	`2026-10-07`
`installOfTheDay`	A random code for that recorded activity day, so the same day is not counted twice	A random UUID
`appVersion`, `macOS`	The versions of Omnibar and macOS	`0.3.0`, `15.6`
`hardware`	The kind of Mac, as Apple's model name	`Mac14,13`
`assistant`	Which assistant is chosen	`claudeCode`, `codex`, `openRouter` or `none`
`license`	The type of license	`trial`, `omnibar`, `lifetime`
`indexSize`	How many items the search index holds, as a range	`100000-249999`
`daysSinceInstall`	How long ago Omnibar was installed, as a range	`7-29`
`activeDays7`, `activeDays28`	On how many of the last 7 and 28 days Omnibar was used	`5`, `19`
`events`	For each feature used that day, a range of how many times	`"search": "10-49"`
`searchMicroseconds`	How fast searches were, as two numbers	`{"p50": 600, "p95": 1300}`

The examples above show the form of each value, not data from a real Mac. The summary never includes what you search for or type, file or folder names, paths, clipboard contents, questions, answers, window titles, menu item names, emoji, colors, or the names or contents of your snippets and quicklinks. Each recorded activity day has its own random identifier. Retries reuse that day's identifier so the server can recognize duplicate submissions. There is no permanent install identifier. The code that receives the summary on getomnibar.com stores the fields above and the date it was received, with no field for an IP address or user agent. A scheduled job on getomnibar.com runs every day and deletes the summaries of days more than 25 months ago.

See the exact summary

Open Settings and choose Privacy.
Next to "Usage data:", click Show What Is Sent.
Omnibar shows the literal text it will send next. If a summary is waiting to be sent, the title is "This is exactly what will be sent next". Otherwise it shows today's counts so far, titled "Today so far. This is sent after the day ends, in UTC, exactly as shown".
Click Copy to copy the text, or Done to close it.

Turn usage data off

Open Settings and choose Privacy.
Turn off Send anonymous usage counts.

Turning this off clears queued counts and prevents new usage submissions. A request already in progress may still finish. The same checkbox is on the last step of setup. This checkbox controls only the usage summary. It does not turn off updates, license checks, the AI requests you make or the other requests in the table above.

The diagnostic trace

Settings, Privacy also has Write a diagnostic trace to the system log. From version 0.3.0 it is off by default, including on a copy installed before that version that never changed the setting. The trace is written to the macOS system log on your Mac and is not sent anywhere. When it is on, text typed into the search field is written as private, so the system log hides it. Leave it off unless a problem is being investigated.

Where Omnibar keeps your data

Clipboard history, snippets, quicklinks and conversations are kept in ~/Library/Application Support/Omnibar. Reveal Data Folder in Settings, Privacy opens it in Finder. Settings such as the shortcut and the chosen assistant are kept in macOS preferences under com.berkleysoftware.omnibar. To remove the app's main local data, quit Omnibar, delete the app and its Application Support folder, and remove its preferences with defaults delete com.berkleysoftware.omnibar in Terminal. Keychain items are separate: the license record, the trial start date and an OpenRouter key are kept in your login keychain under the service com.berkleysoftware.omnibar. Entries the diagnostic trace already wrote to the system log are also separate.

Privacy policy
Pricing: no account is needed, and Polar handles payments.