Privacy & data handling

Finch provides a Cloudflare Tunnel-style privacy boundary: encrypted transport, an outbound-only connection from your box, and no retention of ordinary relayed request or response bodies. Finch is not end-to-end encrypted, because its Cloudflare edge terminates transport encryption and processes each payload in memory long enough to route it.

Ordinary relay traffic

A client connects to Finch over HTTPS. Finch authenticates the caller and relays the request to your box over its outbound WSS connection. Responses return over the same encrypted network legs. Your box does not open an inbound port or expose its IP address to the caller. The final hop, from the box agent to your service, is your configuration choice: the agent allows plaintext HTTP to a loopback address and to single-label hosts (such as a Docker Compose service name). Single-label names can resolve off the box, and when they do that hop crosses your network in the clear — so use https:// for any upstream that is not on the box itself.

This is transport encryption, not end-to-end encryption. Finch's runtime can access plaintext while forwarding a request, even though the payload is not retained. We therefore do not claim that Finch is cryptographically unable to inspect traffic.

Operational metadata we retain

Finch stores a limited call record so owners can see service health and troubleshoot availability. For ordinary relayed calls, that record contains:

• the call timestamp;
• the target service route;
• the authenticated caller label;
• the response status code and latency; and
• aggregate request counts, latency, and error-rate metrics.

Finch also stores the account, service, box, key, access-control, and audit configuration needed to operate your workspace. Finch access keys are stored as hashes; the plaintext key is shown only when it is minted. Ordinary MCP request and response bodies are not part of call history, logs, or analytics.

Test Chat is a separate processing path

Dashboard Test Chat deliberately uses a hosted model. When you use it, Finch sends your chat messages and your service's tool names, descriptions, and input schemas to Cloudflare Workers AI. If the model invokes a tool, its arguments and the tool's result are also sent to Workers AI so the model can complete its answer.

What this means in practice

• Use the ordinary Finch endpoint when you want the relay non-retention guarantee.
• Use Test Chat only when sending the relevant data to Workers AI is acceptable.
• Treat operational metadata as visible to workspace owners through the dashboard and audit surfaces.