Security
The connector is designed to stay on your own computer, and to keep the scripts it runs on a tight leash. Here's what that means in practice.
Everything stays local
The connector only listens on 127.0.0.1 — your own machine. Other computers on your network (and the internet) can't reach it. Run it on a machine you trust, and don't deliberately open its ports up to other devices.
Websites you visit can't use it either. The connector refuses any request that comes from a web page (browsers mark those, local tools don't), and only accepts commands sent as JSON. A page open in your browser can't run commands in your Etch tab through it.
Downloads don't overwrite your files
When the agent uses download, the file name comes from the Etch tab. So the connector never overwrites a file that already exists, and never writes a name starting with . (like .bashrc), unless the agent passes --force.
Scripts run in a safe mode
When your agent sends a command, it runs in a restricted mode: the script can use Etch's etch.* API and standard JavaScript, but it's blocked from touching the wider page — things like window, document, network requests, and browser storage are off-limits.
This is a guardrail, not a vault. It reliably keeps everyday and AI-written scripts on the Etch API and blocks the obvious ways out, which is exactly what it's for. It is not built to contain deliberately malicious code — a determined attacker writing hostile scripts could still find a way around it.
Treat the connector like any other developer tool on your machine: only connect AI agents and run scripts you trust, and keep its ports on your own computer.