What Mergiato can see, and where your code goes.
Mergiato is a desktop app that drives the GitHub CLI you're already signed in to. Every request goes straight from your machine to GitHub with your own access, the same as typing the command yourself. This is the page to forward to your security team.
Free, no sign-up. For Apple silicon and Intel Macs.
The short version: it's the GitHub CLI, in one window.
- Mergiato can do exactly what your
ghsign-in can do, and nothing more. - Requests go from your machine to GitHub, and to Vercel if you use its CLI.
- The GitHub CLI signs every request. Mergiato never stores your GitHub token.
- Mergiato has no servers, no account and no analytics.
How a request travels
Mergiato runs the command-line tools already on your machine and shows what they return. To load your inbox it
calls gh api; to merge a PR it asks gh to merge it; to deploy a preview it asks the
vercel CLI. Each tool talks to its own service with the sign-in you gave it.
What it can access
Exactly what your GitHub CLI can see. If you can open a repository with gh, Mergiato can show it; if
you can't, it can't either. Its reach is the scopes of your gh auth login, which you can check with
gh auth status.
- In the background it only reads: your PR lists every 30 seconds, the open PR's details, and its checks every 10 seconds while jobs run. Polling pauses while the app is in the background.
- Anything that changes GitHub happens when you click: a comment, an approval, a merge, a label, a re-run. It lands as your own account, just as if you'd done it on github.com.
Every connection it makes
| To | Why | How |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub API | Your PRs, diffs, checks, reviews, merges, file uploads | Through gh, signed by it |
| api.github.com | Checks you're online (a bare connection, no data) | Direct |
| github.com avatars | Profile pictures next to names | Plain image requests, like any web page |
| GitHub Releases | Checks for updates and downloads them | Direct; each update is signed and verified before it installs |
| Vercel | Preview deployments, only if you use them | Through the vercel CLI |
Optional AI features run the AI command-line tool you've installed, under your own account and its terms. One switch in Settings turns every AI feature off.
What stays on your machine
Mergiato keeps a few things so it opens fast and remembers your choices: your settings and theme, the last inbox
it loaded, which files you've marked Viewed, and the clone folder you picked for each repository. It keeps them in
its own app data (~/Library/WebKit/com.mergiato.app and
~/Library/Caches/com.mergiato.app on a Mac). None of it leaves your machine.
To remove Mergiato, drag it to the Trash and delete those two folders. Your comments, reviews and merges stay on GitHub, where they always were.
For your security review
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Needs a GitHub App or OAuth grant in the org? | No. It uses each person's own gh sign-in. |
| Stores tokens? | No. The GitHub CLI keeps and uses its own. |
| Sends code or metadata to Mergiato? | No. There are no Mergiato servers. |
| Telemetry or crash reports? | None in the app. (This website counts visits with cookieless Rybbit.) |
| Needs a local clone? | No. Only the optional docked terminal opens one you pick. |
| Code signing? | Updates are signed and checked before they install. Apple Developer ID signing for the app is on its way; until it lands, macOS asks once on the first open, and some company-managed Macs block it. |
Questions
Can Mergiato act on GitHub without me?
No. In the background it only reads. Everything that changes GitHub (a comment, an approval, a merge, a re-run) starts with your click, and merges ask for a second, deliberate one.
Does my team or my org need to approve anything?
No. There's nothing to install in the organization. Each person signs in to the GitHub CLI, which most developers have done already.
Will it burn through my GitHub rate limit?
It's built to be frugal: the inbox is a few searches with small pages, requests are shared and cached, avatars cost nothing, and polling pauses while the app is in the background.
Free while in beta, under 10 MB, and you're reviewing in about a minute.