Cookie policy
Last updated 26 July 2026
Pierre sets four cookies in total. Two are needed to keep you signed in, one exists for ten minutes during a GitHub sign-in, and one is analytics — which only ever appears if you agreed to it.
Your current choice
You have not made a choice yet, so no analytics cookies are set.
Every cookie, in full
| Name | Type | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| pierre_session | Strictly necessary | Keeps you signed in to the hosted app. Cryptographically sealed and HTTP-only, so page scripts cannot read it. Contains only your internal account id. | 30 days |
| pierre_oauth_state | Strictly necessary | A one-time random value that proves a GitHub sign-in was started by you and not by another site. Set when you click Sign in, deleted the moment you come back. | 10 minutes |
| _ga | Analytics — consent required | Google Analytics: distinguishes one visitor from another so page views can be counted. | 2 years |
| _ga_<ID> | Analytics — consent required | Google Analytics: keeps session state for this specific property. | 2 years |
Pierre also uses your browser's local storage — not cookies — to remember interface preferences (which rows you collapsed, how tall the detail pane is, your cookie choice itself) and to cache pull-request detail so the app feels fast. None of it is transmitted anywhere and it never leaves your device.
Why two of them can't be declined
The two pierre_* cookies are what the law calls strictly necessary: they exist solely to deliver something you explicitly asked for (being signed in, and being signed in safely). There is no version of the hosted app that works without them, and they carry no tracking value — one holds an account number, the other a random string that is thrown away seconds later. That is why they are set without asking.
If you would rather not have them at all, run Pierre locally instead. There is no session, no sign-in and no server.
The analytics cookies, and how they behave
- Nothing loads before you agree. Decline, and the Google Analytics script is never downloaded — so Google is not contacted at all, not even to be told you refused.
- Declining costs you nothing. Every feature works identically. There is no nag, no reduced functionality, and the banner does not come back.
- Advertising signals are off. Google Signals and ad personalisation are explicitly disabled, so the data cannot be joined to an advertising profile or used for remarketing.
- Changing your mind deletes the cookies. Withdrawing consent expires _ga and _ga_<ID> on your device immediately and stops all further measurement.
Google is the recipient of this data and acts as our processor; the transfer is to the United States. See §§2 and 5 of the privacy policy for the legal detail.
Self-hosted and local installs
If you run Pierre yourself, analytics is not configured at all unless you supply your own measurement id at build time — so the banner never appears and no analytics cookie is ever set. The local desktop mode has no sign-in, so it sets neither session cookie either. A local install sets no cookies whatsoever.
Browser-level controls
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings, or use Google's own Analytics opt-out extension. Blocking the two necessary cookies will sign you out of the hosted app.
Questions about any of this: wakemana@gmail.com.