privacy

Last updated October 12, 2026

element runs entirely on your computer. It does not send anything to us or to anyone else. There is no account, no server, no analytics and no tracking.

What element reads

Only when you pick an element (hold ⌥ and click, the toolbar button, the shortcut, or when your coding agent asks you to pick), the extension reads that element on the current page:

• its CSS selector, tag, role, accessible name and visible text
• a trimmed copy of its HTML and a few of its computed styles
• a screenshot cropped to the element
• the page's URL and title, and the component and source file when the page exposes them in development builds

Password fields are never read. Pages are not read in the background or while you browse.

Where it goes

The pick goes from the extension to a small program on your own computer (the element hub, installed with npm i -g @randyyu/element) through Chrome's native messaging. The hub hands it to the coding agent you're using on the same computer (for example Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or pi). Picks and screenshots are kept in memory and in ~/.element on your computer.

Your coding agent may then send what it receives to its own AI provider as part of your conversation, under that agent's terms and privacy policy. element itself makes no network requests.

What element stores

Your settings (appearance) and which tab belongs to which agent session, stored locally in the browser. Nothing is synced.

Permissions

• Read and change data on websites: to show the highlight and read the element you pick, on whatever page you're working on.
• Native messaging: to hand picks to the element hub on your computer.
• Tabs, scripting: to start the picker in the current tab, open pages your agent asks for, and take the element screenshot.
• Storage, context menus: your settings and the right-click menu.

Contact

Questions: github.com/randyyu13/element/issues. element is open source (MIT), so you can read exactly what it does.