stacktale writes a second log file (errors-ai.log) meant to be read by an automated consumer — an AI assistant or agent. Because tools read it, its contents deserve deliberate thought. This is the security posture and the vulnerability-reporting process.

Please do not open a public issue for a security problem. Email gabrielbaldez2009@gmail.com with details and steps to reproduce; you'll get an acknowledgement within a few days. Once a fix is available it is released and credited to you (if you'd like).

No network, no exfiltration. stacktale only appends to a local file. It opens no sockets, makes no callbacks, and sends nothing anywhere. The optional stacktale-mcp server is read-only and speaks JSON-RPC over stdio — there is no network listener.

Redaction is on by default — know its edges:

• Masks: values of secret-named keys (including compound keys like db.password, x-api-key), secret-shaped values (Bearer …, JWTs, long hex runs, PEM private-key blocks, and vendor-prefixed API keys — AWS, GitHub, OpenAI, Stripe, Slack, Google), and message arguments at positions your patterns mark. The vendor prefixes matter because everything else on this line needs a keyword or a scheme word beside the value; a key named by nothing is caught by its own shape.
• Can't know: a secret in an unusual shape under a benign name. Redaction is a strong default, not a guarantee.
• Harden it: add your own redactPatterns; set captureExceptionFields=false to stop reading exception getters into fields: (recommended if your domain exceptions carry sensitive state); weigh redactionCorrelation (a keyed hash of masked values — see docs/FORMAT.md) against your threat model.
• Verify before you trust it: in dev, read errors-ai.log and confirm nothing sensitive leaks before wiring it near prod. The audit_redaction tool in stacktale-mcp does the mechanical half — it scans the file for credential shapes and reports where, never the value. Run it before attaching a report file to a ticket, a PR or a CI artifact.

What ends up in the file (by design): the distilled exception chain, the log message and args, MDC, exception field values (unless disabled), the recent story of the same request/thread, and one environment line (app version, git sha, Java, profile, OS). Your normal logs are untouched.

Single writer. errors-ai.log assumes one writing process. Two JVMs sharing a file can race on rotation — run one writer per file, or give each instance its own path.

Supply chain. stacktale-core has one runtime dependency (slf4j-api). The agent shades ByteBuddy (relocated under an internal package). Releases are GPG-signed and published to Maven Central.

Security fixes land on the latest released minor line. Please run a current version.