Security and data handling

What runs where

A local process that opens no port. The client starts the server as a child process and talks to it over standard input and output. It opens no network port and cannot be reached from another machine.
User privileges. The server runs as the signed-in Windows user and acts on EA as that user. If the repository has user security enabled, get_repository_info reports the logged-in user.
No telemetry. AI Power Tools does not collect or send usage data. There is no license check, no activation and no registration check. The one routine network request is the update check, described under What leaves the machine.

What leaves the machine

Traffic	When	Goes to	Notes
Update check	At server start, at most once a day; `check_for_updates` with `force` re-checks	`api.github.com`, for the latest release in the public AI Power Tools releases repository	The request carries the server version, and GitHub sees your network address. The result is cached and shown in `get_repository_info` and `check_for_updates`. A failed check is silent. No setting turns it off, and an administrator can point it at another address. See Updater
Skills update check	At each server start, unless Claude's plugin folder shows the plugin installed	The skills repository's release manifest on GitHub	Compares the manifest with the older skills directory. When the plugin is found installed, nothing is fetched. The skills version the assistant reports through `ping` is compared with the release the update check found, which needs no further request. See The AI Power Tools MCP Server for Sparx EA
Reporting database connection	When a reporting operation builds, checks, refreshes or removes the business layer in a database	The SQL Server or the SQL database in Microsoft Fabric that the reporting profile names	Windows authentication of the account that runs the server. For a SQL database in Fabric, Microsoft Entra sign-in: a person signs in at Microsoft's sign-in window, which contacts Microsoft's sign-in service. Parquet files use no database connection
Ruleset fetch	Only when you give an `https://` address to `ea_validate` `audit`	The address you gave	See the hardening list below
VS Code update check	Once a day on activation, when `eaMcp.checkForUpdates` is on	`https://store.novocircle.com/vscode/latest.json` by default, configurable	VS Code extension only. It shows a notice and never installs anything. Turn the setting off to stop this check. The server's own update check above is separate and is not affected by the setting

Tool results go to the AI client, and from there to whatever model provider that client uses. What that provider does with them is governed by your agreement with the provider, not by AI Power Tools. Review that agreement before pointing the assistant at a sensitive model.

Cloud sessions

Claude Cowork runs in the cloud by default. In a cloud session, files the session opens through the Claude Desktop app are processed on Anthropic's servers, rather than staying on your machine. The session reaches your machine only through folders you have connected on the desktop. The EA model itself is not read that way, because the server does not run in a cloud session.

Connect a folder that holds only output you are content to have processed there: exports, Parquet files, generated Power BI projects and reports.
Do not connect a folder that holds a local model file, or a folder whose content your data-residency rules keep on your machine. A reporting extract and a Parquet folder hold everything the build included, so connect them only when that content may be processed on Anthropic's servers.

Work that needs the server, such as modeling, analysis and validation, is done in a surface that has the server in the session. See Capabilities and surfaces.

Hardening built into the server

Path containment. The skills installer refuses any path that is absolute, names a drive or climbs out of its folder, so a tool argument cannot write outside the skills directory.
Secure ruleset fetch only. Plain http:// is refused, redirects are refused, the response is capped at 2 MB, the request times out after 15 seconds, and failures are not described back, so the tool cannot be used to probe an internal network.
XML safety. XML that declares a document type or entities is refused, and XML over 64 MB is refused. EA emits neither.
Signed programs. Release builds sign every program file and library in the package under the NovoCircle publisher. An unsigned build cannot be published.
Unknown arguments fail. An argument an operation does not declare is an error, not silently discarded.
Read-only mode. An administrator can switch the server to read-only mode. See The AI Power Tools MCP Server for Sparx EA for how it works and its limits.

Things to know and decide

The direct query operation can write. execute_sql allows writes unless told not to. A write goes straight to the repository's database, and EA's open session may not see it until the model is reloaded. Ask for read-only queries explicitly, or switch the whole server to read-only mode.
Deletes cannot be undone. delete_package, delete_element, delete_diagram, delete_connector and the member deletes remove data immediately. Take a baseline first.
Reporting views live in a schema of their own and never write an EA table. In the EA repository's database, a build creates SQL views only, in the schema the reporting profile names, inside one transaction. It checks the account's rights first; if any is missing, it names each one and changes nothing. Each build drops every view already in that schema, and removing the business layer drops all of them and the schema, so give the business layer a schema used for nothing else.
Left-out packages never reach Power BI. Exclusion is by whole package. EA's own tables reach Power BI only as scoped views, a scoped copy or scoped files. A kept link into a left-out package ends at an "(excluded)" stand-in, which shows the element type and never the real name. Inside a kept package there is no masking: its notes and tagged values are all in the output.
Left-out content is never written to disk. A reporting database or Parquet build keeps the extract it loaded, beside the reporting profile, and that extract holds only included content. It does hold everything the build included, so protect it as you protect the reporting data.
Diagnostics are opt-in and local. When enabled, a failing call writes a Markdown report to a local folder. Nothing is sent. You review the report and email it to help@novocircle.com if you choose. Long values are shortened to 500 characters, but element and package names appear in full.
AI Power Tools is free. There is no key, no seat management and no entitlement service, so there is nothing to revoke. It is licensed under NovoCircle's end user license agreement, which is reproduced in License. Sparx's own license for EA applies separately.
Prolaborate skills use a browser session. They act through browser control, with the client's built-in browser or Chrome, in a Prolaborate session you have signed in to, with that session's permissions.