read lease.pdf
“The Lessor, Mrs Camille Fontaine, residing at 14 rue des Lilas in Nantes…”
Three values just entered the conversation. Nothing catches them.
MCP connector
Your AI never receives the document.
Normally you anonymize, then you paste. Here, Anoni is the one that opens the file. Your AI only ever gets the text that comes back out, and the original never enters the conversation.
Ships inside the app · Claude Desktop, Claude Code and any MCP client
Order
A file that has been read stays read.
Anonymizing afterwards takes nothing back out of what already left.
When a model opens your contract with its usual reading tool, the names, the addresses and the account numbers are in the conversation. They stay there. No later call wipes them, and the service hosting the model has already received them.
The connector reverses the order. The model hands over a path, Anoni reads the file on your machine, and returns only the anonymized text. That is stronger than pseudonymizing and pasting, because there is no instant at which the original text exists anywhere in the exchange.
lire_document_anonymise(lease.pdf)
“The Lessor, Mrs ⟦PERSONNE·1⟧, residing at ⟦ADRESSE·1⟧ in ⟦LIEU·1⟧…”
The model never saw the other version. The title stays, it identifies nobody.
The tools
Four actions, and what the model sees of each.
Your AI calls them itself. You have nothing to type.
analyser_document
Says what personal data a document holds, and how much of each kind. Transforms nothing, writes nothing.
The model seesCounts per category. Not one line of the document.
lire_document_anonymise
Returns the document's text with every piece of personal data replaced by a marker. The reading tool, instead of its own.
The model seesThe anonymized text, and nothing else.
pseudonymiser_document
Writes a copy that keeps the layout. Word and Excel come back in their own format, a PDF keeps its pages.
The model seesThe path of the file that was written.
caviarder_document
Writes a copy with real black bars. The hidden text is removed from the file, not merely covered.
The model seesThe path of the file that was written.
The most closed of the four is redaction, against the intuition. The model asks, Anoni writes the file, and it gets back a path. It does not even see the anonymized text.
Setup
One copy-paste, once.
The connector is already in the app. There is no file to download.
- 01
Copy the configuration from Anoni
Settings, General tab, “Connect an AI”, then “Copy the configuration”. The connector is already in the app: there is no file to go and find.
- 02
Paste it into your client
Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any other MCP-compatible client. Open its configuration file, paste, save, restart the client.
- 03
Leave Anoni open
The connector goes through Anoni's engine, on your machine. With the app closed it says so and stops, instead of reading the file itself.
What lands in your client
{
"mcpServers": {
"anoni": {
"command": "node",
"args": ["/path/resolved/by/Anoni/anoni-mcp.mjs"]
}
}
}The path is filled in by the app. It differs on macOS, Windows and Linux, and under AppImage it changes on every launch, so nobody can write it for you.
Why there is nothing to download
The connector is a program that reads your documents. Shipping it separately would make it a file to download and run, under a name everyone would know. Delivered inside the app, it is signed and notarized along with it, and it cannot be a different version from the one you installed.
The limits
What the connector does not do.
Said here rather than discovered in use.
- One-wayThe encrypted vault that restores your data is sealed by the app, not by the connector. Your AI cannot decode anything, and will not offer to.
- No mapping tableNone of the four tools returns it. Returning it would put every real name back into the conversation, the exact opposite of what you were after. No option will ever enable it.
- The personal dictionary does not applyTerms you added by hand are encrypted with a key the connector does not have. Every answer says so, rather than leaving you to assume otherwise.
- Copies carry the markA file redacted or pseudonymized by the connector carries the free tier's mark. The engine does not read your licence: the app does.
- Anoni has to be openThe connector can do nothing on its own. If the engine does not answer, it says so plainly and never falls back to reading the file directly.
- Not in the Mac App Store buildIts sandbox forbids the engine from opening a file by its path. The connector ships with the build you download here.
And what it announces on every call: a signature, a stamp or a photo is not text, so no count covers them. Anoni flags them to your AI, and paints over them when it redacts.
Questions
Let’s be straight.
The first four we always get.
What is an MCP connector?
A standard that lets an AI call tools installed on your own machine. Your AI client starts Anoni's connector when it launches and talks to it locally. Nothing leaves your machine, and no account is created anywhere.
How is this better than pseudonymizing and pasting?
It is a question of order. Copy-paste works, as long as you do it every time and before you have shown the file. The connector removes the condition: the model asks for the document and already receives the anonymized version. There is no moment at which the original text sits in the conversation.
Will my AI actually use it?
Not on its own every time, and that is a connector's real weak point. Say it once in your standing instructions: when I give you a document that may hold personal data, read it with lire_document_anonymise rather than with your usual file tool. Once a file has been read normally, the names are in the conversation and nothing takes them back out.
Can I get the real data back afterwards?
Not through this route. The connector writes no vault, so nothing it produces can be decoded. For the full round trip, open the document in Anoni: the mapping is sealed there and your passphrase reopens it. That is also why the connector writes markers rather than believable fake names. With no vault to go back through, a fake name would be impossible to tell apart from real data.
Ask your next question through Anoni.
Free, no subscription. Just an email.
Download
No card · no tracker · 100% local