zen-proxy is intended to run as a local developer tool.

By default it listens on 127.0.0.1:8788, so other machines on your network cannot connect to it. If you set ZEN_HOST=0.0.0.0 or another non-local address, protect the process with your own network controls. The proxy does not authenticate incoming local requests.

Provider API keys are forwarded to the configured upstream provider using the standard authorization header. Normal mode does not intentionally store request bodies, responses, or API keys. --verbose, --debug, and --tui retain the latest 100 request traces in process memory, with each payload preview capped at 128 KiB. Authorization headers and JSON fields that look like keys, tokens, or secrets are redacted. Prompt text and tool output remain visible and may contain secrets of their own, so enable inspection modes only in a trusted terminal.

The inspector never writes traces to disk. Redirecting verbose output to a file is an operator action and should be treated as storing potentially sensitive prompt and tool data. Your upstream provider may also log or retain data according to its own policies.

Do not expose zen-proxy directly to the public internet.

Please report security issues privately to the maintainers before public disclosure. Include enough detail to reproduce the issue and the affected version or commit.