Telemetry

Rover collects anonymous usage telemetry to help the team understand how the tool is used and prioritize improvements. This page explains what data is collected, how privacy is protected, and how to disable telemetry if you prefer.

Why Rover Collects Telemetry

Telemetry helps the Rover team:

• Understand usage patterns: Which commands are used most frequently
• Prioritize improvements: Focus development effort on the features people actually use

Anonymous data

Rover is designed with privacy as a core principle:

• No personal information: Telemetry never collects your name, email, or any identifying information
• No code or content: Task descriptions, prompts, file contents, and code are never collected
• Anonymous user ID: A random UUID is generated on first use and stored in the global store
• No tracking across devices: The random ID is local to your machine and has no connection to your identity
• You control your ID: You can regenerate your anonymous ID at any time by modifying the global store

The anonymous user ID is stored in the global configuration file:

Platform	Location
macOS/Linux	~/.rover/config/rover.json
Windows	%APPDATA%\Rover\config\rover.json

Tip

Your anonymous ID is just a random string like a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab. It cannot be linked back to you.

What Data is Collected

Telemetry records only command usage events. For each event, Rover sends:

Data	Description
Anonymous user ID	Random UUID stored in the global configuration
Event type	Which command was run (e.g., new_task, merge_task)
Source	Whether the command came from the CLI or VS Code extension

Additional Metadata by Command

Some commands include basic metadata to help understand usage patterns:

Command	Additional Data
rover task	Workflow name, agent names, whether multi-agent mode was used, task provider (user input or GitHub)
rover iterate	Iteration number
rover init	Agent names, preferred agent, programming languages, attribution setting

Disabling Telemetry

You can disable telemetry at any time using one of the following methods.

Option 1: Environment Variable (Recommended)

Set the ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY environment variable:

# For a single command
ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY=1 rover list

# Or export it for your entire session
export ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY=1

To disable telemetry permanently, add the export to your shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, etc.):

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
export ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY=1

Note

Either ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY=1 or ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY=true will disable telemetry.

Option 2: Global Store Configuration

Edit the global configuration file to set telemetry to disabled:

Disable via global store

1. 1

   Open the global configuration file

   # macOS/Linux
   nano ~/.rover/config/rover.json
   
   # Windows (PowerShell)
   notepad $env:APPDATA\Rover\config\rover.json

2. 2

   Set the telemetry field to "disabled"

   {
     "version": "1.0",
     "userId": "a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-1234567890ab",
     "telemetry": "disabled",
     ...
   }

Option 3: Marker File (Legacy)

Create a .no-telemetry marker file:

# macOS/Linux
mkdir -p ~/.config/rover && touch ~/.config/rover/.no-telemetry

# To re-enable
rm ~/.config/rover/.no-telemetry

Caution

The marker file uses a legacy path (~/.config/rover/) that differs from the current global store location (~/.rover/config/). While this method still works, we recommend using the environment variable or global store configuration instead.

Verifying Telemetry Status

You can verify whether telemetry is disabled by checking any of these:

1. Environment variable: echo $ROVER_NO_TELEMETRY (if set to 1 or true)
2. Global store: Check the telemetry field in ~/.rover/config/rover.json
3. Marker file: ls ~/.config/rover/.no-telemetry (if file exists)

Telemetry is disabled if any of these conditions is met.

Next Steps

Global Store Learn about the global configuration where telemetry settings are stored

Project Configuration Configure project-wide settings shared across your team

User Settings Configure user-specific preferences