What IdeaStew keeps

Last updated 14 August 2026 · plain English, because you should be able to read it.

IdeaStew is a small, independent project run by one person. It's early, it's free, and nothing here is being sold to anybody.

What we store

• What you type — the idea or keywords you start with, anything you reword it to, and any words you add yourself.
• What you tap — which words you kept, sparked or dropped, which ones you asked "Huh?" about, and how long you took on each. That's the trace, and it's the point of the whole thing.
• What came back — the words, the ideas, and the prompt at the end, so you can find them again under Past prompts.
• How your session ran — whether you were on a touch screen, your browser's preferred language, and which page or site brought you here (just the site's name — never the full link) (added August 2026). This is how we notice things like "words should come back in the language you typed in" — which is a real fix that came from exactly this data.
• Anything you save — junk-drawer items, projects and their checklists, and whatever you tell the "About you" section.
• A first name, only if you give one. It's optional. If you don't, your work is filed under a random handle like guest-4f2k that means nothing to anyone and isn't linked to you.
• An email address, only if you order a one-pager (added August 2026). Building one takes a couple of minutes, so we email it to you rather than make you wait. We keep the address with that report so the link keeps working, we send nothing else to it — no newsletter, no marketing — and if we ever charge for a second report, that address is how we'd know your first was free. Delivery goes through Resend, which processes the address to send the message.

What we don't store

No password, no payment details, and no IP address in our own records. No email either, unless you order a one-pager — see above. We don't use tracking or advertising cookies, and there are no ad networks on this site.

Who else sees it

Three companies are involved in making the site work, and it's only fair to name them:

• Anthropic — your seed and your kept and sparked words are sent to their Claude API to generate the next words and to write your prompt. There's no way to run this without that. See their privacy policy.
• Vercel — hosts the site, and like any web host keeps its own server logs, which include IP addresses. We also use their basic page-view counter, which doesn't follow you between sites.
• Neon — hosts the database everything above is stored in.

Nobody else. Your sessions are not shared with other users, and other testers can't see your traces.

Cookies and what's kept in your browser

We set no tracking cookies. Your browser keeps your name or random handle and a note of whether you've seen the tour, so the app doesn't repeat itself. Clearing your browser data clears all of that.

Getting your data, or getting rid of it

Email help@ideastew.com with the name or handle you used (it's shown in the corner of the app) and we'll send you everything we hold, delete it, or both. No reason needed, no forms. It's a small enough project that a person reads the email.

Please don't type anything sensitive

This is a tool for half-formed ideas, not a safe. Don't put passwords, health details, financial information, or anyone else's personal information into it.

Age

IdeaStew isn't for children. Please don't use it if you're under 13, and we'll delete any data we learn belongs to someone who is.

If this changes

The date at the top moves and the change is described here. If it ever changes in a way that matters — anything beyond the three companies above, or any use of your data other than running and improving the app — you'll be told before it happens, not after.