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Known Limitations

Status: local-alpha draft.

Product Limitations

  • MindCanary is not a diagnostic, prediction, emergency, or treatment product.
  • Insights are descriptive comparisons against local records, not clinical interpretations.
  • The app may be useful before baseline history exists as a logbook, but pattern explanations require enough comparable data.
  • Missing days remain missing. They are not treated as zero.
  • Baseline descriptions currently pool all prior days containing each signal. User-defined work/non-work comparison calendars are not implemented. A sustained schedule-related change may therefore be described without MindCanary claiming what caused it; supporting dates remain visible.
  • Switching and active-time descriptions normalize by recorded coverage. They describe activity during observed periods, not whole-day behavior when a connector was absent.
  • Tracking can increase rumination for some people. Pause and deletion controls are part of the product, not edge cases.

Platform Limitations

  • Packaged Linux builds cover Pop!_OS/Ubuntu-like systems and a locally built Arch package. The Arch package is validated on CachyOS KDE Plasma/Wayland; it is not yet published in an Arch repository or the AUR.
  • Active/idle duration is supported on GNOME/X11 through Mutter and on KDE Plasma/Wayland through the compositor's standard ext_idle_notifier_v1 input-idle protocol. Other Wayland compositors, macOS, Windows, mobile, and foreground-app categories still require separate adapters and review.
  • Lock/unlock counts require the desktop ScreenSaver event stream; KDE uses org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver and GNOME uses org.gnome.ScreenSaver. Suspend/resume counts require logind. Each signal remains separately opt-in and unavailable when its local event stream does not connect.
  • The browser extension is optional. The desktop app remains useful with check-ins only.

Browser Connector Limitations

  • Alpha Chrome setup uses a bundled unpacked extension until the Chrome Web Store listing is ready. Testers must reload or replace that unpacked folder when a new alpha bundle ships.
  • The extension stores only aggregate batches and operational queue state, not URLs, page titles, page text, search terms, or browsing history.
  • Browser aggregates are delivered in aligned 15-minute periods, so the desktop may not update immediately after installation.
  • Disabling or removing the extension is controlled by the browser. MindCanary can show that browser data has not arrived recently, but it cannot manage browser-owned extension storage from the desktop app.
  • The extension retry queue is bounded. If the daemon is unavailable for long enough, old unsent batches are dropped and counted rather than retained indefinitely.
  • Firefox builds and native-message delivery are validated in a real KDE session. Firefox's temporary add-on flow removes the extension on browser restart. Persistent dogfood installation therefore requires either a Mozilla-signed XPI or Firefox Developer Edition/Nightly/ESR with signature enforcement explicitly disabled; ordinary Firefox release builds do not accept the unsigned development XPI.
  • Each extension installation/profile has a random local connection ID and a user-owned label. MindCanary deliberately does not infer browser account names, email addresses, or profile paths. New profiles appear after their extension first reaches the local service.
  • Multiple browser profiles may collect concurrently. Profile-specific counts are combined, while overlapping browser active/idle duration uses the maximum value for each aligned period so shared device time is not duplicated.
  • Continuous-scrolling collection is an optional aggregate-only adapter for x.com and twitter.com; it is not a general website tracker.

Data And Removal Limitations

  • Clearing records inside the app is not the same as uninstalling MindCanary.
  • Destroying the local database profile removes database files and the OS-keyring database key, but it does not remove browser extension storage or user-created exports/backups.
  • Repeated same-day check-ins remain separate in encrypted storage, while History and the current CSV export show their daily average and count. A moment-by-moment check-in view and export are not implemented yet.
  • Export files are plaintext readable files in a folder the user chooses.
  • Losing local records before exporting or backing them up cannot be reversed by MindCanary.
  • An encrypted backup cannot be restored without its generated recovery secret. MindCanary does not retain a recovery copy.

Security Limitations

  • Local encryption protects copied database files and powered-off devices better than plaintext storage, but it cannot protect against malware running as the same unlocked OS user.
  • A malicious authorized extension update can observe whatever browser permissions allow. Permission minimization and review reduce this risk but do not remove it.
  • Hosted sync, hosted dashboards, payments, telemetry, and AI are deferred until they have separate security and privacy designs.