ATO Lens

ATO Lens helps you visualise and understand your Australian tax history in a local-first workspace. Chat with your tax returns, income statements, and super contributions to find insights or catch mistakes.

Download

Desktop builds are published on the Releases page.

Platform	File	Signed
macOS (Apple Silicon)	ATO-Lens-<version>-arm64.dmg	Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple
macOS (Intel)	ATO-Lens-<version>-x64.dmg	Signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple
Windows	ATO-Lens-<version>-x64.exe	Not signed - see below
Linux	ATO-Lens-<version>-x86_64.AppImage	Not signed (normal for AppImage)

macOS — open the DMG and drag ATO Lens to Applications. Because the app is notarized, it opens with the standard "downloaded from the internet" prompt; no security override is needed.

Windows — ATO Lens has no Windows code signing certificate yet, so SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" with an unknown publisher. To install anyway, click More info → Run anyway. If you would rather not bypass that warning, run the web app from source instead.

Linux — mark the AppImage executable and run it:

chmod +x ATO-Lens-*.AppImage && ./ATO-Lens-*.AppImage

Updates

The desktop app checks GitHub for a newer release about eight seconds after launch, and offers to download it if one exists. Nothing is downloaded without you agreeing, and updates install when you quit. This request sends no tax data - it asks for a version number and nothing else. It is the only network request ATO Lens makes on its own, and you can switch it off under Help → Check for Updates Automatically, after which nothing is contacted unless you pick Check for Updates yourself.

Verifying your download

Every release includes SHA256SUMS.txt. This matters most on Windows, where nothing else vouches for the installer:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS.txt --ignore-missing

On macOS use shasum -a 256 <file> and compare, and on Windows PowerShell use Get-FileHash <file>.

Get Started

1. Install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/realbakari/ATO-Lens.git
cd ATO-Lens
npm install

2. Run the web app

npm run dev

Open localhost:5173 in your browser.

3. Or run the desktop app

npm run electron:dev

How It Works

1. Upload your tax return, Notice of Assessment, income statement, payslip, super, or HELP statement PDFs
2. Review parsed income, deductions, super guarantee compliance, and HELP repayments
3. Chat with the built-in assistant to understand your tax situation

ATO Lens works fully offline with a built-in rule-based parser. Optionally add your own Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini API key in API Key Setup for AI-assisted PDF extraction and chat reasoning.

Privacy & Security

How Your Data is Processed

Your tax data is processed locally in your browser (or the desktop app) and the workspace is stored in local storage. There is no ATO Lens account, server, cloud database, telemetry, or analytics service.

The default rule-based parser and OCR stay on your device. If you deliberately choose Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini document parsing, the original selected PDF is sent directly from your device to that provider using your key. AI chat sends a redacted copy of the system context, prior turns, and current message to the selected provider. Ollama uses the local or self-hosted endpoint you configure. None of these requests passes through an ATO Lens intermediary.

Verify It Yourself

ATO Lens is open source. You can review the code yourself, or ask an AI to audit it for you. Copy the prompt below and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, or any other AI assistant:

Copy security audit prompt

I want you to perform a security and privacy audit of ATO Lens, an open source Australian tax workspace.

Repository: https://github.com/realbakari/ATO-Lens

Please analyze the source code and report what it actually does:

1. DATA HANDLING
   - Tax documents are parsed locally by default (src/parser/ruleBasedParser.ts)
   - Trace optional document uploads and redacted chat requests
     (src/parser/claudeParser.ts, openaiParser.ts, geminiParser.ts,
     src/lib/aiChatClient.ts)
   - Identify exactly what is stored locally (src/storage/db.ts)

2. NETWORK ACTIVITY
   - Identify all network requests in the codebase
   - Inspect GitHub updater and configured AI-provider calls
   - Check for any hidden data collection, font requests, or tracking

3. API KEY SECURITY
   - Inspect how API keys are stored and sent (src/lib/apiKeys.ts)
   - Check that keys are not logged or exposed

4. REDACTION
   - Test chat system context, prior turns, current messages, and activity descriptions
   - Confirm original PDF uploads are disclosed as raw (src/storage/privacyLog.ts)

5. CODE INTEGRITY
   - Look for obfuscated or suspicious code
   - Review dependencies for anything concerning

Report privacy/security concerns and uncertainty; do not assume these claims are correct.

Releasing

Pushing a v* tag runs the release workflow: it builds macOS (arm64 + x64), Windows and Linux, attaches SHA256SUMS.txt, and opens a draft GitHub Release to publish manually.

macOS signing and notarization need these repository secrets. Without MAC_CSC_LINK the workflow still succeeds, but emits an unsigned macOS build and logs a warning:

Secret	What it is
MAC_CSC_LINK	Developer ID Application certificate as a base64 .p12 (base64 -i cert.p12 | pbcopy)
MAC_CSC_KEY_PASSWORD	Password protecting that .p12
APPLE_ID	Apple ID email for notarization
APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD	App-specific password from appleid.apple.com (not the account password)
APPLE_TEAM_ID	10-character team ID from the Apple Developer portal

The macOS job verifies its own output with codesign --verify and spctl --assess before uploading, so a signing or stapling failure fails the build instead of shipping an app that Gatekeeper will reject.

Windows installers are unsigned until a certificate is purchased. Since 2023, OV certificates require hardware or HSM storage, so the practical options are a cloud signing service (Azure Trusted Signing, SSL.com eSigner, DigiCert KeyLocker) or an EV certificate. Once available, add the .p12 as WIN_CSC_LINK / WIN_CSC_KEY_PASSWORD and pass them to the Windows packaging step.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later
• Your own Australian tax documents
• (Optional) An API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google AI Studio

Tech Stack

React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS v4, Recharts, Electron.

License

AGPL-3.0