Quick start

About five minutes. You will install pii-airlock, start it, and point one AI tool at it.

Before you begin

You need a terminal: Terminal on macOS, a shell on Linux, or PowerShell on Windows. You also need Python 3.10 or newer and pipx. Not sure? Run the check below.

1. Check your tools

python3 --version     # Windows: python --version
pipx --version

• Python shows 3.10 or higher: good.
• pipx: command not found: see Install pipx.
• Python missing or too old: install it from python.org.

2. Install

pipx install "pii-airlock[proxy]"

pipx puts pii-airlock in its own private space, so it never interferes with your other Python projects. On macOS you can use Homebrew instead; see Install, all options.

3. Run the guided setup

pii-airlock init

This checks the install and downloads the language models used to spot names. The first download can take a few minutes. You only do it once.

You should end with:

Setup complete.

If you see Setup incomplete, the lines above it say what to run. Fix that, then run pii-airlock init again.

4. Start the gateway

pii-airlock proxy

Leave this terminal window open. The gateway now listens on your computer only, at http://127.0.0.1:8745. Nobody else on your network can reach it.

5. Point your AI tool at it

Open a second terminal and set the address for the tool you use. For OpenAI-style tools, including Codex:

macOS / Linux

export OPENAI_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8745/openai

Windows PowerShell

$env:OPENAI_BASE_URL = "http://127.0.0.1:8745/openai"

Then start your tool from that same terminal. The setting only applies to programs launched from it.

Using Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor or something else? Go to Pick your setup.

6. Try it with fake data

In your AI tool, send: Write a short thank-you email to Jean Dupont, jean@example.com.

The answer should show Jean Dupont and jean@example.com as you typed them. The provider's logs show placeholders instead. If you do not have access to those logs, Check that it works has a test that needs no provider.

What now?

• Tell it what is sensitive in your own work.
• Read Safety and limits.
• Stuck? Troubleshooting.