How plugins stay safe

Every Altretta plugin is cryptographically signed, runs in an isolated sandbox, and is permission-scoped — so a plugin can only do what you've allowed, and never acts silently. This is a deliberate security stance, not an afterthought.

In most note apps, a community plugin runs with full access to your system: your whole filesystem, the network, and anything the app itself can do. One bad or careless plugin can read files far outside your vault or send data anywhere. Altretta is built so that can't happen by default.

Three layers of protection

Signed

Each plugin is cryptographically signed. Before installing, Altretta verifies the signature to confirm the plugin is authentic and hasn't been tampered with.

Sandboxed

Plugins execute in an isolated JavaScript runtime with no unfettered access to your filesystem, the network, or the operating system.

Permission-scoped

A plugin declares the specific capabilities it needs. You approve them before it runs, and you can see them at any time.

Signing: proof of authenticity

Plugins in the official Hub are cryptographically signed. When you install one, Altretta checks that signature so you know two things: the plugin is the genuine article, and it hasn't been altered since it was signed. A plugin whose signature doesn't verify won't be trusted.

The sandbox: isolated by default

Altretta runs plugin code in an isolated runtime — an SES-style sandbox — rather than giving it the run of the app. In practice this means a plugin starts with no ambient access to:

your files outside of what it's been permitted,
the network, or
the underlying operating system.

Anything a plugin can reach, it reaches through Altretta's controlled plugin API — not by helping itself to your machine.

Permission scopes: you decide what it touches

Because the sandbox denies by default, a plugin has to ask for the capabilities it needs, and you have to grant them. Altretta shows you a plugin's requested scopes when you enable it, so there are no surprises.

A plugin that needs to read your note contents requests that permission explicitly. Nothing about your notes is exposed to a plugin silently — if it can see your writing, it's because you granted that scope and can see that you did.

You can review a plugin's permissions whenever you like from Settings → Plugins, and disabling or removing a plugin revokes what it was granted. Managing all of this is covered in Install & manage plugins.

Why it's built this way

The whole point of Altretta is a knowledge base you can trust — one where you can see and verify what touched your notes. Plugins are held to the same standard: signed so you know their origin, sandboxed so they can't overreach, and permission-scoped so you're always the one deciding. Extending Altretta doesn't mean lowering your guard.

Plugins

The overview of Altretta's signed, sandboxed plugin model.

Install & manage plugins

Review requested permissions before enabling, and revoke by disabling.

Developing a plugin

Build inside the same signing, sandbox, and permission constraints.

Verifiable knowledge

The same trust stance applied to your notes and their history.

Glossary

Signing, sandbox, permission scope, and SES, defined.