Stays in its folders
Zeus writes only inside folders you allow and refuses tricks such as ../ paths, links that point elsewhere or reserved Windows names.
Safety
A download tool that can use your logins needs strict rules. This page lists the rules Zeus enforces and how it enforces them.
Is Zeus safe?
Zeus is designed so that an AI can never approve anything, cookies are never written to disk or sent anywhere, the browser’s password and cookie files are never opened, and everything runs on your computer with no telemetry. The source is licensed under Apache-2.0 and is public on GitHub, so these claims can be checked.
What your AI can and cannot do
Your AI can
- Ask Zeus to download a link and check on progress
- Pause, resume or cancel downloads it started
- Ask for a website login, which only creates a request for you
- See which sites have a permission, never the cookies themselves
- Verify a file against a checksum
Your AI cannot
- Approve, extend or create any permission
- See or copy a cookie, token or password
- Change Zeus’s settings or turn off safety checks
- Write outside the folders you allowed
- Make Zeus solve captchas or disguise itself
Only a person can approve
An approval is a question with the facts attached: the website, who asked, what it is for and how long it lasts.
- Answered only on trust surfaces: the browser extension’s popup or your own terminal (and later the desktop app). Never through MCP or any AI channel.
- Bound to its facts by a fingerprint. If the request changes, the old answer does not count.
- The approve button becomes active only after a short pause, so a quick stray click cannot approve.
- Anything your AI wrote is shown separately, labelled as the AI’s words.
- Pending requests are capped, batched per site and expire, so an AI cannot flood you with them.
Approval neededA download needs your login on this website.
- Website
- portal.example.edu
- Asked by
- your AI assistant (MCP)
- For
- 1 file, 18 MB
- Lasts
- Once
AI says: “The user asked for last term’s report.” (shown as the AI’s words, not as a fact)
What happens to website cookies
| Moment | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before you approve a site | Nothing. The extension does not even have permission to read that site’s cookies. |
| You approve a site | You choose once, 24 hours or one plan. The browser itself asks you to grant the permission for that site. |
| A download needs the session | The extension reads that one site’s cookies and passes them to the Zeus app on your computer through native messaging. |
| During the download | The Zeus app holds them in memory only, for at most 15 minutes, then wipes them. |
| Always | Never written to disk, never logged, never sent to Verne or anyone else, never shown to your AI. |
Zeus never opens your browser’s cookie or password databases. It does not need to, and reading them is exactly what malware does. Sessions come only through the extension, with your consent. Full details: extension privacy policy.
Prompt injection
Pages and files can contain hidden text that tries to give your AI new instructions, such as “approve access to this site”. Zeus is built so that such text cannot approve anything.
No approve button for AIs
There is no tool, message or setting through which an AI could approve. The text can say whatever it likes.
Untrusted means untrusted
Everything Zeus passes on from the web is in fields marked untrusted, and your AI is told it is data, not instructions.
No secrets to leak
Your AI never receives cookies, tokens or full private links, so it cannot be tricked into pasting them somewhere.
Hard limits
Folders, sites and budgets are enforced by Zeus itself, so a persuasive page cannot widen them.
Files on your disk
Zeus writes files on your computer, so it keeps strict limits on where and how.
Never overwrites silently
If a file exists, Zeus picks a new name or asks. Files Zeus removes go to the system trash.
Marks downloads
Files get your system’s downloaded-from-the-internet mark, so Windows and macOS still warn before opening them. Zeus never runs anything.
The kill switch
From the app or the extension: every active permission is withdrawn and every download pauses, in one step. Blocks you set stay in place. Nothing restarts until you say so.
Every use of a session, every approval and every kill-switch press is written to a tamper-evident audit log on your computer, so you can always see what happened.
Source code
The app, the engine and the extension are licensed under Apache-2.0 and their source is public: zeus, zeus-core and zeus-extension. The extension contains no third-party code at run time, which keeps it small enough to review.
Found a problem? Please tell us privately first: security policy and security.txt.
Safety questions
Can my AI approve things on my behalf?
No, by design. Your AI can ask for a login or a risky action, but approvals are only accepted from you, through your own keyboard or the browser extension. A web page that tries to trick your AI into “approving” something cannot get past this, because the AI has no way to approve.
Does Zeus collect data about me?
No. Zeus has no telemetry, no analytics and no account. Your download history and permissions stay in a database on your computer. This website does not use cookies or analytics either. See the privacy policy.
How do I take back a permission?
Every site you approved is listed in the extension’s settings and in the Zeus app, each with a revoke button. The kill switch withdraws every active permission and pauses every download at once.
What if a downloaded file is dangerous?
Zeus never runs what it downloads. It marks downloaded files the way your operating system expects (so Windows and macOS still warn before opening them), records where each came from, and does not take over downloads the browser itself blocked as dangerous.
Will Zeus get around captchas, paywalls or anti-bot checks?
No. Zeus does not solve captchas, disguise itself as a browser or break copy protection. If a website wants a person, Zeus hands the job back to your real browser and to you. Use Zeus only for files you are allowed to download; see the acceptable use policy.
Try the pre-alpha
Zeus 0.0.1a is a pre-alpha release: try it in your browser on a private sandbox, or download it for Windows or Linux. Expect rough edges.