CloakPipe - Privacy-First LLM Proxy & Private Chat

# CloakPipe — Privacy-First LLM Proxy & Private Chat

**CloakPipe** is a high-performance, Rust-based privacy middleware that sits between your application and any LLM provider (OpenAI, Claude, Grok, local models, etc.).

### The Problem it solves
Companies in fintech, healthtech, legal, and enterprise are either banning ChatGPT/Claude entirely (losing productivity) or risking massive GDPR/HIPAA fines by sending sensitive data to external LLMs. CloakPipe solves this by automatically detecting and pseudonymizing PII, financial data, project codenames, etc. before the request leaves your network, then rehydrating the response so you see real data.

### Core Features (all 100% FOSS, MIT licensed)
- Blazing-fast Rust proxy (< 5ms overhead)
- Consistent pseudonymization with encrypted vault (same entity always maps to same pseudonym across sessions)
- Streaming rehydration (works with GPT-4o/Claude streaming)
- Regex + ONNX NER detection (persons, organizations, locations, amounts, etc.)
- Local-first SQLite vault & audit logs (added during March 2026)
- Minimal Private Chat interface (CloakChat) so anyone can try it instantly

### What was built during FOSS Hack March 2026
- Full ONNX NER integration (AI-powered entity detection)
- Migrated vault + audit logs from flat files to encrypted SQLite
- Built CloakChat — a simple local web chat that uses CloakPipe
- Added offline-first support via PowerSync (optional stretch goal)
- Complete README, installation guide, and 3-minute demo video

### Why this matters
CloakPipe is the missing “privacy layer” in the LLM stack — similar to how Cloudflare sits in front of every web request, CloakPipe sits in front of every LLM call.

No proprietary APIs. No cloud dependency. Runs completely locally. Perfect for regulated industries and privacy-conscious developers.