Redact Pet: notes for IT and security software
What it is
Redact Pet is a desktop program for Windows that does local redaction that removes names, SSNs and addresses before records go to an AI tool. A user picks PDF medical records; the program writes cleaned copies, with those details blacked out, to a folder the user picks. The originals are never changed.
It is a pilot build. It has no accounts, no licence server and no cloud service.
It works fully offline
- It opens no network connections: no telemetry, no update checks, no sign-in, no downloads. All its files, including its name model, come inside the installer.
- Its automated build checks this on every change. The whole pipeline runs with every network call trapped, and the build fails if any connection is attempted.
- The window is a Microsoft Edge WebView2 page that loads only the program’s own files.
Where it installs
It installs for the current user only, without administrator rights, into:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Redact Pet\ (for example C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Local\Redact Pet\)
| Path inside that folder | What it is |
|---|---|
redact-pet.exe |
The window. |
backend\redact-pet-engine.exe |
The local engine. While it works it starts more copies of itself (one for the name model and several page workers), all named redact-pet-engine.exe. |
backend\_internal\ |
The engine’s bundled Python runtime and libraries (.dll, .pyd). Tesseract OCR’s libraries are in backend\. |
models\obi-fp32\ |
The name model: a 1.4 GB data file that the engine reads (it is not a program). |
assets\tessdata\ |
Tesseract’s English and page-orientation data. |
logs\ |
app.log, engine.log, problem-report.txt (see below). |
build-manifest.json |
The SHA-256 fingerprint of every program file, for allow-listing by hash. |
While it cleans a file, it writes temporary working files to a hidden .redactpet-… folder inside the output folder the user chose, and deletes them when the file is done. At start-up it uses one short-lived folder in %TEMP%.
What to allow in security software
Some security products block or quarantine unsigned programs that start copies of themselves and read many files. On one pilot laptop, earlier security software blocked the engine. If your product does this, please:
- Allow the folder
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Redact Pet\and everything under it, as an exclusion from behavioural blocking and quarantine.- If your product allows only programs, allow
redact-pet.exeandbackend\redact-pet-engine.exe. - The engine must be allowed to start copies of itself.
- If your product allows only programs, allow
- If your product allows by fingerprint, use the SHA-256 values in
build-manifest.jsonand the installer’s own SHA-256, which we send with each installer. - The pilot installer is not code-signed yet. Windows SmartScreen shows “Windows protected your PC”: choose More info, then Run anyway. Code signing (Azure Artifact Signing) is prepared and will be switched on later; signed builds will carry a publisher name.
Signs that something is blocking it:
- The window says “Windows or security software blocked the Redact Pet engine”, or that its files are missing.
- The installer’s last step says its start-up check failed.
Logs and support
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Redact Pet\logs\ holds:
app.log: when the engine started and stopped, with exit codes;engine.log: the engine’s own warnings and errors.
They contain codes, exit codes, file sizes and program locations, never record text. When something goes wrong, the window’s Copy problem report button copies a short report: versions, Windows version, installed-file check and the last log lines. It also saves the report as problem-report.txt in the same folder. Send that to your Redact Pet contact.
Requirements
- Windows 11, 64-bit.
- 8 GB of memory (16 GB recommended). The program keeps its own peak under 5 GB.
- About 2 GB of disk space for the program, plus room for the cleaned copies.
- Windows 11 build 22000 (version 21H2) is past Microsoft’s end of servicing. Please update to a supported release for security. Our automated tests run on Windows Server 2022 and 2025; Windows 11 client builds are tested on request.
Removing it
Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Redact Pet → Uninstall. This removes the program folder, including its model and logs. Cleaned copies the user saved elsewhere stay where they are.