Bolt Features: AI Masking, Password Vault, SSO and MDM

Yes. Bolt checks what you type, paste or attach on AI sites before it is sent, and tells you when something sensitive is in it. It never changes what you typed unless you press Mask or your company's policy requires it. Messaging, email and ordinary sites are not screened.

What is checked

Only what you type, paste or attach on an AI site, never the site's own data. Under an Allow policy, nothing you send is changed.

Acts on how sure it is

A phone number or email address gets a hint at most. Masking or blocking is reserved for clear secrets such as keys and card numbers, and happens only when your company's policy asks for it.

Company Mask or Block

When an admin sets Mask or Block, Bolt enforces it on that computer for typing, pasting and attached files on ChatGPT and Gemini, signed in or not. Mask sends a masked copy of text, images and PDFs; Block stops the send and says so. In a line like KEY=value, only the value is masked.

Files it cannot screen

Under a company policy, a file Bolt cannot mask is held instead of sent, including zip files and password-protected zips. Bolt also looks inside zip, tar and gzip attachments.

Text inside images

Bolt finds personal information inside an image and blanks it in place.

Your own sensitive data

Admins can declare lists such as customer IDs or account numbers, and Bolt matches them exactly under rules the admin sets.

Web search

Before an AI web search sends text that looks like a password or key, Bolt asks you first.

Bolt's own chat

Text Bolt sends to a model from its own chat is masked first and the real values are restored in the reply. Bring your own provider and key, or a local model.

Open in Bolt

From an AI site, Open in Bolt starts a Bolt chat with what you typed, pasted or attached as an unsent draft, with the sensitive parts marked.

Where it runs

On AI sites through the Bolt browser extension and Bolt's built-in browser, on macOS and Windows. The extension ships inside Bolt and updates with it. It is not yet available on Linux. Details at /extension.

Coding agents

Can Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI use Bolt's masking?

Yes, when you start them from Bolt. Claude Code started from Bolt goes through Bolt's masking on your computer: secrets you paste are replaced before they reach the model and restored for the commands it runs. Codex and the Gemini CLI connect the same way.

Files the agent sends

Under a company policy, a file that Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI started from Bolt tries to send is held if Bolt cannot mask it.

OpenAI-compatible endpoint

Tools and scripts can point at Bolt's /v1/chat/completions endpoint, streaming included, under the same PII protection as Bolt's own chat.

MCP

Bolt connects to MCP servers, including local servers over stdio. Adding a server shows its tools and permissions for confirmation, and you choose which tools are exposed.

What each agent covers

Coverage differs by agent and sign-in mode. The agent gateway page lists it, gaps included: /agent-gateway.

Passwords and passkeys

Is Bolt a password manager?

Yes. Bolt has its own encrypted vault for logins and passkeys, fills them in your browser and in Bolt's built-in browser, and works with the 1Password or Bitwarden vault you already use.

Master password

Saved logins are encrypted under your master password. On a Mac you can unlock with Touch ID after entering the master password once per session.

Sign in from one place

Open Bolt on a sign-in page to see the logins and passkeys for that site. Enter fills; Shift+Enter fills and signs in. A look-alike site is refused before anything is filled.

Passkeys

Bolt saves passkeys you create on websites and asks which one to use when a site has more than one. Passkeys stay on the device where you saved them; they do not sync yet.

Emailed sign-in codes

Bolt fills a code that arrives by email, waiting about a minute for one that has not arrived yet.

Send a secret once

Send a password or secret through a link that works a single time.

Your existing vault

Search, add, edit and update logins kept in 1Password or Bitwarden from Bolt, and unlock Bitwarden without leaving Bolt.

More about passwords and passkeys →

Built-in browser

What does Bolt's built-in browser do?

It is an everyday browser inside Bolt, on macOS and Windows, with the vault and AI-site checks built in.

Tabs that keep working

WhatsApp, Slack, ChatGPT, Gmail and similar tabs stay live when Bolt is hidden. Idle tabs sleep instead of closing, and open tabs survive a restart.

Bookmarks and history

Bookmarks with folders, history, downloads, find in page and print. Import and export bookmarks in the format Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari use.

Private tabs

Nothing from a private tab reaches history, cache or any log on disk, and a link it opens stays private.

Ads, camera and microphone

Ads and trackers are blocked by default. Bolt's tabs cannot use your camera or microphone for now.

Familiar keys

Cmd+L (Ctrl+L) for the address bar, Cmd+Shift+T to reopen a closed tab, back and forward with keys or a swipe, and a speaker icon to mute a tab.

Launcher

What can Bolt do without calling an AI model?

Most of it. Summon the launcher over any app: it searches your files, mail and connected tools, and runs offline utilities on your device with no model call and no tokens.

Search everything

Local files, screenshots and images (on-device visual search, and the words inside your screenshots), clipboard history, notes, and connected Google, Microsoft and Zoho accounts. Searches can go straight to connected sources such as Confluence and Jira.

Messaging

Type a prefix and a name, such as wa and a contact, and Bolt opens WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Teams or a similar site and types the name into its search box.

Quick tools

A calculator that reads 1m/86k, show any result as a QR code, ip for your addresses and device details, brightness and audio toggles, and a screen ruler with angle, scale and a colour picker.

Clipboard and notes

Clipboard history that keeps formatting and files, with private clips left out and readable only by Bolt. Notes you can capture from a browser selection or the macOS Services menu.

Recall

On-device working memory of what you were doing, never uploaded. Details at /recall.

Voice

Speak to the launcher. Speech is turned into text on the device on Apple Silicon Macs and Linux, and nothing downloads until you turn it on.

Secure Sync

Does Bolt sync between my devices?

Yes, with Secure Sync on. Notes, app settings, bookmarks and open tabs follow you, sealed on your device before they leave it.

What syncs

Notes (a note deleted on one device can be restored on any device for 30 days), your launcher rail, world clocks, search engines, bookmarks and open tabs. Browser history sync is off unless you turn it on.

Your vault's own key

Saved logins are protected by a key of their own, separate from the key that protects sync. Passkeys do not sync yet.

Company control

Your company can turn notes sync off, and Bolt pauses sync on a device the company has retired or marked as not meeting its rules.

Identity and access

Does Bolt support single sign-on, MFA and admin roles?

Yes. Companies sign people in through their own identity provider over OIDC, including Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Auth0 and Zoho, and set session limits and admin roles centrally.

SAML 2.0

SAML 2.0 sign-in works on the web today, checked against your company's trusted certificates, for providers such as ADFS, Ping or Shibboleth. The desktop app is next; it offers to open Bolt on the web meanwhile.

Session limits

An idle timeout, a maximum session length, and required multi-factor sign-in (MFA). A session that passes a limit ends, and Bolt says why.

Admin roles

Admin access fails closed: a person with no assigned role is refused. Roles can come from groups in Okta, Auth0, generic OIDC or single-tenant Microsoft Entra.

Leavers

When the identity provider deactivates or deletes a user, Bolt ends that person's sessions, connected devices and paired apps. Admins can also end a person's access, or remove one device, from the admin console.

Setup guides

Step-by-step guides for each provider at /trust/sso.

Managed devices

Can IT deploy and lock down Bolt with MDM or Group Policy?

Yes. On macOS, Bolt reads policy from a configuration profile and ships a signed, notarised installer package for MDM. On Windows, it reads Group Policy, with ADMX templates you can use in Intune. Every documented setting takes effect, and an enforced setting shows as managed.

Vault and device rules

Turn off Touch ID unlock, set the vault auto-lock time, and lock the vault and pause sync on a device that is retired, not meeting your rules, removed from management, or offline too long.

Updates

Turn automatic updates off or pin a version.

Notice before recording

On a managed device, Bolt shows a one-time notice of what it records before it records anything, with wording the company can change.

Policy as code

boltctl keeps your organisation's policy as a YAML file in git: validate, diff, apply, list versions and roll back.

Network filter (macOS)

An observe-only filter that reports which apps reached an AI endpoint outside Bolt. It reads destination and app, never content, and can be made non-removable by policy on macOS 15 and later.

Deployment guide

Profiles, templates and allowlists at /trust/managed-deployment.

Evidence

What evidence does Bolt give security teams and auditors?

A signed audit chain you can verify offline, reports written for the person who has to defend them, and audit events delivered to your security monitoring system.

Audit chain

Masking and enforcement decisions, overrides, approvals and identity events are sealed in a chain an offline verifier can check. The activity log stays linked across restarts, and a check reads the whole file, so an edited entry is caught.

Reports

Eight reports produced on the device: AI exposure assessment, board summary, auditor evidence, questionnaire response, security and risk, cost and exposure, coverage and operation, and client findings. Each says what it did not see as well as what it did.

Signed compliance packs

Bolt's built-in compliance packs are signed, and Bolt refuses a built-in pack that has been changed, so the packs deciding what is masked are the ones Sparcle reviewed.

SIEM delivery

Audit events go to Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, syslog or a webhook. Each delivery can be signed so the receiver can check it came from Bolt, with automatic retries; both are off until a company sets them up.

Trust Center

Controls, questionnaire answers and supply-chain detail at /trust.

Install

Which platforms does Bolt run on, and how do I know the download is genuine?

macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux. Bolt is free for individuals, needs no account, and sends no telemetry.

Ways to install

A one-line install script, Homebrew, winget, the Windows setup program or MSI, and the Linux AppImage or .deb (package name sparcle-bolt). On macOS and Windows, installing needs no administrator rights.

Linux versions

Ubuntu 22.04 and newer, Debian 12 and newer, and Fedora 36 and newer.

Signed and checked

macOS builds are signed and notarised by Apple. On Windows, every program inside the installers is signed. Every release publishes a signed checksum manifest and a software bill of materials. The installer refuses a download it cannot verify and never installs an older version than the one you have.

Verify it yourself

Steps at /trust/verify-download.

FAQ

The short answers

Can I use ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude at work without leaking secrets?

Yes. Bolt checks what you type, paste or attach on AI sites before it is sent, and tells you when something sensitive is in it. It never changes what you typed unless you press Mask or your company's policy requires it. Messaging, email and ordinary sites are not screened.

Can Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI use Bolt's masking?

Yes, when you start them from Bolt. Claude Code started from Bolt goes through Bolt's masking on your computer: secrets you paste are replaced before they reach the model and restored for the commands it runs. Codex and the Gemini CLI connect the same way.

Is Bolt a password manager?

Yes. Bolt has its own encrypted vault for logins and passkeys, fills them in your browser and in Bolt's built-in browser, and works with the 1Password or Bitwarden vault you already use.

What does Bolt's built-in browser do?

It is an everyday browser inside Bolt, on macOS and Windows, with the vault and AI-site checks built in.

What can Bolt do without calling an AI model?

Most of it. Summon the launcher over any app: it searches your files, mail and connected tools, and runs offline utilities on your device with no model call and no tokens.

Does Bolt sync between my devices?

Yes, with Secure Sync on. Notes, app settings, bookmarks and open tabs follow you, sealed on your device before they leave it.

Does Bolt support single sign-on, MFA and admin roles?

Yes. Companies sign people in through their own identity provider over OIDC, including Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, Auth0 and Zoho, and set session limits and admin roles centrally.

Can IT deploy and lock down Bolt with MDM or Group Policy?

Yes. On macOS, Bolt reads policy from a configuration profile and ships a signed, notarised installer package for MDM. On Windows, it reads Group Policy, with ADMX templates you can use in Intune. Every documented setting takes effect, and an enforced setting shows as managed.

What evidence does Bolt give security teams and auditors?

A signed audit chain you can verify offline, reports written for the person who has to defend them, and audit events delivered to your security monitoring system.

Which platforms does Bolt run on, and how do I know the download is genuine?

macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows and Linux. Bolt is free for individuals, needs no account, and sends no telemetry.

What Bolt does today.

Ten questions, answered.

Can I use ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude at work without leaking secrets?

Can Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI use Bolt's masking?

Is Bolt a password manager?

What does Bolt's built-in browser do?

What can Bolt do without calling an AI model?

Does Bolt sync between my devices?

Does Bolt support single sign-on, MFA and admin roles?

Can IT deploy and lock down Bolt with MDM or Group Policy?

What evidence does Bolt give security teams and auditors?

Which platforms does Bolt run on, and how do I know the download is genuine?

Can I use ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude at work without leaking secrets?

Can Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI use Bolt's masking?

Is Bolt a password manager?

What does Bolt's built-in browser do?

What can Bolt do without calling an AI model?

Does Bolt sync between my devices?

Does Bolt support single sign-on, MFA and admin roles?

Can IT deploy and lock down Bolt with MDM or Group Policy?

What evidence does Bolt give security teams and auditors?

Which platforms does Bolt run on, and how do I know the download is genuine?

The short answers

Can I use ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude at work without leaking secrets?

Can Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI use Bolt's masking?

Is Bolt a password manager?

What does Bolt's built-in browser do?

What can Bolt do without calling an AI model?

Does Bolt sync between my devices?

Does Bolt support single sign-on, MFA and admin roles?

Can IT deploy and lock down Bolt with MDM or Group Policy?

What evidence does Bolt give security teams and auditors?

Which platforms does Bolt run on, and how do I know the download is genuine?

Free for individuals. Governed for companies.