Privacy Policy

Short version: the tools on RegexShelf run in your browser. The patterns and text you type or paste into them are not sent to us.

This policy has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer.

Effective date: 2026-10-02

Who is responsible

The data controller is RegexShelf, an independent project operated from Indonesia. We have no postal address to publish; contact is by email only, at joe@zona13.net.

Your inputs stay in your browser

All tools on this site are client-side. The regular expressions, test text and replacement templates you enter are processed by code running on your device, inside a Web Worker that belongs to the page. They are not transmitted to our servers and are not logged by us. The pages are static files and the site has no back end that accepts input. Nothing you type is sent to any third party either.

Engine files

The JavaScript flavor uses your browser's own regular expression engine. The PCRE2 and Go flavors use WebAssembly files that are part of this site (same-origin static files). Your browser downloads each of them from our server only when a page needs it, for example when you pick PCRE2 in the tester. Downloading the file is an ordinary page request, recorded in the server log like any other (see below); what you type is not part of that request.

The share link

The tester and the replace tester write your pattern, flavor, flags, text and replacement into the address bar after a # sign (the URL fragment) so you can copy a link. Browsers do not send the fragment to a web server, so it is not part of the request that reaches us. If you paste that link into a chat, email or document, the people and services you give it to can read it. Text longer than a few thousand characters is left out of the link.

What is stored in your browser

The tester uses your browser's local storage, on your device only, with one key. It is not a cookie and it is not read by us.

• regexshelf.flavor.v1: the last regex flavor you chose in the tester (for example pcre2), so the next visit starts there. Nothing else is stored: not your patterns, not your text.

You can erase it in your browser's site-data settings. If your browser blocks local storage, the tools still work and simply keep nothing.

Server logs

Like any website, our web server receives your IP address, the page requested, the time and your browser's user-agent when you load a page. These technical logs are used for security and to keep the site running and are kept for about 14 days and then deleted automatically (the log files are rotated daily and the 14 most recent rotated files are kept). They are used only for security and for aggregate traffic statistics. The access log lines contain the IP address, the time, the requested URL, the response status, the number of bytes sent, the referring page if your browser sends one, and the user-agent. The server's error log can also contain IP addresses and URLs; they do not contain anything you type into the tools. The site is hosted on a virtual private server from Linode (Akamai Cloud), in a data centre in the United States. That means your request, including your IP address, is processed in the United States.

Analytics

This site does not currently use analytics. If that changes, this page will be updated first.

Advertising, cookies and consent

This site does not currently show advertising and does not set advertising cookies.

The tools themselves never pass what you type to advertisers. Ads are never required to use a tool.

Cookies

This site sets no cookies of its own. The only data it keeps on your device is the one local storage key listed above, which has no expiry and stays until you delete it. The web server is configured not to set cookies either.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR or UK GDPR) you may have the right to access, correct or delete personal data we hold about you, to object to or restrict processing, and to complain to your data protection authority. Because we hold very little data about visitors (see above), the practical scope is small, but you can email us to ask. We process the technical log data on the basis of our legitimate interest in running and securing the site. The operator is based in Indonesia, so Indonesian law, including the Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 27 of 2022), applies alongside any rights you have where you live.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes we will update the date at the top of the page.