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Known Limitations

Aetower is currently a Developer Preview for technical users. Share builds publicly only through the signed and notarized direct-download channel.

Developer Preview Scope

• Aetower is not marketed as production-ready.
• Aetower is not distributed through the Mac App Store.
• The default public build excludes the optional privileged Endpoint Security helper.
• Some app integrations depend on local tools or sockets being available, such as Chau7, Docker, Chromium-compatible debug endpoints, and local MCP clients.

Local Observability Data

Aetower observes local system and process metadata. Depending on enabled features, this can include process names, process ids, command metadata, bundle paths, parent/child relationships, terminal/session metadata, repository names, branch names, Docker metadata, browser tab metadata, diagnostics, and history summaries.

This data stays local unless the user explicitly exports it, enables telemetry export, shares screenshots, or shares support artifacts.

MCP Access

Aetower can expose a local MCP surface for trusted AI tools. The public-preview default is conservative: automatic AI-client registration is off. Users can use one-click registration for supported Claude and Codex clients they trust because those clients can inspect Aetower's local observation data through the owner-only socket/proxy path.

Heavy Views And History

History, Timeline, and process detail views can involve large datasets on busy machines. Operator-safe mode is enabled by default so heavy views start from summaries and expand into large detail lists only on demand.

Storage And APFS Estimates

Storage reports are APFS-aware estimates, not filesystem forensics. Aetower keeps logical bytes, local physical blocks, and local reclaim estimates separate so sparse files, cloud placeholders, hardlinks, and purgeable capacity do not inflate cleanup promises.

• Sparse files and cloud-only placeholders can have logical size with few or no local allocated blocks. Zero-block placeholders are treated as 0 bytes of proven local reclaim.
• Hardlinks are deduplicated inside a sized directory, but links outside the scanned directory can keep blocks alive after cleanup.
• APFS available capacity can include purgeable space, so Storage preserves both "free now" and "available" values when forecasting pressure.
• Physical bytes below logical bytes can mean APFS clones, compression, sparse allocation, or partial cloud materialization. Aetower does not claim exact APFS clone lineage.

Update Channel

Sparkle is the expected direct-download update path. Every public artifact must be Developer ID signed, notarized, and EdDSA-verifiable through the published appcast. A local ad-hoc build is not a public release artifact.

Support Boundaries

Support bundles and exports may contain sensitive local metadata. Use redacted or operator privacy by default. Share full-detail exports only when the support recipient is trusted and the user understands what will be included.