How your data moves in Gingham

The short version

Gingham works on course content. It does not read grades, student submissions or class rosters. Before it deletes assignments, quizzes or discussions in Canvas, it asks Canvas whether student work exists, so it can warn you.
Your Canvas token is stored encrypted on Gingham's server, and your browser does not keep a copy.
The app loads no third-party analytics or advertising, and it serves its own fonts.
The assistant and the MCP connector are off until they are turned on for your account or organization.
You can download your account data, or delete your account, in Account settings.

In your browser

The editor runs in your browser tab, and a course file you open from your computer is read there. Once you are signed in, Gingham saves the open course as you work: when you open it, after a pause in editing, when you press Save, and when you switch courses or leave the tab.

Two things stay on your device: the undo history of the session, and Versions, the copies Gingham saves before an Apply to Canvas, a copy from Canvas, a publish, a replace or a restore, and any you save yourself. Versions are stored in this browser only. They are not in your account and do not follow you to another device.

The browser also keeps a copy of each course you open, so it opens quickly. That copy and its Versions stay on the device when you sign out, unless you choose to remove them, and when you delete your account. Clearing this site's data in your browser removes them.

When you save

A save keeps the course in your account and on this device, so you can open it anywhere you sign in.

The course itselfStored in object storage (Cloudflare R2).
The list of your coursesTitle, course code, file name, size, tags and times, kept in Gingham's database (Supabase, hosted by AWS in the United States).
Your accountYour email, name, and profile image if you add one.

Gingham does not encrypt saved courses itself, so a saved course is not end-to-end encrypted.

When you connect Canvas

You connect with a Canvas access token, or with Sign in with Canvas where it is available for your Canvas site. Gingham's server encrypts the token and stores it. Your browser does not keep it, and it is not sent to the assistant or to an AI client.

Gingham works with Canvas through its server, and only on course content: items, modules, course settings, rubrics, quiz questions, files, and course imports and exports. It does not read grades, submission contents, enrollments or rosters. Before it deletes an assignment, quiz or discussion, or resets or replaces a course, it asks Canvas whether students have submitted work or received grades there, and tells you what it finds.

When you import a course from Canvas, Gingham asks Canvas for a course export and moves the file through the same object storage as a saved course.

Some Canvas actions hide student work. Deleting an assignment in Canvas hides its submissions and grades from students and the gradebook, and replacing a course can do the same for every graded item in it. Gingham holds back a delete when it finds student work, and asks you to confirm before it goes ahead. Replace course also asks you to confirm, and saves a copy of the Canvas course to Versions first. The check does not catch every case, so take care in a course that is running.

The assistant

The assistant is off until it is turned on for your account or organization, and it shows what it sends before you use it the first time. When you use it, Gingham's server sends the following to OpenRouter, which routes it to the model provider:

your messages to the assistant
a summary of the open course: its title, and its module and item titles, types and settings
the titles of the other courses you have open
the parts of the course the assistant reads or edits, which it shows you as it goes
the notes the assistant keeps about how you like to work
in a long conversation, a summary of the earlier messages

Gingham asks OpenRouter to route only to providers that do not collect prompts. Each provider handles data under its own terms.

Your messages and the assistant's replies are stored on Gingham's server so the assistant can be measured and improved. They cannot be read back in the app. You can see how many there are and delete them in Account settings. Gingham also records usage for each request: tokens, model and time.

The assistant drafts changes. Each one waits for you to review it and click Apply.

The MCP connector

The connector at https://mcp.ginghamlearning.com/mcp lets an AI client such as Claude or Codex work with Gingham. It is turned on for your account or your organization.

You approve each client in Gingham before it can connect. Approving creates a key, listed under MCP keys in Account settings, where you can revoke it.
An approved client can read and change the courses in your account, and act on Canvas through your connection: create, change and delete course content, import, reset and copy courses, and sync blueprint courses.
Your Canvas token is not sent to the client.

What you type into your AI client, and what the client reads back from Gingham, goes to that client's own AI provider under that provider's terms.

What Gingham records

Gingham records a few events for each account, such as opening a course, connecting Canvas, saving, publishing and importing. Each record holds your account, the event, the time, and for saves and publishes a few counts such as size and upload time. Course content is not placed in these records.

When something fails on Gingham's server, an error report goes to Sentry, an error-tracking service. It holds the error message and where the error happened, with access tokens removed. Gingham does not send request bodies or files.

This website

The pages of hellogingham.com set no cookies and load nothing from other sites. Their fonts are served from this domain. Cloudflare hosts the site and handles each request to serve a page.

Services Gingham runs on

CloudflareHosts the app and this site, runs Gingham's server and the MCP connector, and stores saved courses.
SupabaseSign-in, sign-in emails, and the database. Hosted by AWS in the United States.
OpenRouter and model providersThe assistant, only when it is turned on for your account or organization.
SentryError reports from Gingham's server.
GoogleOnly if you choose Sign in with Google.
GitHubRuns the scheduled backups of Gingham's database.

What you can do

Export my data in Account settings downloads a file of your account data, without course content or assistant conversations. Download any course from the app as a package.
Delete account in Account settings.
Delete all assistant conversations, and revoke any MCP key.
Unlink a course from its Canvas course. Nothing in Canvas changes.
Remove the copies of your courses from a device when you sign out.

Questions about any of this: hello@ginghamlearning.com.