Installation

From PyPI

pip install cloakpii

Requires Python 3.10+.

From source

git clone https://github.com/Hellotravisss/cloakpii.git
cd cloakpii
pip install -e .

Optional: ML-based detection

The built-in detector is regex + column-name keywords. To also catch free-text personal names and broader entities, install an ML backend (spaCy or Presidio) — see ML_SETUP.md. CloakPII never downloads a model at runtime; you install it explicitly.

Verify

cloakpii --version
cloakpii profiles

Providing the password

Every command needs an encryption password. In order of preference:

export CLOAKPII_PASSWORD=...        # 1. environment variable (recommended)
cloakpii migrate --key-file pw.txt # 2. read from a file
cloakpii migrate                   # 3. interactive prompt (getpass)

Avoid --password on the command line

A password passed as --password is visible in ps and your shell history. CloakPII prints a warning when you use it.