# Data collection

By default, Earthly collects anonymized data which we use for measuring performance of the earthly command.

## Installation ID

Earthly will create a universally unique installation ID (UUID v4) under `~/.earthly/install_id`, which is used to track each installation. This ID is randomly created and does not contain any personal data.

## Anonymized data

In addition to the installation ID, earthly will also collect a one-way-hash of the git repository name.

## CI platform

Earthly applies some heuristics to determine if it is running in a CI system, and will report which CI system is detected (e.g. GitHub Actions, Circle CI, Travis CI, Jenkins, etc).

## Command and exit code

Earthly will report which command was run (e.g. build, prune, etc), the execution time, and corresponding exit code. Command line arguments are *not* captured.

## Disabling analytics

To disable the collection of data, set the `disable_analytics` option to `true` under the global config file `~/.earthly/config.yml`.

For example:

```yaml
global:
    disable_analytics: true
```

This option is documented in the [Earthly configuration file page](https://docs.earthly.dev/docs/earthly-config).


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.earthly.dev/docs/misc/data-collection.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.