“We added it in front of our prototype assistant so support emails get masked before prompts go out.”
Jordan P.
Small product team
Open-source PII redaction for Node.js
Redact PII in Node.js before it leaves your app.
Run it locally. No API calls. No data leaves your system.
Need PII redaction?
Compare open source AI redaction tools.
Before OpenAI calls, see redact pii before openai.
InputOutput
support note: customer said email me at john@email.com before 5, card ends 4242
support note: customer said email me at [REDACTED] before 5, card ends [REDACTED]
Emails, phones, cards
Built-in redaction for common sensitive fields.
500+ patterns
Large default pattern set out of the box.
Custom patterns
Add project-specific rules when needed.
Runs locally
No API calls. No external processing.
Deterministic
Same input, same output every time.
Fast inline use
Light enough for request-time redaction.
Safe for logs and prompts
Clean text before it spreads downstream.
Lightweight
No external dependencies to pull in.
Before / after
import { redact } from "openredaction";
const input = "helpdesk reply: reach me at alice@company.com, mobile 555-123-4567";
const { redactedText } = redact(input);
console.log(redactedText);
// helpdesk reply: reach me at [REDACTED], mobile [REDACTED]Quick usage
Install it, import it, and redact before you send anything to an API.
npm install openredaction
import { redact } from "openredaction";
const text = "ticket: user said call me on 555-0199 after lunch";
const { redactedText } = redact(text);
console.log(redactedText);“Not perfect for every edge case, but it gives us a practical baseline for sanitizing logs in Node.”
Maya R.
Indie SaaS
“We use it in staging and early production paths to reduce accidental PII leakage while we tune rules.”
Chris L.
Internal tooling
“The open-source approach made it easy to audit what is being redacted before we ship wider.”
Nina K.
Security-minded startup
“We added it in front of our prototype assistant so support emails get masked before prompts go out.”
Jordan P.
Small product team
“Not perfect for every edge case, but it gives us a practical baseline for sanitizing logs in Node.”
Maya R.
Indie SaaS
“We use it in staging and early production paths to reduce accidental PII leakage while we tune rules.”
Chris L.
Internal tooling
“The open-source approach made it easy to audit what is being redacted before we ship wider.”
Nina K.
Security-minded startup
Use case: prevent leaking PII to AI APIs
Redact data before sending it to AI APIs.
Keep pasted emails, callback numbers, card details, and account references out of prompts and logs.
Input
customer pasted: jane.doe@company.com, call back on 555-219-0081 before 4
Output
customer pasted: [REDACTED], call back on [REDACTED] before 4
Coming soon
Working on simple wrappers for common use cases:
OpenAI
OpenAI wrapper
Redact sensitive data from prompts before sending requests to OpenAI. Prevent emails, names, and other PII from leaving your application while keeping the same API usage pattern.
Express.js
Express middleware
Sanitise incoming request data automatically before it reaches your application logic. Helps prevent sensitive user information from being logged, stored, or forwarded.
Logging
Logging integrations
Redact sensitive fields before writing logs to tools like Pino or Winston. Avoid storing emails, phone numbers, and personal data while keeping logs.
Webhook
Webhook safety
Redact data before sending outbound requests to third-party like Slack or Zapier.
“OpenRedaction gave us a practical, inspectable first layer for masking obvious PII before prompts and logs.”
Samir Q.
Maintainer, internal AI tooling
Alternatives
OpenRedaction alongside AWS, Presidio, and Google DLP
A simple Node.js option if you want local redaction, plus common managed and Python-based alternatives.
| Tool | Type | Runtime | Processing | Detection | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenRedaction | Open source | Node.js | Local or self-hosted | Deterministic regex | Teams wanting predictable redaction in JS stacks |
| AWS Comprehend | Managed | Managed AWS service | External cloud processing | ML-based entity detection | AWS-native pipelines |
| Microsoft Presidio | Open source | Python | Self-hosted | NLP + regex | Python teams with custom NLP needs |
| Google DLP | Managed | Managed GCP service | External cloud processing | ML + infoTypes | GCP-centric compliance workflows |
Get started
Use it locally in your app.
Install it, drop it into your request path, and clean prompts, logs, or stored text before it leaves your system.
npm install openredaction