Files on your machine

Everything payback keeps on your machine is under ~/.payback (or $PAYBACK_HOME).

Path	What it is
`config.toml`	This machine’s account token, your GitHub login, and settings such as `telemetry` and `paused`.
`allow`	The allow list: the policy, named repositories and exclusions.
`repo_visibility.json`	The local cache of which repositories are public, written by the uploader.
`excludes`	The secret-file patterns never included in a snapshot.
`spool/`	Captures waiting to upload (`ready`), in flight, done, or failed.
`store.git`	The repository snapshots behind captures, as git objects.
`sessions/`, `session_artifacts/`, `transcripts/`	Per-session counters, end-of-session transcripts, and pre-compaction copies waiting to upload.
`events/`	The CLI’s own operation log (one JSON line per hook or upload step), kept locally.
`product/`	Product events waiting to ship; see Product analytics.
`payback.db`	The index `payback status` reads.

Captures stay here until they’re uploaded, and a copy stays afterwards. The binary itself lives in ~/.local/share/payback/, with ~/.local/bin/payback linking to the current version.

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Files on your machine