PiBye archive
Archive: How to redact a PDF on a Mac without uploading it
This article describes an earlier version of PiBye, released as Sidebar. PiBye now uses Import → Review → Use with AI → Restore, with explicit file handoff and no automatic Claude connection. You can redact a PDF on a Mac without uploading it. Preview (Ventura and later) and Acrobat Pro both remove content locally if you use the real Redact tool. Neither finds client identifiers for you, and neither is built to feed Claude Desktop a Vault.
Published
Do not use a website
Search “redact PDF online” and you will get a box that asks you to upload the file. That is cloud redaction. The original — names, scans of passports, account tables — is copied off the desk so someone else’s computer can paint boxes. If the requirement is that the original not be uploaded, close the tab.
On a Mac the local options are Preview, Acrobat Pro, and a dedicated on-device tool. They are not interchangeable.
Preview
Since macOS Big Sur, and more clearly on Ventura, Preview’s Markup toolbar includes Redact. Apple warns that shapes do not delete content, and that Redact does. Use Redact. Select the text or drag a region. Save. Then search the PDF for the string you removed.
Preview will not hunt for a SIN you did not notice on page 14. It will not keep one stand-in for a person across a folder. It will not give Claude Desktop a Vault. It is a manual scalpel.
Acrobat Pro
Acrobat Pro’s Redact tool, applied and then sanitized, is the reference for true content-stream redaction on a desktop. Search and Redact can find a word you type. Auto-redact patterns exist for some identifiers. The work is still mostly you, page by page. There is no network-free claim about Adobe’s other products; the desktop app is what stays on the machine.
Acrobat is a PDF editor. It is not a Claude workflow. When the next step is “let the assistant read this folder,” you still need a place originals cannot enter.
On-device detection, then Claude
PiBye runs OCR and more than twenty kinds of identifier detection on Apple Silicon. Document processing stays on the Mac; update checks do not upload documents. You review every page. Approved copies go to a Vault. Claude Desktop is pointed at that folder.
It is a free download, English and French only, not HIPAA-attested, not a replacement for Acrobat’s drawing tools. The job it is built for is the assistant path: identifiers covered on this Mac, matter still readable.
Questions this page answers
Can I redact a PDF in Preview on a Mac?
Yes, on macOS Ventura and later, using Markup → Redact — not the rectangle shape tool. Save or export so the removal is written. Always search the file afterwards.
Does Acrobat Pro upload my PDF when I redact?
Desktop Acrobat Pro redacts on the Mac. Acrobat’s online tools are a different product: those send the file to Adobe. Use the application, not the browser, if the original must not leave.
What is the difference between manual redaction and this app?
Preview and Acrobat mark what you drag. This app detects names, identity numbers, and accounts, then waits for you to approve every page, then writes a Vault Claude Desktop can read.
PiBye is available now for macOS. The current PiBye workflow · Price.