# How PowerWP AI keeps you safe

> Seven safety layers between an AI app and your live site: permissions, previews, snapshots, health checks, rescue mode, backups and a log.

PowerWP AI lets an AI app work on a live site, so it is built in layers. Each layer assumes the one before it can fail. Changes are recorded, so you can roll them back, and the few things that cannot be rolled back are marked. This page walks through each layer, and [What can't be undone](/docs/safety/limits/) lists the limits, so you know what you can rely on.

## The seven layers

### 1. Permissions

Every AI app gets its own connection, and a connection has only the permissions you choose: nine permissions, or one of four presets. Reading is always allowed. Every kind of change has to be granted. You can add an expiry date and an IP allow-list. Requests must use HTTPS, keys are shown once and stored only as hashes, and rate limits and lockouts slow down guessing.

No tool lets an AI app change connections or settings, so an app cannot give itself more access.

**Protects against:** an app doing more than you meant it to do. See [Permissions and presets](/docs/concepts/permissions/).

### 2. Previews and dry runs

Many tools can show what they would do before they do it. This is a dry run. `content_update`, `option_update`, `fs_edit`, `fs_write`, `fs_delete`, `db_execute` and `db_search_replace` all have one, and database search-and-replace and clean-ups start as dry runs by default. `rest_request` has no dry run, so the recipes ask the app to show the current and the new values side by side.

PowerWP AI tells every AI app to preview first. The [recipes](/docs/concepts/recipes/) go further: they show you the exact new text next to the old one and wait for your yes. Using a dry run is the AI app's choice, so ask for one when a change matters.

**Protects against:** a change that is not what you expected.

### 3. A snapshot before each change

Before PowerWP AI changes a file, folder, setting, database row or table, a plugin or the theme, it saves how things were, wherever that is possible. This is the snapshot. A few actions have nothing to restore; they are marked **Irreversible**. Each change is listed on the **PowerWP AI › Changes** screen, and you can roll it back: one change, a WooCommerce batch, everything after a checkpoint, or a whole work session.

If a snapshot cannot be stored, the change is not made. Snapshots are kept for 30 days by default.

**Protects against:** a wrong change you notice only later. See [Change log and undo](/docs/safety/undo/) and [Checkpoints and work sessions](/docs/safety/checkpoints/).

### 4. A health check, with automatic revert

After a risky change, PowerWP AI loads your home page and the admin side again. Risky means PHP code, a few key settings, and installing, updating or switching plugins and themes. If the site worked before and shows a fatal error now, the change is reverted on the spot.

**Protects against:** an update or code edit that takes the site down. See [Automatic health check](/docs/safety/auto-revert/).

### 5. Rescue mode

If a plugin or theme crashes WordPress while an AI app that connects with a key is asking for help, rescue mode switches on by itself, as long as its loader is installed. For the next 30 minutes the app's requests load only PowerWP AI, without your other plugins and your theme. The app can read the error log, switch off the cause or roll back the change.

**Protects against:** losing your AI app's help at the moment you need it. See [Rescue mode](/docs/safety/rescue-mode/).

### 6. Backups on your computer

Backups are built on your server in small steps, downloaded to your computer with SHA-256 checksums, and removed from the server once the download is confirmed. To restore, you pick the files you downloaded.

**Protects against:** problems a snapshot does not cover, such as a lost server or a change whose snapshot has expired. See [Backups and restore](/docs/safety/backups/).

### 7. The activity log

Every request, tool call, management action and security event is written to the log: which app, which tool, which IP address, what the result was. Passwords and keys are hidden before anything is stored, and no tool can delete log entries.

**Protects against:** not knowing what happened. See [Activity log](/docs/safety/activity-log/).

## Two switches that stay in your hands

- **AI access** refuses every AI app at once. It is in the header of every PowerWP AI screen.
- **Read-only mode** limits every connection to reading, whatever permissions it has.

Both are explained in [AI access switch and read-only mode](/docs/safety/access-switch/).

## What is not covered

A few actions cannot be rolled back by their nature, such as clearing a cache, a restore, or an e-mail that was already sent. They are marked **Irreversible** in the change log. The honest list is on [What can't be undone](/docs/safety/limits/).

## Habits that keep you safe

Start every new connection with Read-only diagnostics, ask for a plan first and read it, set a checkpoint before work with many steps, and keep a fresh backup on your computer before big jobs. The full routine is under [How to protect yourself](/docs/safety/limits/#how-to-protect-yourself).

:::cards
- [Change log and undo](/docs/safety/undo/) — Roll back one change, a batch, a checkpoint or a session.
- [Checkpoints and work sessions](/docs/safety/checkpoints/) — Mark a point and return to it.
- [Automatic health check](/docs/safety/auto-revert/) — How risky changes are tested and reverted.
- [Rescue mode](/docs/safety/rescue-mode/) — What happens when a plugin crashes the site.
- [Backups and restore](/docs/safety/backups/) — Backups that live on your computer.
- [AI access switch and read-only mode](/docs/safety/access-switch/) — Stop or limit all AI apps at once.
- [Activity log](/docs/safety/activity-log/) — See every request and what it did.
- [What can't be undone](/docs/safety/limits/) — The honest list, and how to protect yourself.
:::

Source: https://powerwp.ai/docs/safety/