Install analytics

Installway can optionally report install telemetry through Hintway. The feature is compiled in only when the hintway Cargo feature is enabled; binaries built without it contain zero Hintway code.

What is tracked

All events are GDPR-safe: no install path, no username, no OS version, no machine identifier, and no persistent file on disk.

Data	Values
`operation`	`install` or `update`
`mode`	`silent`, `minimal`, or `interactive`
`privilege`	`admin`, `user`, or `unknown`
`lang`	Detected UI language code, such as `en` or `fr`

Events sent:

Event	When
`app_started`	The installer launches. Fired automatically by the SDK on init.
`stage_reached`	`extract`, then `finalize`, then `done`, as each phase completes.
`install_error`	Any failure. Carries a `category` and the `stage`; never a raw message or path.
`app_exit`	The installer exits. Fired automatically by the SDK on shutdown.

The duration of each phase, and the total install time, is derived server-side from the timestamps of consecutive events. There is nothing extra to track.

Error categories (the value of install_error.category): version_mismatch, permission_denied, elevation_cancelled, signature_failed, disk_full, unknown.

Configure analytics for a project

Set the tenant UUID in the project's pack.toml:

hintway_tenant_id = "your-tenant-id"

The tenant UUID is stored in the signed installer payload, then copied to installer_info.json for the uninstaller. It is configuration, not a private key; the payload signature prevents it from being changed without detection.

Hintway support still has to be compiled into the installer and uninstaller. In the default toolchain mode, pack detects hintway_tenant_id and enables the hintway Cargo feature automatically for both binaries:

.\target\release\installer_builder.exe pack --config .\pack.toml

When using --reuse-stub, the existing installer.exe and uninstall.exe must already have been built with Hintway support. Omit --reuse-stub once after adding hintway_tenant_id so the correct variants are rebuilt.

Build a reusable Hintway kit

For toolchain-free packaging, build a generic Hintway-enabled kit once. No tenant is baked into these binaries:

$env:INSTALLER_PUB_KEY = (Get-Content .\keys\pub.key).Trim()

cargo build --release -p installer -p uninstaller `
    --features installer/hintway,uninstaller/hintway

Distribute those installer.exe and uninstall.exe files with installer_builder.exe. Each project selects its own tenant through hintway_tenant_id when it packs an installer. A kit built without the feature ignores this field and contains no Hintway code.

Identity and privacy

Each installer run generates a fresh random UUID as its identity. Nothing is written to disk, and there is no cross-run or cross-machine linking.

The only personal data that reaches Hintway's servers is the client IP address, which is inherent to any HTTP request. Document this in your product's privacy policy.

Disabling analytics

Omit hintway_tenant_id from pack.toml. A Hintway-enabled binary then sends no telemetry. To produce binaries containing no Hintway code at all, also build without the hintway Cargo feature; the hintway_analytics crate is optional and is not linked in that variant.