Keep PII out of LLMs. Cloak masks sensitive data before sending text to AI APIs like ChatGPT or Claude, then restores the original data in responses.
// Mask PII before sending to an LLM
$safe = cloak('Contact john@example.com or call 555-123-4567');
// "Contact {{EMAIL_x7k2m9_1}} or call {{PHONE_x7k2m9_1}}"
// Restore the original data
$original = uncloak($safe);
// "Contact john@example.com or call 555-123-4567"When building AI-powered features, user messages often contain sensitive information—emails, phone numbers, SSNs, credit cards. Sending this data to third-party LLM APIs creates privacy and compliance risks.
Cloak solves this by:
- Detecting PII using built-in or custom detectors
- Replacing sensitive data with placeholder tokens
- Storing the mapping temporarily (in-memory or cache)
- Restoring original data when you receive the LLM's response
The LLM never sees the actual PII, but your users get personalized responses.
composer require dynamikdev/cloak-laravelOptionally publish the config file:
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="cloak-config"// config/cloak.php
return [
// false (default): In-memory storage, auto-cleared after request
// true: Cache storage, persists across requests
'persist' => env('CLOAK_PERSIST', false),
// Storage driver class when persist is true
'storage_driver' => DynamikDev\Cloak\Laravel\CacheStorage::class,
// Cache store to use (null = default cache)
'cache_store' => env('CLOAK_CACHE_STORE'),
// TTL for cached mappings in seconds
'default_ttl' => env('CLOAK_DEFAULT_TTL', 3600),
];All sensitive data is encrypted using Laravel's Crypt facade before being stored, regardless of which storage driver is used. This provides defense in depth—even if memory or cache is compromised, the original PII remains protected.
-
persist: false(default) - Encrypted in-memory storage. Perfect for single-request flows where you cloak → call LLM → uncloak in one request. Data is automatically garbage collected. -
persist: true- Encrypted Laravel cache. Use this when you need to uncloak in a different request (e.g., webhook responses, queued jobs).
The simplest way to use Cloak:
$masked = cloak($text);
$restored = uncloak($masked);use DynamikDev\Cloak\Laravel\Facades\Cloak;
$masked = Cloak::cloak($text);
$restored = Cloak::uncloak($masked);use DynamikDev\Cloak\Cloak;
class ChatController extends Controller
{
public function send(Request $request, Cloak $cloak)
{
$safe = $cloak->cloak($request->input('message'));
// ...
}
}use OpenAI\Laravel\Facades\OpenAI;
public function chat(Request $request)
{
$userMessage = $request->input('message');
// "Help me email john.doe@acme.com about invoice #1234.
// My number is 555-867-5309 if they need to call back."
// 1. Cloak PII before sending to OpenAI
$safeMessage = cloak($userMessage);
// "Help me email {{EMAIL_a1b2c3_1}} about invoice #1234.
// My number is {{PHONE_a1b2c3_1}} if they need to call back."
// 2. Send to OpenAI - no PII exposed to the API
$response = OpenAI::chat()->create([
'model' => 'gpt-4',
'messages' => [
['role' => 'system', 'content' => 'You are a helpful assistant.'],
['role' => 'user', 'content' => $safeMessage],
],
]);
// 3. Get the response (LLM uses placeholders naturally)
$aiResponse = $response->choices[0]->message->content;
// "Here's a draft email for {{EMAIL_a1b2c3_1}}:
// Subject: Regarding Invoice #1234..."
// 4. Restore PII for the user
$finalResponse = uncloak($aiResponse);
// "Here's a draft email for john.doe@acme.com:
// Subject: Regarding Invoice #1234..."
return response()->json(['response' => $finalResponse]);
}Cloak automatically detects:
| Type | Example | Placeholder |
|---|---|---|
john@example.com |
{{EMAIL_x1y2z3_1}} |
|
| Phone | 555-123-4567 |
{{PHONE_x1y2z3_1}} |
| SSN | 123-45-6789 |
{{SSN_x1y2z3_1}} |
| Credit Card | 4111-1111-1111-1111 |
{{CREDIT_CARD_x1y2z3_1}} |
By default, all detectors run. To use specific detectors:
use DynamikDev\Cloak\Detector;
// Only detect emails and phones
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::email(),
Detector::phone(),
]);
// Phone detection with region hint (improves accuracy)
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::phone('US'),
]);use DynamikDev\Cloak\Detector;
// Detect database connection strings
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::pattern(
'/mysql:\/\/[^:]+:[^@]+@[^\s]+/',
'DB_CONNECTION'
),
]);
// Detect API keys
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::pattern(
'/sk-[a-zA-Z0-9]{32,}/',
'API_KEY'
),
]);use DynamikDev\Cloak\Detector;
// Mask specific names or terms (case-insensitive)
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::words(['John Doe', 'Jane Smith', 'Acme Corp'], 'NAME'),
]);For complex detection logic:
use DynamikDev\Cloak\Detector;
$masked = cloak($text, [
Detector::using(function (string $text) {
// Return array of ['match' => '...', 'type' => '...']
$matches = [];
// Example: Find Laravel env variables
if (preg_match_all('/\bDB_PASSWORD=\S+/', $text, $found)) {
foreach ($found[0] as $match) {
$matches[] = ['match' => $match, 'type' => 'ENV_VAR'];
}
}
return $matches;
}),
]);Auto-cloak sensitive data in request logs:
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;
class LogSafeRequests
{
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next)
{
// Log request with PII masked
Log::info('API Request', [
'path' => $request->path(),
'body' => cloak(json_encode($request->all())),
]);
return $next($request);
}
}composer testPlease see CHANGELOG for more information on what has changed recently.
Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.
Please review our security policy on how to report security vulnerabilities.
The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.
