Anonymization Strategies

Clonio applies transformations per column. Columns not listed in .cloning.yaml are copied unchanged.

keep

Copy the value unchanged. This is the implicit default for unlisted columns.

status:
  strategy: keep

fake

Generate realistic synthetic data with FakerPHP.

email:
  strategy: fake
  faker_method: safeEmail
  faker_arguments: []

Examples:

first_name:
  strategy: fake
  faker_method: firstName
  faker_arguments: []

date_of_birth:
  strategy: fake
  faker_method: date
  faker_arguments: ["Y-m-d"]

hash

Replace values with a one-way hash. Hashing is useful when equal input values should remain joinable inside one run.

employee_number:
  strategy: hash
  algorithm: sha256

Hashing is pseudonymisation, not full anonymization. Prefer fake, null, or key remapping when linkage must be impossible.

mask

Reveal a small prefix and mask the rest.

phone:
  strategy: mask
  visible_chars: 4
  mask_char: "*"
  preserve_format: true

null

Set the column to NULL. The target column must allow null values.

notes:
  strategy: "null"

Always quote "null". Unquoted, YAML reads strategy: null as an empty value, not as the null strategy, and validation fails with a hint to add the quotes.

exclude

Leave the column out of the transfer. Clonio does not read it from the source and does not write it to the target, so the target column gets its default value or NULL.

internal_note:
  strategy: exclude

Use it for columns whose data must never leave the source, or for columns the target computes itself. The target column must be nullable or have a default, otherwise inserts fail. Clonio prints a note when an excluded column is NOT NULL without a default on the target.

Generated columns are left out automatically, see Generated columns.

static

Use one fixed value for every row.

environment_tag:
  strategy: static
  value: "dev-imported"

Review responsibility

PII auto-detection is a starting point. You are responsible for reviewing generated rules before cloning production data.