What happens to the vault if our engagement ends?
It keeps running. The hardware is yours, the data is yours, and the ledger is stored in open formats (Markdown + JSON) you can read, export, and migrate without us. We keep no copy and hold nothing back.
How is the vault backed up?
Locally, to a target you control — an external SSD via Time Machine or your existing NAS. Backups are encrypted with your keys. We recommend (and configure) a second offline copy for added redundancy.
Can multiple people use it?
Yes. The vault serves your office LAN; team members confirm surfaced decisions and browse the ledger from their own machines. Role-based visibility (e.g., finance entries restricted) is configured during the build.
What if the machine dies?
Restore the latest backup onto a replacement machine and the vault is back — ledger, indexes, assets, everything. That's a property of keeping the whole system on one machine you own.
Does it work offline?
Fully — local evaluation, the ledger, and asset generation don't need the internet at all. Connectors catch up on their next scheduled pull when connectivity returns.
What exactly is Hermes, and what if it goes away?
Hermes is the third-party AI agent that powers evaluation — we name it honestly because you should know what you depend on. Your data and the ledger are independent of it: open formats, local storage. If the engine ever had to change, the ledger survives intact.
How much team effort does it really take?
After the build: minutes per week. Confirming or dismissing surfaced decisions is the only recurring task. The founding habit that helps most is a weekly 30-minute decision review — see how a sample company did it in the demo (OPS-005).
Can we start without connecting sensitive sources?
Yes — many builds start with meeting transcripts and one team channel only, then widen scopes after the first quarter once trust is established. Scope is your call, revisited quarterly.