What Clawgnition is
centraid keeps your notes, files, and memory on your own machine. That is a feature right up until the machine is the only copy: one lost, dead, or stolen laptop and the whole vault is gone. Clawgnition is the safe off-device copy, so your vault can survive your device.
A few terms you will see throughout these docs:
- Vault — the collection of data centraid keeps for you (typically a database plus your files and media). It is the thing being backed up.
- Snapshot — a point-in-time copy of your vault. Your device makes a snapshot, seals it, and uploads it. Each new snapshot becomes a version you can roll back to.
- Sealed bytes — data that has been encrypted on your device before it leaves. Clawgnition stores sealed bytes and cannot read them.
- End-to-end encryption (E2EE) — encryption that happens on your machine, with a key that never leaves it. Only you can unseal your data.
The one thing to understand first
Your data is encrypted on your device before it ever reaches us. Your encryption key never leaves your machine, so we only ever hold sealed bytes we cannot read. This is what keeps your vault private by construction rather than by our good behaviour.
It also means the responsibility for your encryption key is yours. Because we never receive that key, we cannot recover your data if you lose it. Keep a safe copy of your key the way centraid guides you to. See Your keys — it is the most important page in these docs.
The five promises
The whole product exists to keep five plain promises, one for each question you would ask before trusting anyone with your vault.
| Promise | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Freshness | Once your device finishes uploading, that version is safe with us — and if your device goes quiet, we email you so a silent gap never catches you off guard. See Staying fresh. |
| Recovery window | You can roll back to every version from the last 7 days, then a daily version out to 30 days — the same for everyone. See Restoring. |
| Privacy | Your data is encrypted on your device before it reaches us; we hold sealed bytes only, and your keys never leave your machine. See Privacy & security. |
| Cost | You pay one predictable number for the storage you chose — no metered surprises and no fee to read your own data back. See Billing & quota. |
| Exit | You can take everything out at any time, for free, even if you stop paying — reads stay open no matter what state your account is in. See Leaving. |
Who this is for
Clawgnition is for centraid users who keep a vault they cannot afford to lose, and who want an off-device copy without handing anyone readable access to their data. You do not need to be an engineer. Setup is a short, guided sequence of copying three values into centraid — there is no plugin to install and no code of ours that runs inside your app.
Where to go next
These docs are organised so you can read straight through, or jump to what you need:
- Guided setup — connect centraid to Clawgnition in four steps. Start here if you have an invite.
- How it works — what actually happens to your data, from your device to storage and back.
- Staying fresh — the check-in that emails you if your backups go quiet.
- Restoring — how to roll back or move to a new machine, and how far back you can go.
- Your keys — the difference between your API key and your encryption key, and why one of them is irreplaceable.
- Privacy & security — exactly what we hold, what we never hold, and how to report a problem.
- Billing & quota — the beta comp, your storage allowance, and what happens at the edges.
- Leaving — how to take everything with you, any time, for free.
- The private beta — how the invite-only beta works and why there is no card to add.
- FAQ & troubleshooting — quick answers to the questions people ask most.
Common questions
Do I need to install anything from Clawgnition?
No. There is no Clawgnition plugin, SDK, or code that runs inside centraid or your app. You connect the two by pasting three values into centraid's hosted-storage settings. See Guided setup.
Can Clawgnition read my notes and files?
No. Your data is sealed on your device before upload, and your encryption key never reaches us. We hold encrypted bytes we cannot open. See Privacy & security.
What does it cost right now?
The private beta is comped — your storage allowance is free during the beta, with no card required. Prices for later are not set yet, and beta users hear about them first. See Billing & quota.