An air-gapped AI code assistant that actually runs offline
SourceVault answers questions about private repositories with citations, entirely on your own hardware. It was built for regulated teams whose network has no outbound path at all.
Why cloud assistants stop at the air gap
Cloud code assistants need outbound connectivity to function. Your code is transmitted to a third party and processed on their servers, and the privacy protections are contractual: no-training pledges and data controls governing a pipeline you can't see. In an air-gapped environment there is no outbound path, so the conversation ends before the contract is read. Even tools that self-host their index typically reach their answering models through cloud LLM providers, which rules out a true air gap. The comparison page walks through this tool by tool.
How SourceVault runs fully offline
SourceVault never transmits the code in the first place. Ollama generates the embeddings and ChromaDB stores the vectors on your own hardware, and the model that writes the answer runs beside them, so every step stays inside your network. You can confirm this with a network monitor rather than a vendor's word. There is no LangChain-style orchestration layer in between: the engine is built directly on those two auditable local services, and the stack stays small enough to audit line by line.
The optional high-scale history engine (Qdrant) is local software like everything else: version-pinned, checksum-verified, storing inside the SourceVault state directory, with zero egress in operation. Air-gapped installs place the engine binary ahead of time (SourceVault uses it without downloading) or point at a Qdrant instance already running inside the gap.
The standard installers download the release and models from the network, so for environments with no outbound path the Enterprise tier ships an offline bundle containing the air-gapped install and the models together. License keys are verified offline in the dashboard, with no phone-home. Answers cite exact file and line ranges, and git history and commit messages are indexed alongside code, so "why was this changed?" gets a real answer without any of that history leaving your network. The full capability list covers the rest.
Governance: Sentinel, the enforcement layer
Keeping data inside the gap is the starting point. Air-gapped organizations also have to govern what the AI can read and prove afterwards what it read. Sentinel sits between the index and everything that reads it:
- An access policy gates every reader (dashboard, API, MCP). Files your policy excludes can't be read through SourceVault at all, no matter who asks or how.
- A DLP pass scans everything leaving the engine, including answers, search previews, and file reads, and redacts keys, tokens, and credentials before delivery. Chunk boundaries are stitched so a secret can't slip through split in half.
- Every access decision lands in a hash-chained audit log with signed monthly anchors. Edits, truncation, and deletion are detectable, and logging fails closed rather than writing unprotected.
- Commits are classified for AI authorship and security relevance, with signed attestations you can verify independently.
The Enterprise tier adds signed compliance reporting over the Sentinel audit chain, and a compliance pack with a zero-egress verification procedure your security team can run themselves.
Deployment fit
SourceVault installs with one command on macOS (Homebrew, native launchd services), Ubuntu/Debian Linux (systemd services), and Windows via WSL2 Ubuntu. For a team, the Docker Compose deploy runs SourceVault and ChromaDB on one box you control, and teammates on Windows, macOS, or Linux connect through the browser dashboard over the network without a per-machine install. Minimum hardware is 8 cores, 24 GB RAM, and 100 GB SSD; 12 cores, 32–64 GB RAM, and 250 GB NVMe is recommended. Default models are nomic-embed-text for embeddings and qwen3-coder:30b for reasoning.
One constraint to plan around: the one-command installers assume network access to fetch the release and models. Air-gapped installs go through the Enterprise offline bundle instead, scoped to your environment as a multi-machine rollout.
Pricing fit for a procurement process
Licenses are a one-time payment with 12 months of updates included, and the installed version never stops working. There are no per-seat or per-token fees, and nothing auto-renews except the optional Priority Support subscription ($195/month, an SLA plus hands-on tuning). Air-gapped and regulated deployments are the Enterprise tier: unlimited repositories, the offline bundle and models, the compliance pack, and a fixed custom quote before work starts. Retrieval quality is measured: SourceVault scored 100% cited, 100% correct answers on the public Express benchmark, and the same benchmark suite ships in every install so you can reproduce the measurement on your own repositories.
Frequently asked questions
Does SourceVault need internet access at runtime?
No. Ollama generates the embeddings and ChromaDB stores the vectors on your own hardware, and the model that writes the answer runs there too, so answering a question never needs outbound connectivity. The standard installers do download the release and models from the network, which is why air-gapped environments use the Enterprise offline bundle: it ships the install and the models together.
How does licensing work without internet access?
The license key is entered in the dashboard under Settings → License and verified offline; there is no phone-home. Licenses are a one-time payment with 12 months of updates included, and the installed version keeps working after the updates window ends.
What leaves the network?
Nothing. No source code is uploaded, logged, or retained by a third party, and you can verify that by watching the network. The Enterprise tier includes a compliance pack with a zero-egress verification procedure so your security team can confirm it firsthand.
How is access to the code audited?
The Sentinel enforcement layer records every access decision in a hash-chained, tamper-evident audit log with signed monthly anchors. Edits, truncation, and deletion of the log are detectable, and logging fails closed. Enterprise adds signed compliance reporting over that audit chain.
Can our existing AI tools use it inside the air gap?
SourceVault exposes an MCP server, so OpenClaw and any other MCP client can query the same cited index. The server itself is local-only. Paired with a local-model client, the whole loop runs offline; a cloud-backed client would send what it retrieves to its own vendor, so inside an air gap, use a local-model client.
Who owns the models, the index, and the engine?
You do. The models, the index, the cache, and the engine all run on hardware you control, and the license is a one-time purchase verified offline against a public key baked into the install. There is no activation server and no phone-home, so every installed instance keeps working even if SourceVault the company disappears. The software itself is closed-source under a commercial license, and the open-weight models carry their own licenses.
Who owns the data?
You do. Source code, git history, embeddings, vectors, question-and-answer history, and audit logs all live in a local state directory and local ChromaDB on your infrastructure. The vendor's entire data footprint is your purchase email and license record, and payment is handled by Stripe.
Where is anything cached?
In three local caches and zero remote ones: answers (repeated questions return with no model call), history (a local SQLite file), and models (Ollama's local store). Cached answers are re-sanitized by Sentinel on every hit, so a policy change applies retroactively to old cached answers. Asking with the fresh option bypasses the cache and skips recording the interaction entirely.
Are prompts secured?
Prompts are processed by local models and never leave the machine. History sits behind the token-guarded dashboard, and there is no tokenless mode. The audit log records question text and file paths, deliberately not file contents, in a hash-chained, tamper-evident log. The one exception is yours to choose: pair the MCP server with a cloud-backed client and what it retrieves goes to that client's vendor.
Evaluate it for your air gap
Start with the free 7-day trial on a connected workstation: the full product on one repository, with no account or card. Then tell us about your environment and you'll get a straight recommendation, usually the same day.