Feature · Data boundary

Safety by design

Local-first is a workflow boundary, not a blanket promise. Mneme makes the local pipeline and optional LLM handoff legible.

Always local

The following work happens on the machine running Mneme:

  • File discovery and parsing.
  • Indexing, manifest updates, and cache management.
  • Vector and BM25 retrieval.
  • Source IDs, chunk IDs, and index fingerprints.

When an LLM-backed feature is used

Retrieved document snippets are sent to the endpoint you configure for answer generation, query decomposition, or Graph RAG entity extraction.

The exact handoff

Mneme does not choose an endpoint for you. Use a trusted endpoint, keep secrets out of indexed files, and check limits before indexing sensitive material.

Controls that narrow the boundary

ControlDefaultWhy it matters
Remote endpoint transportHTTPS requiredNon-local HTTP requires an explicit development override.
Document size50 MiBBounds a single document.
PDF pages2,000Bounds extraction work.
Remote context60,000 charactersBounds retrieved content sent to an endpoint.
Untrusted-document framingAlways onTreats retrieved text as data rather than instructions.

What you can inspect

Answers carry query-local citations, source paths, PDF pages, chunk IDs, and boundary framing. Safety is part of the product experience, not a promise hidden in the footer.

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