Human Trust & Permission Architecture

You choose what your AI can work with.

Deliberate boundaries, held gently in your hands.

Your computer is your physical workspace, not an open cloud playground. Instead of granting blanket root access to an automated agent or entrusting your private life to an opaque black box, Local Computer lets you grant access to exactly one designated folder you choose—verified through separate, explicit human-held approvals.

Read the Four Human Steps Inspect Exit Paths

Tactile editorial diagrammatic illustration explaining human digital security and boundaries: physical paper tokens, folder boundary brass divider, and distinct approval wax seals.

Tactile Metaphor · Physical paper tokens & boundariesConceptual model · Not live UI

The Human Sequence

Four deliberate steps of authority

Security is not an abstract cryptographic lock; it is how you keep agency over your everyday machine without surrender.

Step 01

Choose a Folder

Physical Scope

Your silicon stays home. You pick one designated folder—such as ~/Research/FieldNotes. The assistant cannot roam outside that path or inspect unpermitted files.

Strict relative jail: private documents and system roots remain untouched

Step 02

Two Distinct Approvals

Independent Gates

Approve device enrollment separately from ChatGPT OAuth. Your machine's hardware presence is verified through standard GitHub Device Flow; ChatGPT client authorization is an independent OAuth bridge. Revoking one authority never damages the other.

Isolated credentials: hardware identity is separated from ephemeral chat sessions

Step 03

Scoped Operation

Localhost Runtime

Harmless, inspectable local work. The assistant reads or synthesizes files within your permitted path, operating on localhost within owner-granted permissions on external cloud buckets.

Local file operations follow operating system file permissions directly

Step 04

Exact Revocation

Honest Teardown

Revoke exact permissions when done. Different exit boundaries for different needs—stopping a temporary task is entirely distinct from unlinking your machine or uninstalling.

Independent teardowns prevent accidental state loss

Honest Exit Boundaries

Exit paths are not interchangeable

Honest systems do not present one action as proof of another. Stopping a background session is distinct from disconnecting an OAuth client, resetting local keys, or unregistering a machine.

Disconnect

Pause Transport

Pauses active connection; does not assume cloud device record is deleted. Can be re-opened smoothly without re-pairing.

Client Revoke

OAuth Grant Revocation

Ends the specific client grant for ChatGPT or Claude. Other clients and the physical device enrollment maintain their separate authority intact.

Local Reset

Clear Local Identity

Clears local device identity and runtime cache; leaves your physical files completely untouched on disk.

Uninstall

Remove Binaries

Removes product-installed binaries and runtime manifests from your operating system directories.

Cloud Remove

Registry Deletion

Removes remote device registration from the Staging registry. Does not alter offline local storage if powered off.

Fail-closed security principle: Unverified states fail-closed until safely reconciled. Historical failed records can remain isolated without preventing a newly generated device identity from proceeding.

Staging Reality & Limitations

Accurate truth boundaries

We refrain from making exaggerated claims. We do not claim zero risk, infallible magic, or fictional compliance certs. Here is the verified staging reality:

macOS Intel x86_64

Build 490

Apple Development signed, not Developer ID notarized. Requires manual Gatekeeper approval on initial launch.

Signing:Apple Development signed

Gatekeeper:Manual bypass required

Linux Ubuntu / Debian x64

Build 487

Unsigned Staging tarball. User-verified via published SHA-256 digest in install.md. Direct localhost socket runtime.

Signing:Unsigned Staging tarball

Verification:Verify SHA-256 digest

Windows x64 is deferred post-v1.0Process sandboxing and distinct filesystem path boundaries remain under internal evaluation. No public binary is published at this stage.

Planned for subsequent cycle

Official Setup Contract & Direct Assistance

Inspect the authoritative Markdown instructions used by AI assistants and review build hashes:

install.md Contract·Release Catalog & Checksums (/download/)·hello@inkblocklab.com

Human Trust Standard

Review the exact agent instructions

See the machine instructions provided to assistants before running them on your system.

Inspect install.md View Staging Catalog