Question 1

What is Silo Vault?

Accepted Answer

Silo Vault is a Mac app that turns the folders you pick into private, named vaults and answers questions about them with citations that open the exact page, scanned region or worksheet cell range they came from. It also links the names and terms in your files into a knowledge graph, runs summaries and playbook-based contract review, and lets MCP-compatible AI tools on your Mac search your vaults over a local stdio server.

Question 2

Does Silo Vault upload my documents?

Accepted Answer

Not unless you turn on your own cloud key or connect an AI tool that uses a cloud service. Indexing, search, cited answers and the MCP server run on your Mac, with no account and nothing about you collected. Two optional paths reach the network, and both are off until you turn them on: your own cloud key, which sends each Ask question, up to 20 earlier messages of that conversation and the matching excerpts to the provider you chose, and a signed model-catalog refresh that carries none of your content. Through version 1.12.2 the key also serves summaries, contract review, document comparison and the Source Inspector, and a question asked with Recall on and RAG off can carry matching Timeline moments. An AI tool you connect through Connect AI receives the passages it asks for and handles them under its own terms.

Question 3

What do I need to download before my first question?

Accepted Answer

Silo Vault downloads its local chat and embedding models with your consent: about 3.8 to 5.4 GB depending on your Mac's memory, with the exact size and license shown first. After that it works offline. While the models download, the built-in sample vault shows three example documents, their knowledge graph and a cited answer.

Question 4

What is the local MCP server?

Accepted Answer

Connect AI in the sidebar gives any MCP-compatible coding or chat tool on your Mac a setup block to copy. The tool starts Silo Vault itself over stdio, with no open network port and no remote connection, and can list your vaults, search them and their knowledge graph, read cited passages and follow backlinks.

Question 5

Can I trust the answers?

Accepted Answer

Every citation opens the stored passage it came from, so you can check each claim against the page, scan region or cell range. Grounded mode measures how much of an answer its sources cover and holds back a draft they do not support. Citations remain a review trail, not proof.

Question 6

Does Silo Vault review contracts?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A Legal / Contracts vault adds risk flags, clause extraction, a risk dashboard, comparison against your negotiation playbook and clause-level redlines between two versions, on your Mac by default; through version 1.12.2, contract review uses your own cloud key while one is on. It is informational document review, not legal advice. OhmsCounsel is the separate proofreader for a draft's defined terms, cross-references and numbering.

Question 7

Are encrypted portable vaults available now?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Silo Vault exports a vault as a versioned .silovault archive encrypted with AES-256-GCM under a passphrase you choose, verifies integrity and previews naming conflicts before import, and creates a separate local copy instead of overwriting a vault.

Question 8

What is the optional check for new models?

Accepted Answer

It is off by default and makes no request until you turn it on. Once enabled, Silo Vault fetches, at most once a day, one signed model-catalog file from ohmslaw.net and verifies the signature on your Mac. It is a one-way download of metadata: no document, vault name, search query, chat message, or account identifier is sent, and the request exposes only your IP address and a user-agent string. An unverifiable or expired catalog leaves Silo Vault on the signed model list already inside the app.

Question 9

What does it mean when a model is marked experimental?

Accepted Answer

It means the model has not been tested on Silo Systems hardware and its memory figure is an estimate, not a measurement. An experimental model is never picked for you and is never a default, and installing one takes an explicit extra confirmation on top of the normal download consent. It may need more memory than estimated, or run poorly, on your Mac.

Question 10

How is Silo Vault different from NotebookLM or Rewind?

Accepted Answer

NotebookLM works on documents you upload to a cloud service, and Rewind is a subscription recall tool. Silo Vault indexes, searches and answers on your Mac by default, including an optional private Timeline, for a one-time $19.99 with no subscription.

Question 11

What does Silo Vault cost and require?

Accepted Answer

A one-time $19.99 purchase with every feature included: no subscription, no free tier and no in-app purchases. It runs on macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon, with one consent-gated model download before your first question.

Private contract and questionnaire review.

The handoff.

Check the terms against your playbook.

Answer the questionnaire from your library.

Redact the outgoing copy. Keep the source.

In this workflow.

Formats

How to verify privacy