SoAI is self-hosted. Prompts, model inputs and outputs, conversations, documents, knowledge collections, files, credentials, API keys, logs, and hardware statistics stay on the host unless you choose a feature or provider that sends them elsewhere. SoAI has no telemetry, usage analytics, crash reporting, heartbeat, background license check, remote support tunnel, or vendor administration channel.
Network and offline boundaries
Local inference keeps request content on infrastructure you control. A remote inference provider receives the input you send to it. The same rule applies to configured search, image, mail, calendar, messaging, model-registry, and browser targets. Review each provider's terms and data handling before enabling it.
SoAI contacts soai.to for explicit licensing operations and update discovery and downloads. For release checks, it follows a redirect to the GitHub API. Free Personal Use of SoAI Core needs no account, product key, or activation. These contacts do not include prompts, files, model output, credentials, or usage statistics.
Prepare for offline use
Offline installation and operation explains how to install runtime artifacts,
backends, and models before blocking public-network access. Once
SYSTEM.RUNTIME.STAY_OFFLINE is
enabled, loopback and private-network services remain available while public provider calls, downloads, updates,
web requests, and remote synchronization fail with an explicit error.
Runtime downloads
An installation path may obtain the managed Python environment. First start can then fetch Playwright Chromium, the
managed Java runtime, Apache Tika, the ripgrep file-search binary, and tokenizer data. Browser automation can fetch
EasyList when ad blocking is enabled, and the network benchmark downloads a public test file only when you run it.
Installing a backend or model contacts that backend's package and model sources. These are downloads to the SoAI
host; SoAI does not attach prompt or usage data to them. The current host list and exact conditions are in
PRIVACY.md at the root of the SoAI repository.
SoAI disables the built-in reporting and update checks of supported upstream components where they provide an opt-out, including local inference and OCR components. Installing a third-party plugin can introduce its own network behavior, so review that plugin's documentation before enabling it.
Imported skills are stored in the owning account's library. When a skill is activated, its instructions become model input; supporting text the assistant reads can also enter that input. A remote model therefore receives that material. Review skill instructions and supporting files before enabling them, and keep credentials in the Secrets vault rather than in skill packages.
Retention and incident response
The operator controls filesystem access, encryption at rest, backups, retention, and deletion. Use Data storage, retention, and relocation to locate each data class, then use the owning WebUI workflow for ordinary deletion. If you operate SoAI for other people, you are responsible for the lawful basis, access policy, retention schedule, and data-subject requests for their data.
Report an unexpected connection
Treat an undisclosed outbound connection as a security defect. Follow Security updates and vulnerability reporting and do not include credentials or private user data in the report. The separate website privacy notice, available from Privacy in the soai.to footer, governs licensing-site, checkout, and direct support records; it does not describe the self-hosted application data above.