MikeHow Mike keeps client files confidential
Each firm gets its own installation of Mike, with its own database and file storage, hosted on the firm's hardware or in a private cloud account. Only people the firm's administrator adds can sign in. Prompts go only to the AI provider the firm approves, or to a model running on the firm's own hardware.
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Where Mike runs
Mike is not a shared product that many firms sign in to. Cuanto Labs installs a separate copy for each firm, either on hardware the firm owns or in a cloud account the firm chooses. Your matters never sit in the same database as another firm's matters.
Because the software is open source, your IT contact or an outside reviewer can read exactly what the installation does. Nothing about how your documents are handled depends on taking a vendor's description on trust.
Where your documents live
Every installation has its own Postgres database and its own S3-compatible file storage, in the location your firm picked. Uploaded files, chat history, drafts and review tables are stored there and nowhere else.
- Stored credentials are encrypted
- API keys and the credentials Mike uses to reach your connected systems are encrypted before they are written to the database.
- Exports you can check
- Mike records a SHA-256 hash of each document version it writes, and a project export includes a manifest of those hashes with the accept and reject history, so anyone can confirm a file has not changed since export.
- Clear rules when someone leaves
- When a member is removed, shared work passes to a remaining owner, and private work is archived for 30 days before deletion. Only organization owners can reassign or delete it, and they see counts, not titles, of private work.
Which AI model sees what
To answer a question, Mike sends the question and the passages it pulled from your documents to a language model. Your firm decides which provider that is. Mike supports Anthropic, Google Gemini and OpenAI models through your firm's own API account, so the provider's terms are the ones your firm agreed to.
Firms that want nothing to leave their own hardware can run supported models locally through Ollama. In that setup, prompts and documents stay on machines the firm controls.
Mike does not train a model on your documents. It reads them when you ask a question and cites the page it relied on.
Who can sign in
There is no public sign-up page. Your firm's administrator adds each attorney and staff member, and removes them when they leave. Sign-in can use Google accounts or your firm's single sign-on through SAML, and two-factor authentication is supported.
Inside the installation, work is organized into projects and folders, so a matter can be shared with the people working on it rather than the whole firm.
What Cuanto Labs can see
On an installation your firm hosts itself, Cuanto Labs has the access your firm grants for setup and support, and nothing beyond it. On an installation we run for you, our access is what the setup agreement states, and we agree it with you in writing before any client file is loaded.
The open-source Mike project sends scrubbed error reports, without document content or user identities, to its own error tracker by default. In a firm setup this can be turned off or pointed at your firm's own monitoring, and we settle which during setup.
Common questions
Is it safe to put client files into Mike?
The files go into your firm's own installation, in a database and storage location your firm chose, and only people your administrator adds can open them. The remaining question is the AI provider: your firm picks it, under its own account and terms, or runs a model locally so nothing leaves your hardware. Review that choice the way you would any vendor that handles client information.
Does the AI provider keep or train on what we send?
That depends on the provider and the account terms your firm signs, which is why the firm chooses the provider rather than us. Read the provider's data use and retention terms for API customers before you connect it. If no provider's terms satisfy your policy, Mike can run supported models locally through Ollama, so prompts never leave your machines.
Can we run Mike entirely on our own hardware?
Yes. Mike runs as a set of containers with its own database and file storage, so it can be installed on a server your firm owns. Paired with a locally hosted model, the whole system works without sending documents to an outside service, apart from case-law lookups to CourtListener, which receive the search or citation rather than your files.
Can we restrict who sees which matters?
Yes. Work in Mike lives in projects and folders that are shared with specific people. If a matter needs an ethical wall, tell us at the start of the setup and we plan the sharing structure and the connected folders around it, then check it with whoever handles information security at your firm.
Can our IT team review the code?
Yes. Mike is open-source software under the AGPL-3.0 license, published at github.com/open-legal-products/mike. Your team, or a reviewer you hire, can read the code your installation runs, and we tell you which release it is on.
Related
Bring Mike to your firm.
Book a 30-minute call. Tell us about your practice and the systems your documents live in, and we'll come back with a setup plan for your firm.
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