How Compute works

Your agent defines the task

Tell your agent what result you need. The Compute Kit is software on your computer, in the environment you control. Your existing supported AI agent uses it to prepare permitted data, encrypt it into blocks before transfer, get a quote, submit approved work and review the results. Include the permitted information, limits, review rule and acceptance check; the agent keeps your goal and project context. The Kit connects the approved MCP or API interface while Lithi checks the selected operation, account authority, data profile, limits and current capacity before paid work is admitted. Once the Kit and your approved account are connected, your supported agent can handle these technical steps within your approval. You choose the work and approve what may be sent and spent.

Local AI models run supported work on participating Macs that people already own. The assigned Mac reads only the prepared piece it executes. Your agent reviews the returned evidence and decides what happens next.

For a current account and task decision, start with Compute availability and access approval.

The main handoff looks like this:

Your agent defines the task
             ↓
The Kit prepares and encrypts permitted data locally
             ↓
Transfer permission and exact quote approval
             ↓
Participating Macs process work
             ↓
Your agent checks the result

You choose the outcome and permitted data; Lithi plans and places the work. An assigned Mac reads its prepared input, and an indivisible group stays together. Splitting and encryption do not make the work anonymous or confidential from a privileged host operator. With managed custody, Lithi's key service could technically decrypt the input. With customer-held custody, the local Kit releases keys and stays online while work runs. In either mode, a privileged owner of the assigned Mac can inspect the permitted plaintext it processes.

Use data preparation and how work is split for the full preparation, cumulative owner-exposure, and key-release rules.

You review timing, price and approval

A quote ties the defined work to current pricing, limits and capacity information. When scheduling applies, it may also carry scheduling and reservation terms for you to review.

Use Booking and priority when the work should run ASAP, by a deadline, inside a future reserved window or flexibly off-peak.

Review the request in this order:

1. Describe the work and timing you need.
2. Review the signed quote and current capacity terms.
3. Obtain the required approval for that exact work.
4. Lithi checks the request before admitting the job.

A quote or reservation does not authorize execution by itself.

Lithi prepares and places the work

The Compute Kit prepares permitted input, measures eligible atomic groups and seals them into independently keyed encrypted blocks. Declared-indivisible units stay whole; an oversized one is refused with a suggested plan for your review rather than being split silently. Lithi's network composes execution shards from the sealed blocks and places those shards across eligible, independently owned Macs.

Each Mac can decrypt only the block or blocks assigned to it. No owner receives more than a set share of your job — counting every Mac they own, retries, and checking — and providers cannot choose which pieces they get. A Mac reads the piece it processes; this limits what any one provider sees and is not confidential computing.

A one-piece job is disclosed in your result rather than hidden. The preparation and placement rules remain part of the quoted work and are checked before execution.

Lithi runs suitable work in parallel

After admission, Lithi can divide suitable work into stable logical pieces and place physical attempts on eligible Macs in the responsible execution system.

If one Mac cannot complete a task, Lithi can assign the same logical work to another eligible Mac.

same task
├── attempt on Mac A → timeout
├── attempt on Mac B → rejected
└── attempt on Mac C → accepted
                         ↓
                  one accepted result

The task keeps its identity while the physical attempt changes. Several physical attempts do not become several accepted customer units simply because several Macs tried the task.

The Compute paper explains how a job keeps one responsible home, and how attempts are assigned, checked and retried.

Lithi checks what counts

Returned work is checked against the output and verification contract. Failures, abstentions, disagreements and missing items remain visible; they are not silently turned into accepted results.

Only the accepted work allowed by the operation's contract contributes to the accepted customer result and usage population.

Accepted work becomes the customer result

Read the result by stable job/item identity, verify the files and evidence, then let your agent compare the accepted output with your acceptance rule before delivering it through the permitted destination. A result can be mechanically intact while still needing your domain review.

If delivery fails after acceptance, recover that same result. A failed transfer is not a reason to run Compute again.

Billing follows accepted work, not Mac attempts

Lithi measures text, code, documents and media in tokens. The metering profile defines the admitted input and accepted output counts used for billing. Physical retries, duplicate dispatches and delivery retries do not automatically create another accepted customer unit for the same logical work.

Accepted usage, statements, invoices and payments remain separate commercial records. Read Token pricing and billing units for the rates, token counting, included reliability work and quote rules, then use Billing and reporting for commercial records. The paper's billing appendix explains how metering, purchases, accepted usage and refunds remain separate records.

Choose your next step

When you are ready to define a task you can judge, choose work you can verify.

For deeper questions, use the surface that owns them:

• Compute paper — why cells, execution, security and authority are designed this way.
• Trust — security, privacy, data, receipts and impact methodology.
• Compute Help — what to do when something is not working.