Compute
Encryption and where your plaintext can exist
A stage-by-stage account of where your data exists in readable form during a Compute job, who authorizes each stage, and what Lithi does not claim about it.
What plaintext means here
Plaintext is your data in readable form, as opposed to the encrypted bytes Lithi moves and stores. Every real security question is about which stages can read it.
Compute encrypts your data in transit and at rest. Two stages still need it readable, and each one is separately authorized. This page names both.
Where your plaintext can exist
| Stage | Can your plaintext exist here? | Who authorizes it |
|---|---|---|
| Your own machine or local adapter | Yes | You |
| Transfer | No — encrypted in transit and at rest | Not applicable |
| Data bridge | Yes, bounded: read the frozen snapshot, validate bytes, schema and item identity, then re-encrypt | A bridge permit scoped to that one job |
| Execution | Yes, in the admitted executor's bounded working memory and workspace | Your approved job |
| Queues, logs, receipts, metrics | No | Not applicable |
| Result storage | Encrypted; you hold the download authority | You |
Who authorizes each stage
Nothing in that table happens on Lithi's initiative. Each readable stage traces back to an act of yours.
Local inspection runs on your machine, under your control, before anything is sent. Validation at the bridge runs under a permit scoped to one job, and that permit does not carry to the next job.
Execution runs because you approved that job. A quote never authorizes work, so no stage below reads anything on the strength of a price you requested.
What never holds your plaintext
Queues, logs, receipts and metrics hold no plaintext of yours.
A receipt records that work happened and what it was checked against. It does not carry the content. Metrics count and time the work; they do not quote it.
That is also why audit projections are safe to attach to a support request. They are content-free by design.
Credentials never travel with the work
Your request carries a credential reference, never a secret value. Credentials are stripped before any manifest, job or outbox record is written.
No scheduling or execution stage receives your credential. A source secret stays with the system that issued it, and Lithi holds only the reference you registered.
What Lithi does not claim
Lithi does not claim zero knowledge. The environment that runs your job is not a confidential-computing enclave, and Lithi does not describe it as one.
While your approved job runs, your data is ordinary readable data in that environment's working memory. A privileged owner with physical or root-level access to that machine could in principle inspect it.
Weigh that against the sensitivity of the exact records you plan to send, rather than against a general architecture statement.
Limits of this page
Encryption does not prove identity, authorization, separation between customers, retention or deletion. Those are different controls with different evidence.
Different data paths can use different controls, and a control can change across versions and configurations. Bring the exact data category to your contract review rather than relying on a summary.