How it works

How TinyCloud works

Your data lives in a space that your key controls. Nothing gets in without your signature. Here’s how, in six pictures.

Your key opens your space

You hold a key, the same kind of key that protects trillions of dollars in crypto. Sign one message with it and you have a TinyCloud space: a place to keep data and run computation.

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The node is the bouncer. It checks every request the way a blockchain checks a transaction: by its signature. To let someone else in, you sign a permission slip for their key. They send their signature and your slip together, and the node lets them through.

Apps act for you, with your permission

When you sign in to an app with TinyCloud, you hand the app a permission slip. It says what the app may do in your space.

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Every tap sends a signed request with that slip attached. You just use the app. Your permission is what makes it work.

Encryption you can share

You encrypt your data to a decryption network: a set of nodes you choose and trust. It can include your laptop, your company’s server, a friend’s node and TinyCloud’s. Each one holds a piece of the key.

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Give someone a slip and each node sends them a partial decryption. One part alone reveals nothing. They put the parts together themselves and get your data back. Permission slips and a threshold decryption network give you end-to-end encryption that you can delegate.

One space, many hosts

Your space isn’t tied to one machine. You choose the nodes that host it, and your key signs the permission for each one.

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Hosts copy every change to each other. Run a node on your laptop and it holds all of your data, so you can disconnect from TinyCloud’s node and keep using TinyCloud.

Many hosts, many people

A TinyCloud node is a data host. Your laptop can be one, and so can a server at your work. Your space lives on the hosts you trust, and each host holds the spaces of the people who trust it.

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TinyCloud Labs is a data custodian. We host people’s spaces inside a trusted execution environment, so anyone can verify the software we run and no one can see what happens inside.

Share with anyone, by name

You can give permission to an identity instead of a key: an email address, an X account, a LinkedIn profile or an Instagram account. The person doesn’t need to use TinyCloud.

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They get a credential from an issuer you trust, linked to a key they control. TinyCloud’s issuer is credentials.org. The policy engine checks that the credential comes from a trusted issuer and matches the identity you named. Sharing is easy and what you share stays protected. You get both.

Today and coming

What each part does today, and what comes next.

  • Keys and permission slips

    Today

    Your key creates your space. You sign permission slips for other keys, and the node checks every request against them. A space holds key-value data and SQL databases, and runs hooks when data changes.

    Coming

    More kinds of computation inside a space.

  • Apps

    Today

    You sign in to an app with your passkey or your Ethereum key. The app gets its own key and a permission slip, and signs every request it makes.

    Complete

  • Encryption you can share

    Today

    You encrypt on your own device to a decryption network. A slip lets someone else ask that network to decrypt for them. Each network runs on one node.

    Coming

    Networks of several nodes, where each one holds a piece of the key.

  • One space, many hosts

    Today

    You can run your own node from the public code and container image. With an owner-authorized device grant, you can keep a read-only local copy of a KV prefix in sync with a TinyCloud node.

    Coming

    Hosts that copy every change to each other, and writing to your own host while disconnected.

  • TinyCloud’s host

    Today

    TinyCloud’s host runs inside a trusted execution environment and publishes an attestation of its hardware and software that anyone can fetch and check against Intel’s signing keys.

    Coming

    TinyCloud apps and tools that verify the attestation for you. Hosting TinyCloud in more places around the world, including Europe.

  • Credentials

    Today

    You can share with an email address or with everyone at an email domain. The recipient proves the address, and the node’s policy engine checks that proof. credentials.org issues credentials for email, X, GitHub and more.

    Coming

    Sharing with an X, LinkedIn or Instagram identity, and choosing the issuers you trust.

Set up your TinyCloud

Just ask your agent how. It walks you through the options and sets up the one you pick.

I'm new to TinyCloud: one place for my data that I control, which my AI agents use with my permission. Read https://docs.tinycloud.xyz/llms.txt and tell me, in plain words, the ways I can run it (hosted, on my own server, or on this device) and which suits me. Then set it up with me.