Virtual Archives
The private context layer for your AI. Run AI agents faster, cheaper, and more accurate with frontier or private local models
Overview
Virtual Archives is the private context layer for your AI. It indexes your documents once, inside your own secure environment, and hands your AI one cited package per question instead of making it read hundreds of pages. Your team asks in plain language and gets an answer that links to the exact source page, drawn only from files they are already allowed to open. Run it fully air-gapped on your own hardware with a small local model, or connect Claude, Codex, Cursor or an internal agent through MCP while your files and keys stay on your server.
AI can't reach sensitive data
The same wall exists everywhere sensitive records live: government, healthcare, legal, education, defense and finance. Three barriers keep them from adopting AI at all.
Data can't leave
Records sent to cloud AI leave your control and can be exposed in transit or processing.
Off the table for air-gapped sites and confidential information.
Compliance is out of reach
Most AI tools don't fit HIPAA, FERPA or records-retention policies. The ones that do need expensive enterprise plans or custom setups.
Too risky or too expensive to adopt.
AI misses the context
Thousands of documents, each with different permissions. AI pulls the wrong source, crosses permission lines or makes up answers.
Close isn't good enough when the stakes are high.
Context, not answers, is the expensive part
Building the context, not writing the answer, takes AI the most time and compute. Virtual Archives does that work once, so every question is quick.
Without Virtual Archives
- AI searches files one by one
- Reads hundreds of pages per question
- Most of the compute goes to finding context
- Needs a big cloud model to get it right
Costly, slow, and misses or fakes sources.
With Virtual Archives
- Documents indexed once, on your own hardware
- AI gets one cited package per question
- Compute goes to answers, not search
- Small local models answer like frontier models, or better
Cheap, fast, and every answer has a source you can check.
Run your current model for far less, or let a smaller model in-house get it right.
The proof
Same open model, same GPU. Virtual Archives is the difference.
Improved accuracy
A local model scored 98% with Virtual Archives, up from 83% without it.
Beats cloud AI
A local model with Virtual Archives scored 59 of 60. Claude Haiku reading the files directly scored 57.
Invented citations
Every answer links to its source page. None pointed at a page that isn't there.
Less compute
Token use fell 77% on questions answered from documents.
Documents, one server
At 10,000 documents accuracy held, while plain AI needed 2.8 times the tokens.
Faster answers
Average answer time dropped from 22 seconds to 13.
Compliance built in
The compliance of an air-gapped system with the ease of a cloud product.
Fully air-gapped
The model, documents, index and encryption keys all stay on your hardware. Live at Newark City Hall.
Or connected via MCP
Connect Claude, Codex, Cursor or an internal agent through MCP. Your files and keys stay on your server.
Need-to-know access
Staff only see answers from files they're already allowed to open. Zero leaks across 270 automated tests on SharePoint, Drive and Dropbox.
Encrypted throughout
Encrypted database and library, key rotation, malware scanning, and nightly encrypted backups with verified restores.
Records and retention
Retention classification built for HIPAA, FERPA and municipal records rules, with Microsoft Entra or Google sign-on.
Audit-ready trails
Every search, read and answer is logged and cited to its source page, and forwards to your SIEM for audits and records requests.
Real-World Applications
Wherever sensitive records live, Virtual Archives puts them to work.
Local Government
Search decades of permits, ordinances and public works records, with every answer cited for records requests.
Healthcare
Find answers across policies and patient records without sending protected health information to the cloud.
Legal Professionals
Cross-reference thousands of case files and contracts, with each answer pointing to the exact page.
Education
Give staff answers from student and policy records while FERPA permissions stay intact.
Financial Auditing
Query statements and reports privately to spot anomalies, with a full audit trail of every question.
Defense and Research
Bring AI to air-gapped labs and secure sites where nothing can leave the building.
Your records, your AI, with Contextral
Add Virtual Archives to your plan and we'll go over it on a short call, or start with a free assessment of your document workflows.