Plain Terms

Self-Hosted Deployment Notice

When you deploy Ghostlight or Alethyra, it runs on infrastructure you control — not ours. Here's exactly what that means, in plain language: what we deliver, what becomes yours the moment you deploy, and where Sirenwave Studios' responsibility ends.

The Model

What you're actually deploying

The short version

You buy a Ghostlight or Alethyra source-code kit — Alethyra's powered by Blacktide Cognition — or a commissioned build. You deploy it yourself, on your own machine or server, or into your own Railway account. From the moment it's running, it's your instance, on your infrastructure, holding your data. Sirenwave Studios doesn't operate it, doesn't keep a copy of it, and has no way back in once it's yours.

Two ways to deploy

Local Full means you run the companion yourself, end to end, on your own hardware or machine. Railway Hostable means you deploy the included template into your own Railway account — not a Sirenwave-managed Railway project. Either path, the account, the server, and everything on it belong to you. See Getting Started for how the deployment process actually works.

No Sirenwave-run server in the loop

There is no central Sirenwave-run server holding any customer's live companion state, for Local Full or Railway Hostable alike. We don't host your companion's "brain," we don't own or have access to your memory database or conversation history, and there's no dashboard on our end showing how any customer's instance is doing. If a deployment needs restarting, reconfiguring, or recovering, that happens on your infrastructure — because it is your infrastructure. For the fuller security posture, including what this website itself does and doesn't store, see Security & Responsible Disclosure.

The Split

Where our part ends and yours begins

What Sirenwave provides

  • The source-code kit or commissioned build itself, delivered on purchase
  • A setup guide covering accounts, keys, deployment, and first login
  • A Railway deploy template, for Railway Hostable builds
  • A defined window of setup support for your purchased tier — see Ghostlight, Alethyra, and Getting Started for what's currently included
  • Free updates to the source kit, per the product's terms
  • Somewhere to ask when you're stuck — email or Discord

What's yours once you deploy

  • Your own hosting costs — Railway usage, your own server, or your own hardware
  • Your own API keys and provider accounts: OpenRouter, ElevenLabs, Fish Audio, your Discord or Telegram bot token, and anything else your build uses
  • The security of your own deployment — access, configuration, and exposure to the internet
  • Your own backups — nothing about your instance is backed up on your behalf
  • Your own compliance with each third-party provider's terms of service

This is a description of the deployment boundary, not a purchase contract — refund eligibility and timing are covered separately in the Refund Policy.

Optional, Not Included

Tailscale and the iOS Companion App

Tailscale is optional, and entirely yours to run

Some builders like to reach their own deployment privately instead of exposing it to the open internet. Tailscale is one way to do that — a private-networking tool you can choose to set up yourself. It's entirely optional, and if you use it, it runs on your own Tailscale account under your own control. Sirenwave Studios doesn't provide it, operate it, or require it for any Ghostlight or Alethyra deployment.

iOS Companion App — planned, not shipping yet

An iOS Companion App is planned as an optional, separately paid client for reaching your companion from your phone. It doesn't exist yet and isn't available today. When it does ship, it will connect to your own existing deployment — it will not come bundled with managed hosting, and it won't change anything about the boundary described on this page. It's a window into your instance, not a new place where your data lives.

Why This Matters

The boundary is technical, not just a policy

Why "self-hosted" is a real line, not a slogan

Because there is no Sirenwave-operated instance of your companion running anywhere, Sirenwave Studios is not a data processor holding your companion's memory, conversation history, or configuration the way a SaaS or cloud vendor would be. We simply never have it. That isn't a policy we could quietly reverse — it's a direct consequence of the deployment model itself: your infrastructure, your database, your keys.

This page is a plain-language explanation, not legal advice. It describes the technical boundary of self-hosting — it isn't the full license or sale terms. Because your deployment runs on infrastructure we don't operate and can't access, our ability to fix, secure, or recover it stops at that boundary; what happens inside your own deployment afterward is yours to manage. The complete license terms live in Software Licensing, and the broader purchase and liability terms live in the Terms of Sale.

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