--- title: "Caro for Air-Gapped & Secure Environments" description: "The only AI shell assistant for air-gapped environments. Zero network calls, bundled model, single binary. Designed for SCIFs, trading floors, and classified systems." url: "https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped" markdown_url: "https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped.md" lang: "en" type: "website" image: "https://caro.sh/og/use-cases/air-gapped.png" --- Air-Gapped & Security # AI Where Nothing Else Can Operate 8 million developers work in restricted environments where cloud AI is impossible. Caro is the only AI shell assistant that works with zero network connectivity— bundled model, single binary, designed for security audit. 0 Network calls 1 Binary file 100% Open source [Get the Binary](https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped#download) [Security Documentation](https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped#compliance) ## Built for These Environments Where cloud AI isn't an option ### SCIFs Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities Government classified development environments - ✓ No external network - ✓ Auditable binary - ✓ No telemetry ### Financial Trading Trading Floor Systems Systems where millisecond latency matters - ✓ Air-gapped networks - ✓ Audit trails - ✓ No cloud dependencies ### Healthcare HIPAA Compliant Environments Patient data systems with strict compliance - ✓ No data exfiltration - ✓ Audit logging - ✓ Offline operation ### Industrial OT/SCADA Networks Critical infrastructure control systems - ✓ Complete isolation - ✓ No network calls - ✓ Deterministic behavior ### Defense Contractors ITAR/EAR Controlled Export-controlled development environments - ✓ US-person only access - ✓ No foreign servers - ✓ Full audit ### Research Labs Isolated Research Networks IP-sensitive research environments - ✓ Data isolation - ✓ No cloud sync - ✓ Self-contained ## Jobs Caro Does in Secure Environments What you hire Caro to do when offline ### [Offline AI Assistance](https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped#offline-ai) Pain: 5/5 Daily Get AI-powered command generation where no other AI tool can operate. **Trigger:** Working in air-gapped environment ### [Compliance-Ready Tool Approval](https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped#compliance) Pain: 4/5 Monthly Single binary, zero telemetry, open source—designed for security audit. **Trigger:** Getting new tool approved for secure environment ### [Organization-Wide Safety](https://caro.sh/use-cases/air-gapped#team-safety) Pain: 4/5 Monthly Deploy custom safety patterns across your team without network dependency. **Trigger:** Standardizing tooling in restricted environment ## Offline AI in Action Real scenarios where Caro shines ### Network Is Down **Scenario:** The datacenter network is the problem you're debugging. Air-Gapped Terminal $ caro "show all network interfaces and their status" Caro: ip -br addr show && ip -br link show Running fully offline - no network required **Why it matters:** Works when nothing else does—doesn't need the network to help you fix the network. ### Classified Development **Scenario:** You're in a SCIF writing scripts for a classified system. Air-Gapped Terminal $ caro "find all python files that import requests library" Caro: grep -rl "import requests" --include="\*.py" . Running fully offline - no network required **Why it matters:** Same AI assistance as your unclassified colleagues, with zero data risk. ### Secure Data Center **Scenario:** Physical servers in a cage, no internet connection by design. Air-Gapped Terminal $ caro "check disk health on all drives" Caro: for disk in /dev/sd?; do smartctl -H $disk 2>/dev/null; done Running fully offline - no network required **Why it matters:** The model runs locally—no waiting for cloud timeouts that will never resolve. ### Traveling Without Internet **Scenario:** On a plane, in a remote location, or just in a dead zone. Air-Gapped Terminal $ caro "compress this directory for transfer" Caro: tar -czvf archive.tar.gz ./directory Running fully offline - no network required **Why it matters:** Your productivity doesn't depend on hotel wifi. ## Designed for Security Audit Every feature built with compliance in mind 📦 ### Single Binary One file, no dependencies. Copy it to any machine. **Audit:** Hash verifiable, no supply chain complexity. 🔇 ### Zero Telemetry No analytics, no usage tracking, no phone home—ever. **Audit:** Verify with strace: zero network syscalls. 📖 ### Open Source AGPL-3.0 licensed. Read every line of code. **Audit:** Full source audit available on GitHub. 🔐 ### Bundled Model AI model embedded in binary. No download required. **Audit:** No external model fetching, no model injection risk. ✅ ### SHA256 Verified Every release includes cryptographic checksums. **Audit:** Verify binary integrity before deployment. 📋 ### Audit Logging Log every command generated and validated. **Audit:** Meet compliance requirements with full command history. ## Getting Caro Approved Answers to common security review questions "AI tools need internet access" Caro bundles a quantized Qwen2.5-Coder model. Zero network calls after install. Verify with: strace -e network ./caro "We can't audit closed-source AI" Caro is 100% open source (AGPL-3.0). Audit every line: github.com/wildcard/caro "AI tools collect usage data" Caro has zero telemetry. Not "opt-out"—literally no telemetry code exists. Verify the source. "We need a software supply chain review" Single binary, Rust-based, all dependencies audited via cargo-audit. SBOM available. "What if it makes network calls we don't know about?" Run it under strace -e network. You'll see zero network syscalls. We designed it this way. "It's an AI—how can it be deterministic?" The safety layer is deterministic regex patterns, not AI. The AI generates, the patterns validate. ### Security Documentation [Security Policy ](https://github.com/wildcard/caro/blob/main/SECURITY.md)[License (AGPL-3.0) ](https://github.com/wildcard/caro/blob/main/LICENSE)[Full Source Code ](https://github.com/wildcard/caro)[Releases + Checksums](https://github.com/wildcard/caro/releases) ## Deployment Options How to get Caro into your secure environment ### USB Transfer 1. Download caro binary on internet-connected machine 2. Verify SHA256 checksum 3. Transfer to USB drive through approved process 4. Copy to air-gapped machine: chmod +x ./caro 5. Run immediately—no additional setup needed ### Build from Source 1. Clone repository to transfer machine 2. Transfer source code through approved process 3. Build: cargo build --release 4. Binary at: target/release/caro 5. Full audit trail of what you're running ### Internal Mirror 1. Host binary on internal package mirror 2. Security team verifies once 3. All engineers install from trusted internal source 4. Centralized update management ## Verify It Yourself Don't trust us—verify these claims ### Verify Zero Network Calls `strace -e network ./caro "list files"` Run under strace. You'll see zero network-related syscalls. ### Verify Binary Integrity `sha256sum caro && cat caro.sha256` Compare against published checksums on GitHub releases. ### Verify No DNS Lookups `ltrace -e '*dns*' ./caro "list files"` No DNS resolution functions called. ### Verify Open Ports `ss -tlnp | grep caro` Caro opens no listening sockets. ## Try Caro in 30 Seconds No account. No API key. No data collection. Just safer shell commands. `bash <(curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSfL https://setup.caro.sh)` Then run: `caro "find files modified in the last 7 days"` Installs to \~/.cargo/bin Single binary, no dependencies Uninstall anytime: cargo uninstall caro Prefer to build from source? [See all installation options →](https://github.com/wildcard/caro#installation)