Introduction
Documentation for the Seven Layer platform — SCSA Vault, GPU model protection, the Authority Fabric, and the Vault API.
Seven Layer seals data to the physical world: to the silicon of a machine, or to a condition that must be met before anything opens. There is no portable key to copy, phish, or subpoena — capability is derived at access time, not stored.
Four surfaces share the same cryptographic core:
SCSA Vault (desktop)
A desktop app that seals files to the hardware of a specific machine — CPU, GPU, or both. A sealed file is noise anywhere else.
GPU Model Protection
Seal model weights to an attested GPU — decrypted only in VRAM, split across parties, and released only under policy you can verify.
Authority Fabric
An operation contract where no permitted operation completes unilaterally, and every outcome — including a refusal — is signed, logged, and checkable offline.
Vault API
A REST API for conditional release: data that opens only when a time-lock matures or a t-of-n quorum approves, with a hash-chained audit trail.
Which one do I want?
- Protecting files on machines you control — laptops, workstations, lab boxes — use SCSA Vault. Drag, drop, sealed to that hardware.
- Protecting model weights on a GPU — rented, on-prem, or shared — use GPU Model Protection. Sealed to the silicon, decrypted only in VRAM, custody split across parties.
- Governing who may authorize a key's use — quorum authorization, an agent's tool calls, an external key manager behind Cloud EKM or XKS, or a PKCS#11 estate — use the Authority Fabric.
- Building conditional release into a product — sealed-bid auctions, escrow, embargoes, evidence custody — use the Vault API.
The two ideas underneath all of it
Keys are derived, not stored. A capability comes from a live measurement of state — hardware identity, a matured time-lock, a quorum of independent authorizations — evaluated at the moment of access. There is no key at rest to steal.
A refusal is evidence, not an error. Every outcome is a signed object committed to an append-only log before anything is released, and anyone can check it offline after every service that produced it has been shut down. "It said no" is not something you have to take on trust.