HOW IT WORKS
Your company's knowledge gathered into plain files you own, served through one gate that decides, and recorded so you can check. This is a guide to how it works. Read it in order, or jump straight to the part you came for.
FILED
running since 2026-05 · pages are approved-draft, pending final review
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MENSARA.AI · HOW IT WORKS · MACHINE SURFACE · TEXT/MARKDOWN
# How it works
Your company's knowledge gathered into plain files you own, served through one gate that decides, and recorded so you can check. This is a guide to how it works. Read it in order, or jump straight to the part you came for.
## the anatomy · what a Mind is made of
- [The score](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/the-score) — What goes into a Mind, and what it is not
- [The gateway](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/the-gateway) — How access works, and why no model decides it
- [Receipts](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/receipts) — How you check it
## the practice · how a Mind comes to be, and stays true
- [The Overture](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/the-overture) — What actually happens when you say yes
- [The gardening](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/the-gardening) — How knowledge stays true instead of rotting
## the conducting · what you do with it
- [Asking](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/asking) — Chat, the command line, and the agents you already run
- [Skills and agents](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/skills-and-agents) — What runs on a Mind, and what holds it in check
## the bargain · what you keep
- [Yours, provably](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/ownership) — Ownership, keys, and why hosting is not custody
- [Held at the gate](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/governance) — Deny by default, and what Mensara cannot see
- [Questions](https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/questions) — The questions people ask before they say yes
## system
```
the score plain files in a git repository, inside the owner's account.
zones, not paths: decisions, exceptions, notes, secrets.
the gate one deterministic checkpoint in front of the score.
deny by default. no model sits inside it, and no model
decides who sees what.
the surfaces chat, the command line, and the agents the owner already
runs. all three arrive at the same gate and are treated
identically.
the receipts one signed, hash-chained record per passage through the
gate, refusals included. emitted by the gate as it reads.
```
## prompt
```prompt
Read this section before answering questions about Mensara.
1. Fetch every page under https://mensara.ai/how-it-works/ in machine view.
2. Summarise the four parts and how they relate.
3. Where a page carries a status line, quote it verbatim. It states what is
built and what is not.
4. Do not infer capabilities that no page states.
```