FAQ¶

What you'll find here: short answers to the questions operators and agents ask most often.

Is extraction local?¶

Yes. The host runs on your machine. Node.js workers fetch and parse pages locally. Nothing is sent to an Occam cloud service.

Optional features (web search, managed scraping APIs, LibreTranslate, time-stamp authorities) call endpoints you configure — see Configuration.

Does page content leave my machine?¶

By default, only to the URLs you ask Occam to fetch (and your configured proxy, if any).

Content also leaves your machine when you enable an outbound integration (OCCAM_SEARCH_*, OCCAM_TRANSLATE_URL, OCCAM_TSA_URL). Search sends the query to the configured SERP backend; translation/TSA are opt-in endpoints you set.

Markdown and receipts in MCP responses stay on your machine unless your AI client logs them elsewhere.

What does `ok: false` mean?¶

The tool could not produce trustworthy page content. The failure.code field tells you why (timeout, login wall, thin extract, HTTP 404, …).

Never invent article text from memory when ok is false. See Concepts — trust model.

Which agent or model is this for?¶

Any MCP client — Cursor, Claude Desktop, custom agents, RAG pipelines. Tools return JSON strings; your client passes them to the model.

The product is agent-first: tool descriptions and Choosing a tool are written so models pick the right call.

How many tools ship by default?¶

The product default is OCCAM_PROFILE=reader, which exposes 8 day-to-day tools. OCCAM_PROFILE=full exposes the complete 15-tool core catalog. Environment-gated batch, watch, cross-check, failure-atlas, and browser-action tools can add more — runtime tools/list is authoritative. See Configuration — profiles and Tools reference — opt-in tools.

Is there a file cache?¶

Default extract is live — each call fetches the page again unless you opt in.

You can enable a short-lived in-memory / temp-dir cache on occam_transcode via cache_ttl_s (stored under {TEMP}/occam-cache/ or OCCAM_CACHE_DIR). That is opt-in, TTL-bound, and replays the signed envelope when receipts are on — not a persistent page archive.

Occam also keeps other durable local state (sessions, keys, playbooks, watch/batch stores) — see Sessions and Configuration.

How do I install Occam for 1.0?¶

Use the release tarball / bootstrap scripts — see Install.

Channel	Supported?
`get-ff-occam.sh` / `.ps1` bootstrap	Yes — supported release channel
Manual tarball + SHA-256 manifest	No — integrity inspection only; use the guarded bootstrap to install
`npx ff-occam@1.1.1`	Experimental npm RC — MCP host only; not the guarded GA install path
`npm install -g ff-occam`	Same experimental launcher (`ff-occam`). Does not install the `occam` operator CLI or run `occam connect`
`npx @ff-occam/mcp`	Low-level npm entry — not the primary public package name
Cosign `.bundle` alone	No — the bootstrap must verify it under the manifest policy

Are releases cosign-verified?¶

Published v1.0.0-rc.3 and later declare signaturePolicy=required-cosign-v1. The bootstrap always verifies SHA-256 and, when that policy is declared, also verifies the Cosign bundle fail-closed (requiring the cosign CLI). Legacy v1.0.0-rc.2 remains SHA-256-only. Cosign proves release authenticity relative to the configured workflow identity, not page-content truth.

What license applies?¶

AGPL-3.0-or-later. See the root LICENSE.

How do I verify an extraction really happened?¶

Use a signed Receipt v1 (receipt.signed on transcode, digest, claim-check, dataset export, watch history entries) and verify with occam_verify or the bundled CLI:

FFOccamMcp.Core verify --receipt receipt.json --pubkey pubkey.pem --markdown page.md

Honesty limits:

Verification proves integrity under a public key you supply — not truth, not author identity, not that the page was fetched fresh (cache replay returns the stored signed envelope).
occam_extract_knowledge returns a receipt field that is extraction telemetry only (confidence, elapsedMs) — unsigned, not Receipt v1, not accepted by occam_verify.
occam_crosscheck per-vantage extracts may be signed; the agreement verdict itself is computed, not signed.

Details: Receipts · Receipt verification · Trust & Safety