The legal AI that never leaves your desk.
Draft, edit, and redline real case files with a frontier model — on your own computer, under zero data retention, with a click-to-verify source for every line.
No subscription. No seat fees. No minimums. Add $20 and pay only for what you use — the AI's cost plus a flat 7.5% service fee. Already have a DigitalOcean key? Bring it and pay no fee at all.
Your whole document stays on your computer — only the part a task needs is ever sent, and the AI keeps nothing.
You're stuck choosing between two bad options.
Use the good models
…and every file you paste sits in someone else's cloud, your prompts retained for “abuse monitoring.” One breach isn't an IT ticket. It's a privilege waiver, a bar complaint, and a malpractice claim — on a matter you can never un-expose.
Get real zero-retention
…and it's an enterprise contract with a seat minimum a solo or small firm can't justify. So you sit out the defining tool of your career — and watch the shops that can afford it pull ahead.
Both roads run through the same architecture: Cloud-Pooled AI — data retention and data pooling. It's not a company. It's a design choice you've been forced to accept.
What if the AI lived on your desk — and the trade-off simply disappeared?
Put the assistant on your own machine, send only what a task needs to a zero-retention model, keep nothing, and pay by the sip. The choice between “use the good models” and “protect privilege” stops being a choice at all — because the design failure that created it is gone.
Three steps. Your files never leave your computer as files.
No new filing system, no upload, no migration. Point it at a folder you already have and start working.
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1
Connect a matter folder
Point DeskCouncil at a case folder already on your machine. It reads the .docx and PDF files in place — nothing is copied out, nothing is uploaded.
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2
Ask in plain words
“Redline this NDA against our playbook.” “Summarize the deposition.” “Draft a demand letter.” The assistant does the work on-device and sends only the slice a task needs to the model.
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3
Verify the source and the cost
Every answer carries a click-to-verify citation to the exact passage and a receipt for what it cost. You review it, accept the tracked-changes redline in Word, and keep the audit trail.
It runs on your computer, not in someone's cloud.
The assistant reads your files on-device. The file never travels as a file. Access is scoped to the matter folders you connect and your operating-system account — so one matter physically can't reach another.
- Ethical walls by design — one matter can't reach another
- Works offline for reading, search, and document tools
- Nothing syncs to a server by default
The assistant works only inside the folder you point it at.
Nothing is kept. No pooled copy to breach.
Only what a task needs crosses to DigitalOcean's inference service, which runs under a zero-data-retention policy — DigitalOcean confirms in writing that inputs and outputs aren't stored, for any model. There's no shared copy sitting in a vendor's cloud waiting to leak.
- Synchronous-only — we refuse batch precisely because batch retains results ~29–30 days
- Every send is written to your local audit log
- Frontier or open models — same zero-retention route
A slice crosses under zero retention; the far side never fills up.
Prove it. Every answer shows its source.
Every factual claim the assistant surfaces carries a click-to-verify citation that jumps to the exact source passage. If there's no source, it won't present a claim as sourced. You also get an exportable audit trail you can hand to a carrier or a court.
- Legal-research citations verify against CourtListener
- Exportable chain-of-custody log
- No source, not shown — it never invents a citation
The citation resolves to the exact sentence it came from.
You see the meter. Spend can't run away.
Every request shows a cost receipt, before and after. A local budget with a hard cutoff blocks any request that would breach your safety buffer — it stops above zero, never at zero. Light users often spend around $20 a month. *
- A clear receipt on every request
- Held — one request always kept in reserve
- You pay only for what you use
* Typical light usage; you pay only for what you use.
The meter halts at a buffer above empty — you're never stranded at $0.
Add $20 and go. No subscription, ever.
Fund a prepaid balance and start working — you pay the AI's cost plus a flat 7.5% service fee, and not a cent more. No seat licenses, no monthly minimum, no annual contract. A light week can cost less than lunch, because you're only ever billed for the requests you actually run. Already have a DigitalOcean key? Bring your own and pay no fee at all — calls go straight from your machine to DigitalOcean, and we're never in the path.
- Prepaid wallet — add $20, pay AI cost + a flat 7.5% service fee
- No subscription, no seat fees, no minimums
- Bring your own key (advanced) — no fee, direct machine→DigitalOcean
- The relay logs billing metadata only — never your content
Either door lands on the same zero-retention inference.
Built to pass the carrier test.
Whether your carrier approves any tool is their call, not ours — so we don't promise it. What we give you is everything needed to make the case: an architecture that's local-first, zero-retention, and folder-scoped, plus an exportable audit trail that shows exactly where data went.
DigitalOcean confirms in writing that inputs and outputs aren't stored — a fact you can cite to your clients. You review every output and stay in control.
Flip to medicine and the safety story doesn't move.
A privileged client file and a patient record are the same problem wearing different coats: confidential material that must not be pooled in a vendor's cloud. Toggle For attorneys ↔ For clinicians at the top and watch the nouns change while the architecture stays exactly the same. The safety isn't a legal feature or a medical feature — it's the building.
The clinical vertical is in draft and defers to the treating clinician: decision support to confirm, never a diagnosis.
You don't have to take our word for any of it.
The whole point is that you can check. The proof isn't a promise on a website — it's the architecture, the audit trail, and code we can show you.
You keep the audit trail
Every send is recorded on your machine. Export a chain-of-custody log showing exactly what left, when, and what it cost — for a carrier, a client, or a court.
No hidden path to your data
Bring your own key and calls go straight from your machine to DigitalOcean — we're never in the path. Use the wallet and the relay logs billing metadata only, never content — logic we can publish for inspection.
Built by Jumping Ahead Inc.
DeskCouncil is a tool — you review every output and stay the responsible professional. No black box, no data pooling, no lock-in. Your files were always yours, and always local.
We're onboarding a small group of solo and small-firm attorneys as early users. Ask about the beta →
The questions risk-averse professionals ask first.
Where does my data actually go?
Is my client data ever stored by the AI provider?
Will my malpractice carrier approve it?
How is this different from ChatGPT, Copilot, or other cloud legal AI?
What does it cost, and can spending run away?
Can I use my own AI account (bring-your-own-key)?
Does it work offline?
Can it hallucinate? How do I trust an answer?
What happens to my data if I stop using DeskCouncil?
Put counsel on your desk — not in someone's cloud.
Runs on your computer. Only what a task needs crosses to a zero-retention endpoint, and nothing is kept. You see the source and the cost of every answer.
No subscription, no seat fees. Add $20 and pay only for what you use — the AI's cost plus a flat 7.5% service fee. Have a DigitalOcean key? Bring it and pay no fee at all.