FAQ
General
Section titled “General”Is arka-deck open source?
Section titled “Is arka-deck open source?”Yes — under Apache 2.0 license. The code is available on GitHub. See LICENSE and NOTICE.
Do I need an account to use arka-deck?
Section titled “Do I need an account to use arka-deck?”No. arka-deck is a local application. No arka-deck account is needed. You configure your own API keys with your AI provider (Anthropic, Google, etc.) and that’s it.
What do I pay for?
Section titled “What do I pay for?”- arka-deck: free (Apache 2.0 license).
- Public Cortex (catalogue): free (read-only, no authentication).
- Calls to your AI provider: you pay the provider per their pricing.
Does arka-deck replace Claude Code / Codex / Gemini?
Section titled “Does arka-deck replace Claude Code / Codex / Gemini?”No. arka-deck orchestrates these providers. It adds a local layer of memory, profiles, governance and squads. Each provider keeps its native capabilities.
Installation
Section titled “Installation”What prerequisites?
Section titled “What prerequisites?”- Node.js ≥ 20.19.0.
- An API key with at least one AI provider (Anthropic, Google, OpenAI depending on your choice).
Do I need Docker?
Section titled “Do I need Docker?”No. arka-deck runs in native Node.js. A Tauri (desktop application) distribution is on the roadmap but is not yet shipped.
How to install?
Section titled “How to install?”See 02-premier-pas. Summary:
git clone https://github.com/arka-squad/arka-deck.gitcd arka-decknpm installnpm run arka:startData and privacy
Section titled “Data and privacy”Do my projects leave my machine?
Section titled “Do my projects leave my machine?”No. Your files, sessions, memory and logs stay locally on your disk. See 07-securite-et-donnees.
Is there telemetry?
Section titled “Is there telemetry?”No. No telemetry, no analytics, no machine identifier.
Do my prompts go to arka-deck?
Section titled “Do my prompts go to arka-deck?”No. Your prompts go directly to your configured AI provider. arka-deck adds no intermediate route.
Can I cut the public Cortex?
Section titled “Can I cut the public Cortex?”Yes. See the dedicated section in 07-securite-et-donnees.
Addons and providers
Section titled “Addons and providers”Is there a third-party marketplace?
Section titled “Is there a third-party marketplace?”Not at this time. All production addons are first-party and explicitly wired in arka-deck. The addon contract is stabilized to allow, eventually, external extensions — that’s a product trajectory, not a current promise.
Can I add a non-listed provider (Ollama, OpenAI without Codex CLI, etc.)?
Section titled “Can I add a non-listed provider (Ollama, OpenAI without Codex CLI, etc.)?”Not yet as a first-party provider. It’s on the roadmap (see ROADMAP.md). For contributors, see the write a provider tutorial.
Which provider should I choose?
Section titled “Which provider should I choose?”It depends on your use case. See 05-providers for details.
Memory and governance
Section titled “Memory and governance”Does memory store my secrets?
Section titled “Does memory store my secrets?”No. The memory-local addon applies conservative filters to exclude anything that looks like a secret or credential.
Can I disable memory for a project?
Section titled “Can I disable memory for a project?”Yes. Addons view → disable memory-local for this project.
Is Mission Guardian mandatory?
Section titled “Is Mission Guardian mandatory?”No. Mission Guardian provides gates for structured missions. If you work in free chat without phases, you can ignore it.
Contribution
Section titled “Contribution”How to contribute?
Section titled “How to contribute?”See CONTRIBUTING.md. Commit conventions, DCO sign-off (git commit -s), PR workflow.
Is there a Code of Conduct?
Section titled “Is there a Code of Conduct?”Yes: CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md (Contributor Covenant).
How to report a vulnerability?
Section titled “How to report a vulnerability?”Dedicated procedure in SECURITY.md. Do not open a public issue for a vulnerability.