Where the register lives

The two choices

Two plain labels, used the same way in the app, on the App Store receipt and on this site.

Plans for both are on the plans page.

Choosing at setup

It's a question you answer, not a default you inherit.

Setup’s first screen asks Where should your register live? with the note Almost everything here can be changed later. This cannot, so it is asked first. There are two cards, This Mac and my devices and Starkive Cloud. Neither is picked for you, and picking one doesn’t move you on. Continue does, and the plan comes next.

If your team already has a register, take Join it with a code. on the same screen instead, and type the code an admin gives you. The whole setup is on First run.

You can read the choice back any time in Settings → Organisation, under This Workspace, where Register lives names it. That’s the line to point an auditor at.

This Mac and my devices

Everything stays on hardware you control, and none of your inventory reaches us.

The register is a database file on this Mac. Phones you pair keep their own copy and sync straight to this Mac over your network, on TLS with a certificate the phone pins when you pair. The Mac only listens once you turn on Serve this network, and it starts off.

A few things can still leave the Mac, and each one is yours to turn on:

• Integrations you connect talk straight to that service, like your directory or a warranty lookup. Nothing goes through us.
• iCloud backup, if you turn it on, writes snapshots to your own iCloud.
• A support message, if you send one, reaches us with what you wrote, your app version and your macOS version. It can also carry your organisation’s name, which the form shows before sending and a switch leaves out.

Starkive Cloud

Your devices sync through Starkive Cloud, so they agree without sharing a network. We hold the register, and we can read part of it.

Readable on our side, so search and sync stay quick: tags, serials, makes and models, who holds what and where, status, dates and purchase prices, hostnames and MAC addresses, the audit evidence fields (approved to connect and who reviewed it, operating system and version, business use, device management, last seen, end of support, due back, received, invoice number, GL account, depreciation method, disposal proceeds and ITAD vendor, and the sanitisation tool version and verification method), custom field names and choices, who wrote an asset off its book value and when, and the outline of the audit trail (which asset, when, and which account).

Encrypted on your devices before it’s sent, with a key we never receive: which regulated data a device carries, disposal evidence, lease rent and the costs behind it, recovery key escrow, condition and return notes, custom field values, photographs and attachments, and what changed in each audit trail entry made in the apps.

Never sent to Starkive Cloud at all: IP addresses, which you type by hand, and the values of any custom field set to Keep off Starkive Cloud. They stay on the device they were typed on, and a Mac and iPhone paired over your own network share them. A device that syncs only through Starkive Cloud won’t see them. The field’s name and choices still sync, so every device knows the field is there. The audit trail in the cloud records that one of these changed, without the values.

Until an owner sets up encryption for the organisation, the encrypted part waits on your devices and isn’t sent at all. Setting it up happens once, gives you twelve words to write down, and can’t be undone.

The full list, and its limits, is on the security page and in the privacy policy.

Moving to Starkive Cloud later

A register that started on this Mac can move up. It's a button and a sheet that says exactly what happens, not a switch.

1. Sign in to Starkive first

   The move refuses to start until you’re signed in, so the register lands in your account and nobody else’s. Signing in on its own moves nothing.

2. Open Settings → Organisation

   Under This Workspace it says Your register lives on this Mac. Click Move to Starkive Cloud.

3. Read the sheet, then move

   It lists what happens. Everything on this Mac is copied up, including removed assets, so the audit trail moves too, except IP addresses and the values of fields kept off Starkive Cloud, which stay here. Regulated records are encrypted on this Mac before they’re sent. Nothing is deleted from this Mac, and if the move doesn’t finish you’re where you started. It shows the cloud plan sized to the assets you track today.

4. Afterwards

   Starkive Cloud is the source of truth, and phones sign in instead of pairing. The workspace only switches to Starkive Cloud once the upload is confirmed.

If an asset has more written in its custom fields and return note than can be encrypted for the cloud (about 16 KB across them), the move names that asset before you buy anything, so you can shorten it first.

Several registers on one Mac

A consultant can keep each client in its own workspace. Each one is a separate file with its own answer to where it lives.

Every workspace is its own database file, listed in a workspaces.json index. Nothing is shared between them and no search reaches across two. The first one is called Primary. Because the choice above is stored inside each workspace, one client can be on this Mac and another in Starkive Cloud.

• New Workspace… takes a name (a blank one becomes New Workspace), creates the file and switches to it.
• Switching closes the open workspace and opens the other file. The app remembers where you were for next launch.
• Renaming changes the label only. The file name stays.
• Deleting removes the file and the paired-device credentials that belonged to it. You can’t delete the workspace you’re in, or the last one left.

A paired iPhone only ever sees the workspace the Mac has open. Switching on the Mac stops the old network listener before the new one starts, so the phone can’t keep reading the register you just left.

The demo

Hill Valley Gas and Electric is a made-up company for looking round, free for three days, and it behaves differently on purpose.

• It never syncs, so invented assets can’t end up in a real organisation or on a paired phone.
• It has its own operator, Tom Becker, so your own name never appears inside the demo if you show it to someone.
• It’s deleted when you leave it. Leave the demo removes it, and opening it again builds a fresh one. The three days carry on from when you first opened it; they don’t start again.

Setup offers it on the first screen as Explore the demo first, which skips the question on this page entirely. It’s also in the workspace menu in the sidebar and in Settings under The demo. Your own register needs a plan.