Data Flows | Alephant Documentation

AIvis separates ingestion, retrieval, chat, and Agent action execution so that each flow can be authorized, monitored, and scaled independently.

AIvis Data Flows and Security Boundaries

The diagram shows AIvis data flows from sources through internal processing, controlled external boundaries, request execution, and audit telemetry. Unauthorized data does not enter retrieval, model calls, or external actions; external services receive only administrator-enabled and authorized fields; telemetry records facts without copying confidential content.

Indexing flow

Step	What happens	Security boundary
Connector authorization	An administrator creates a connector credential and selects the source scope.	Credentials stay in AIvis-managed configuration and should not be exposed to users or prompts.
Source pull	Workers fetch documents, metadata, and available access signals from the source system.	Source credentials determine what can be fetched; AIvis document access settings determine who can use the indexed result.
Parsing and chunking	Files and records are converted into searchable text chunks.	Parsing should run inside the deployment boundary unless an administrator explicitly enables an external processor.
Embedding and indexing	Chunks are embedded and stored for retrieval.	Model and indexing services should remain private.
Visibility enforcement	Document access, document sets, groups, and Agent scope are applied at retrieval time.	Search should fail closed when access state is missing or ambiguous.

Upload flow

User or administrator uploads are stored in AIvis-managed storage and indexed according to the selected document visibility. Uploaded files should be treated with the same sensitivity as connector documents.

Query and chat flow

Step	What happens
Request	The browser sends a chat or search request through the public router to AIvis API.
Authorization	AIvis resolves the user, workspace, role, groups, Agent, model, and document scope.
Retrieval	AIvis searches only the knowledge sources available to that request path.
Model call	AIvis sends the selected prompt and authorized context to the configured model provider or model service.
Response	AIvis returns a bounded answer, logs request metadata, and avoids exposing raw credentials or infrastructure details.

Agent action flow

When an Agent can call tools, AIvis provides only the tools enabled for that Agent. Tool calls pass through the Tool Bridge and AIvis authorization checks before any data access, external API call, or state-changing operation occurs.

Configurable external services

External model providers, web search providers, document processors, and action APIs may receive data when administrators enable and configure them. Treat every external service as a separate data boundary and document what request fields, retrieved context, files, and metadata may leave the deployment.

Review checklist

Connector scope is approved by the source-system owner.
Document visibility is tested with allowed and denied users.
Model and tool calls use approved providers and network paths.
Logs include request IDs without raw secret values.
Failed connector, retrieval, model, and tool paths return bounded errors.