Everything you need
to use PrivateForge

Getting started

PrivateForge is one private workspace for every AI you use — with memory that remembers you, sharing you control, and a clear record of what ran and what it cost.

You can be up and running in a couple of minutes:

1. Create your accountHead to app.privateforge.ai/signup and start a 7-day free trial — no charge to begin, and no provider setup required.
2. Pick the plan that fitsFamily for your household, Business for a team. You can change later without losing your chats or connections.
3. Start a conversationOpen the web app and ask anything. The leading AI models are included and served on your plan’s credits — nothing to configure.
4. Make it yoursInvite people, set up memory, and — on Business — pair your own subscriptions or keys when you’re ready.

Choosing your plan

Every plan shares the same core: private memory per person, shared memory for what you want AI to remember, and a readable record of usage. They differ in who they’re built for.

Family

One simple household plan for up to six people — you plus five members. Everyone gets their own login and private space, the household shares one family memory, and kids get supervised profiles with a parent dashboard. The leading AI models come included on pooled credits, with no keys or provider setup. Learn more about Family →

Business

One shared workspace that holds your projects, with roles, sharing, usage analytics, and an audit log. Teams can bring their own AI subscriptions or keys so those runs cost 0 credits, with the rest served on a pooled workspace allowance. Learn more about Business →

Enterprise

Annual, bring-your-own-key-only inference with governance controls for larger organizations. Learn more about Enterprise →

Apps & devices

One account works everywhere, so you can pick up where you left off on any device.

• Web app — the full experience in any modern browser at app.privateforge.ai. Nothing to install.
• Mobile app — a native app for iOS so your workspace travels with you.
• Local connector — a one-line install for macOS, Linux, and Windows that pairs your computer to your workspace. It’s optional, and unlocks your-own-subscription and local-tool routing on Business & Enterprise. See Local connector & integrations.

Everything syncs through your account, so history, memory, and shared projects stay consistent across the web, mobile, and any paired machines.

Your first conversation

Open the web app and start typing. A few things worth knowing on day one:

• Just ask. You don’t pick a model to get started — the leading models are included, and PrivateForge routes your request for you. You can still steer model choice where it matters.
• It remembers. Useful context — who you are, your preferences, ongoing projects — is saved to memory so you don’t repeat yourself. See How memory works.
• Bigger jobs become plans. For multi-step work, plan-mode breaks the task into steps and shows where each one will route before it runs. See Agents & plan-mode.
• Everything is metered. Each run draws from your plan’s credits at a per-model rate, and the cost is recorded so there are no surprises. See Credits & billing.

How memory works

Memory is what makes PrivateForge feel like your workspace rather than a blank chat box. It comes in layers, and the layers never bleed across boundaries.

Private memory

Everyone gets a private memory scoped to them. It holds your preferences, context, and history — and no one else can read your chats, not even the account owner.

Shared memory

On Family, the household shares one family memory: it learns who’s who — parents, kids, ages, routines, the things you want every model to know — so requests like “book something the kids will love” just work. Private memories stay private; the family memory only holds what the household chooses to share.

On Business, memory lives at three levels — you · project · workspace — composed in that order for each chat, and never crossing between projects. You decide what’s remembered, and memory is editable per chat.

Credits & billing

Credits pay for AI usage on the metered API, priced per model. Your plan includes a monthly allowance, and the whole household or workspace draws from one shared pool.

What’s included

• Family Starter — $20/month, 10,000 pooled credits.
• Family Advanced — $50/month, 40,000 pooled credits and more storage.
• Business — from $50/month per workspace, 20,000–50,000 credits pooled across the team.

The pause-first gate

You won’t get a surprise bill. When credits run low, the request pauses and offers options — top up or wait — rather than running up a silent overage. Top-ups are one-time purchases, and nothing is auto-charged without your explicit consent.

Runs that cost 0 credits

On Business & Enterprise, when you pair your own subscription or key, those runs execute under your provider relationship and cost 0 credits — your pooled allowance is only touched by runs on the included models. See Connecting providers.

Connecting providers (BYOK / BYOA)

Bring-your-own-key (BYOK) and bring-your-own-account/subscription (BYOA) let you run on the provider relationships you already pay for — available on Business and Enterprise where supported.

• Pair a subscription — sign in to your own provider through the local connector. The sign-in stays in your computer’s OS keychain; PrivateForge never sees your provider password. Runs on a paired subscription cost 0 credits.
• Add a key — paste an API key once. It’s encrypted with KMS, decrypted only at request time, and never shown to anyone again after you save it — including people you share a connection with.
• Share usage, not secrets — a shared connection grants usage of a provider, never the key itself, and it’s revocable in one click.

Local connector & integrations

The local connector pairs your computer to your workspace. It’s optional — every plan works without it — and it powers your-own-subscription routing and local tools on Business & Enterprise.

Install

Run one command, then sign in on the web app to pair the machine.

macOS & Linux

curl -fsSL https://privateforge.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://privateforge.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Full walkthrough on the download page.

Integrations & MCP

PrivateForge is MCP-first: register Model Context Protocol servers to give your AI access to real tools — local runners, filesystem, shell, Git, browser, Postgres — plus cloud connectors. Every tool and connector runs behind an approval-first workflow, so nothing sensitive executes without a clear, recorded go-ahead. You can also register your own MCP servers to wire PrivateForge into your tools and pipelines.

Agents & plan-mode

For anything bigger than a single question, plan-mode turns a goal into a reviewable plan.

• Decompose — the task is broken into discrete steps.
• Route — each step is matched to an appropriate model or tool, and you can see where it will go before it runs — no black-box automation.
• Synthesize — the steps are combined into a single result you can audit, with every routing decision and tool call recorded in the audit trail.

Because each step is metered and logged, you always know what ran, what it cost, and why it was routed the way it was.

Set up Family

Family gives every member their own private AI space plus one shared family memory — and gives parents real controls.

1. Create your familyChoose Starter ($20/mo) or Advanced ($50/mo). Both are household plans with a 7-day free trial and included models — nothing to configure.
2. Invite the householdAdd up to five members from Settings — six people in all. Each gets their own login and private memory, and the family memory learns who’s who.
3. Add the kidsKids sign in with a simple PIN. Per kid, choose the allowed AI models and a content filter (strict by default).
4. Set the rulesCap each kid’s day — messages (50/day by default), minutes of use (60/day by default), and spend. Big actions wait in a parent approval queue, and kids’ chat history stays visible to parents.

The parent dashboard shows each kid’s activity, the household credit pool and who’s using it, per-kid limits, and the family memory — all editable anytime. More on Family →

Set up a Business workspace

Business organizes around a simple shape: workspace → projects → people. One workspace holds your projects, projects are shared with specific people, and each person keeps their own space.

Roles & sharing

Five roles gate what people can do. Share at the right size: one chat to one person, a project to a group, or the whole workspace to a new teammate. Outsiders can be given view-only seats by invite.

Visibility

Usage analytics, provider performance, and an append-only audit log give you a clear picture of what’s running and what it costs — without surveillance-style monitoring of people’s chats.

Bring your own AI

Connect supported subscriptions or keys so those runs cost 0 credits; everything else draws on the pooled workspace allowance, with the same pause-first gate. See Connecting providers.

Security & privacy

We’d rather state plainly what runs where than imply more privacy than is true.

Stays on your machine

• Your provider sign-ins for local CLIs — kept in your OS keychain by the local connector. PrivateForge never sees your provider passwords.
• The model run itself, when you pair a machine and use your own subscription — your account, your hardware, your provider relationship.

Runs through PrivateForge Cloud

• Your chats, attachments, artifacts, and memory — processed and stored (over TLS, encrypted at rest) so history, sharing, and family or workspace features work on every device. They’re scoped to you, and we don’t train models on your data.
• Routing, safety gates, and metering for every run — including runs your own machine executes, which route through PrivateForge.
• Bring-your-own keys, KMS-encrypted and decrypted only at request time — never shown to anyone after you save them.

Managing your account

• Billing & plan — upgrade, downgrade, top up credits, or cancel anytime from Billing in your settings. A Family account can upgrade to Business in place without losing chats or connections.
• Members & sharing — invite or remove people, set roles, and manage shared connections and projects.
• Memory — review, edit, or remove what’s remembered, at the private or shared level.
• Export & deletion — export your data or delete your account from settings. Deletion removes your conversations and memory.

Troubleshooting