# How Oyster works

> What happens between your question and Oyster's answer — the app, Red Orca's own models, retrieval from your files and the knowledge base, and the line Oyster does not cross.

Source: https://documentation.redorca.ai/understand/how-oyster-works/
Last updated: 2026-11-01

## The pieces

- **The app** at [redorca.ai](https://redorca.ai/) runs in your browser. It is also [installable](https://documentation.redorca.ai/get-started/install-app/).
- **Oyster's service** receives your question, gathers the context it needs, and streams the answer back as it is written.
- **The models** run on infrastructure Red Orca operates in the EU. Your conversations are not sent to a third-party AI provider.
- **Retrieval** finds the passages an answer should rest on: from your own files when you ask about them, and from Oyster's curated knowledge base in Security Intel.

## From question to answer

1. You send a question, with the depth you chose.
2. With an account, the earlier messages of the conversation and any relevant [memories](https://documentation.redorca.ai/guides/memory/) are added as context.
3. For questions about files or identifiers, Oyster retrieves the most relevant passages first.
4. The model writes the answer from that context, and the passages it used are shown as [citations](https://documentation.redorca.ai/understand/evidence-and-citations/).
5. The answer streams to you. Each account gets one answer at a time; when many people are asking, you get a place in line.

## The line Oyster does not cross

Oyster explains, plans and reviews. For every account, it has no access to your systems: it does not scan, probe or run tools against anything. Red Team plans are written only for targets inside the scope you declare. See [Safety and approvals](https://documentation.redorca.ai/understand/safety/).

## Why answers take a few seconds

Oyster runs on Red Orca's own hardware rather than on a large third-party service. That keeps your conversations with us, and it means answers can take several seconds — longer for larger models and higher depths.