> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.prem.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is Prem API 

> Private Confidential Compute Infrastructure — end-to-end encrypted AI with hardware-enforced privacy and post-quantum cryptography.

<Info>
  **In one sentence:** Prem API lets you use AI through the same API you already know — but nobody, including us, can see your data. Not our servers, not our staff, not the infrastructure provider. The hardware itself enforces this, and you can verify it cryptographically.
</Info>

## The Problem

When you use an AI API today, your data — prompts, files, conversations — travels through servers you don't control. The provider can read everything. Even with HTTPS, your data sits in plaintext on their infrastructure once it arrives.

For many teams, this is acceptable. But if you work with patient records, financial data, legal documents, trade secrets, or any information that regulations or common sense say should stay private — standard AI APIs require a leap of faith.

**Prem API  removes the leap of faith.**

## What Prem API  Does

Prem API (Prem Confidential Compute Infrastructure) gives you **the same AI capabilities you'd get from any OpenAI-compatible API** but with a fundamental difference: your data is encrypted from end to end, and processing happens inside tamper-proof hardware that nobody can access.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Encrypted in Transit" icon="arrow-right-arrow-left">
    Data is encrypted on your device before it leaves. The network only carries scrambled bytes.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Encrypted at Rest" icon="hard-drive">
    Files and keys are stored encrypted. No plaintext ever touches our storage.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Encrypted in Use" icon="microchip">
    Processing happens inside hardware-sealed environments called Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). Even someone with physical access to the server cannot extract your data.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## How It Compares

|                                        | Standard AI API                                          | Prem API                                                             |
| -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Who can see your data?**             | The provider, their staff, potentially their cloud host  | Only you                                                             |
| **What if the server is compromised?** | Your data is exposed                                     | Attacker sees only encrypted bytes                                   |
| **How do you know it's private?**      | You trust the provider's privacy policy                  | You verify it with hardware-signed cryptographic proof               |
| **What about future threats?**         | Vulnerable if quantum computers break current encryption | Protected today by quantum-resistant algorithms                      |
| **What about the cloud provider?**     | They can inspect server memory                           | Hardware isolation prevents this, regardless of who owns the machine |
| **API compatibility**                  | OpenAI-compatible                                        | Same OpenAI-compatible interface — no rewrite needed                 |

## Who Is This For?

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Regulated Industries" icon="building-columns">
    Healthcare, finance, legal, and government organizations that must meet HIPAA, GDPR, nFADP, SOC 2, or internal compliance mandates when using AI.
  </Card>

  <Card title="AI Application Builders" icon="laptop-code">
    Development teams building products on LLMs who need to guarantee data privacy to their users — without building custom infrastructure.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Security-First Organizations" icon="shield-halved">
    Any team where data privacy is a hard technical requirement, not a policy checkbox. Where "we promise we won't look" isn't good enough.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Enterprises with Sensitive IP" icon="vault">
    Companies that want to use AI for internal documents, proprietary code, or strategic planning — without exposing that information to third parties.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What You Can Do Today

Prem API is a drop-in replacement for OpenAI-compatible APIs. If you've used ChatGPT or any OpenAI-compatible service, you already know the interface. Everything works the same way — just encrypted:

* **Chat with AI models** — Streaming conversations, multi-step reasoning, tool use
* **Transcribe and translate audio** — Upload recordings, get text back

Every one of these capabilities runs entirely inside hardware-sealed environments on our own confidential infrastructure.
All models are self-hosted — your data never leaves our CVMs, and no requests are forwarded to third-party AI providers.
Your data never exists in plaintext outside your device and the sealed processing environment.

## Getting Started

Whether you're a developer integrating Prem API  into an application or evaluating it for your organization, the path is straightforward:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Install the SDK">
    ```bash theme={"system"}
    npm install @premai/api-sdk
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create a client with your encryption key">
    ```typescript theme={"system"}
    import { createRvencClient } from "@premai/api-sdk";

    const client = await createRvencClient({
      apiKey: process.env.API_KEY,
      clientKEK: process.env.CLIENT_KEK, // You generate this. We never see it.
    });
    ```
  </Step>

  <Step title="Use it exactly like OpenAI">
    ```typescript theme={"system"}
    const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
      model: "your-model",
      messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Hello, privately." }],
    });
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

Already using Python, Go, or another language? The SDK includes a local proxy server — point your existing OpenAI client at it, and encryption happens transparently. Zero code changes.

## What to Read Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="How It Works" icon="diagram-project" href="/basics/learn-more/how-it-works">
    Understand the architecture — what each component does and how data flows through the system.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Security Model" icon="shield-halved" href="/basics/learn-more/security-model">
    Deep dive into the trust model — TEEs, attestation, threat model, and honest limitations.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Developer Experience" icon="code" href="/basics/learn-more/developer-experience">
    Integration guide — SDK options, capabilities, code examples, and API reference.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Platform Status" icon="road" href="/basics/learn-more/platform-status">
    What ships today, what's not ready yet, and what's on the roadmap.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  Ready to jump straight in? Go to the [Quickstart guide](/basics/build/quickstart).
</Note>