Question 1

What is the MACAW architecture?

Accepted Answer

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    MACAW Console (Web UI)                       │
│  - Policies, Logs, Activity, Attestations, Settings, Dev Hub   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Trust Control Plane (Cloud - Managed SaaS)         │
│  - Policy Store, Audit Storage, IdP Bridge, Attestation En

Question 2

What is the difference between SDK and Control Plane?

Accepted Answer

| Component | Location | Function |
|-----------|----------|----------|
| SDK (macaw_client + adapters) | Runs in your app | Policy enforcement, signing, audit generation |
| Control Plane | MACAW Cloud | Policy storage, audit aggregation, Console UI, IdP bridge |

The SDK enforces locally for low latency. The Control Plane provides management, visibility, and policy distribution.

Question 3

Where does policy enforcement happen?

Accepted Answer

At the endpoints, not in a central proxy. MACAW embeds Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs) where the action is.

Two deployment models:

| Model | How It Works | Use Case |
|-------|--------------|----------|
| Trusted library (default) | PEP embedded in your app via adapters (SecureOpenAI, etc.) | Standard deployments |
| Sidecar | PEP runs as separate process alongside your app | Enterprise, specialized environments |

What the PEP validates:

Every request must pass three checks:
1. Integrity -

Question 4

Does MACAW see my prompts or data?

Accepted Answer

No. MACAW sees metadata only:
- Operation type (llm_call, tool_invoke)
- Resource identifiers (model name, tool name)
- User identity
- Policy decisions
- Timing information

Your actual prompts, responses, and data stay between your app and the LLM/tool provider. MACAW enforces policy without inspecting content.

Question 5

How does MACAW enforce security without slowing down my app?

Accepted Answer

MACAW adds minimal overhead to each operation. Policy evaluation happens locally in the SDK, with only audit events and policy sync going to the cloud. Cryptographic operations are optimized and cached.

Typical overhead: 1-20ms per operation, compared to LLM latency of 500ms-10+ seconds. Negligible in practice.

Question 6

What happens if the MACAW service is unavailable?

Accepted Answer

The SDK requires connectivity to the Control Plane for policy updates and audit logging. If the Control Plane becomes unreachable:
- Policy decisions use cached policies (fail-secure by default)
- Audit events queue locally until connectivity resumes

For high-availability requirements, Enterprise tier offers resilience options including multi-region deployment and local fallback configurations. Contact us for guidance on your specific availability requirements.

Question 7

How does MACAW prevent single points of failure?

Accepted Answer

The distributed architecture means:
- Each PEP operates independently at each boundary
- Tools verify signatures independently (don't trust callers)
- Policy enforcement is distributed across all integration points
- No single enforcement chokepoint in the request path
- High-availability Control Plane infrastructure (Enterprise)

Any node going down won't affect others and can recover independently.

Question 8

How does MACAW handle multi-agent workflows?

Accepted Answer

Multi-agent workflows are exactly where traditional security fails and MACAW's approach shines. The core insight: multi-agent systems are byzantine distributed systems - any agent could be compromised, produce inconsistent outputs, or be manipulated by malicious inputs.

MACAW applies the same principles that secure distributed systems:

1. Agent identity isolation - Each agent has its own Ed25519 keypair (smallest unit of cryptographic identity)
2. Inter-agent authentication - Agents verify eac

Question 9

Does MACAW work in air-gapped environments?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with Enterprise tier configuration:
- Pre-download SDK packages for offline installation
- Configure for your network topology
- Standalone binary option (no Python dependency)

Contact us for air-gapped deployment guidance.

Question 10

What endpoint does MACAW use?

Accepted Answer

The MACAW Trust Control Plane endpoint is:

https://api.macawsecurity.ai/rpc

This is pre-configured in your config.json when you download the SDK from the Console.