Cloud AI, explained

Body is paused in Kept 1.8.6. Cloud AI setup and Settings do not promise meal analysis or share Body data while the module is unavailable. While Body is paused, whatever your Body switch says, Ask Kept and the Goal coach do not read, send, or change your Body weight log, meals, workouts, lifts, or sleep: what to do now, a proposed Top 3, and metric questions are worked out without them, and metrics built on them are not read. Saved memories and briefings Kept wrote earlier can still mention them; open Memories to review or delete a memory. A goal's own readings are not Body data: the Goal coach still sends the readings you logged on that goal, which for a weight goal are weights, as the table below says. The preserved capabilities below apply when Body returns.

Cloud Agents are paused in Kept 1.8.6 on iPhone and Mac. Kept Workplace has retired from the Apple apps. Cloud AI copy does not list Cloud Agents as a feature you get in this Apple release. What data may leave the device is unchanged.

Kept does two kinds of thinking. Some of it happens on your device: detecting whether a line is a task or an event, pulling out a date, comparing a sleep measurement with a target, building the day's first plan. Some of it needs a large model on a server: routing a hard capture, answering a question about your notes, coaching a goal, reading a meal photo.

The second kind is Cloud AI. It is off until you turn it on, and it stays exactly as on or off as you leave it.

Allow it, or do not

Kept asks with one short screen. One line says what goes where and why: _Kept sends what you capture and write, including daily journal pages, and what each feature needs to third-party AI services (OpenAI and Anthropic) to sort captures, plan your day, answer questions, and review your notes overnight._ Allow Cloud AI turns Cloud AI on for your whole account, on every device, in one tap. Not now keeps Cloud AI off. See what is shared opens the full permission sheet: who receives data, how it is protected, what may be shared (activity or health summaries among it), why, and the Privacy Policy. Nothing on the screen is chosen for you, and nothing is sent until you tap Allow Cloud AI. The full sheet also says that daily journal pages are notes and may be included in Cloud AI context, including older pages, and that pausing a module does not delete its saved notes or keep them out of Cloud AI. While Body is paused, Ask Kept does not read or write Body records, though memories and briefings saved earlier may still mention them. There is no switch to keep a single note out of Cloud AI. The Cloud AI permission sheet draws its symbols in ink and gray; green appears only once you have allowed Cloud AI.

You meet that screen in one of two places:

• Setup. On iPhone and Mac, a new setup asks right after you choose your focus, before your goal, so a starter plan can be written with Cloud AI if you allow it. Both run the same sequence: Focus, Cloud AI, Goal, Plan. Setup skips the Cloud AI screen when Cloud AI is already on for the account, or when the account is on-device only and has turned Cloud AI off before (a Cloud AI revocation on the account, for example turned off in Settings or kept off on another device). A new account is asked once. The screen shows _Turn on Cloud AI?_ with six short tiles: who receives it, what is shared, why, how it is protected, your control, and what works without it. While the Cloud AI screen arrives, Allow Cloud AI and Not now are unavailable for a moment (VoiceOver reads them dimmed). On every setup screen VoiceOver starts at the screen's title. Not now asks once more, _Keep Cloud AI off?_: _Cloud AI lets Kept write your plan from your goal, sort what you capture into tasks, notes and events, and answer questions about your notes. It sends what those features need to OpenAI or Anthropic. Without it, Kept uses its own starter plan, and capture, notes, tasks, calendar, habits and sync still work._ Keep Cloud AI off and Allow Cloud AI sit side by side and the same size; either continues at once. Tapping outside the card, or Escape on a keyboard, is Keep Cloud AI off. The step has no skip, nothing on it is chosen for you, and on Mac, return never allows Cloud AI. Setup that resumes a longer draft from an earlier version asks at the same point on its longer path. A setup from an earlier version that had already reached its last screen is not asked again; the Today card covers it. The starter plan's source line reads _Includes suggestions from Claude_ when any card came from Claude, otherwise _Kept's starter plan_. When you allowed Cloud AI but Claude could not write the plan (no answer in time, or a limit), it reads _Starter plan_ with Retry, which asks once more.
• Today, once. If you have never chosen, or you turned Cloud AI off, Today shows a quiet offer at the end of the day, after your Top 3, Quick wins, Habits and writing, never above them: _Cloud AI is off. Turn it on for plans and answers._ Turn on and Not now are quiet buttons; nothing on Today that asks you to set something up is the filled button. Turn on opens the short screen. Not now hides the card for good on that iPhone or Mac. The card stays away while Cloud AI is on, while a change you just made is still reaching your account, and after you answer the card or the short screen on that device. It never shows while you are signed out, in setup, or on the permission sheet. If you chose Keep Cloud AI off in setup, on iPhone or Mac, the card does not show on either device: setup already asked twice. It also stays away for your first day after setup, until your first task is done or 24 hours pass, so Today shows your plan and nothing else. It shows at most once each time you open Kept, and after any Cloud AI change it stays away until you next open Kept. Setup's first Top 3 is built on your device either way. If you allow Cloud AI in setup, the permission reaches your account a moment later, and the first plan does not wait for it: Kept uses Cloud AI the next time it plans your day, such as after you add a task, and for each new day.

Do asks its own question. In Kept 2.0 on iPhone, Try Do on Do's introduction leads to the Cloud AI screen until you allow Cloud AI for Do, even if you allowed Cloud AI in setup. Not now on the introduction turns nothing on. Allow Cloud AI there turns on Cloud AI for your account if it was off and gives Do its own permission. Nothing is sent to a model for Do before you tap Allow Cloud AI. Turning Cloud AI off in Settings also turns Do off; turning Cloud AI back on does not turn Do back on. Settings → Privacy → Cloud AI for Do → Turn on brings the introduction back. See Do.

Settings → Privacy → Cloud AI holds the account-wide choice afterwards, with the full sheet. On iPhone, for an account that has Do, Cloud AI for Do sits below it. Kept works without it: capture, notes, tasks, calendars, habits, sync, and the device-built plan all carry on.

What uses the cloud, and what it sends

The permission sheet (See what is shared, or Settings) names the providers, OpenAI and Anthropic, and says the same thing in Kept's own words: who receives data, how it is protected, what may be shared, and why. Provider content is not used to train their general models. Nothing goes anywhere in the background that is not on this list, and the apps never hold provider keys; every request goes through Kept's server as you.

How changes are checked

Kept checks Cloud AI changes against synthetic case banks before a rollout. Those cases are invented test worlds, not customer accounts or exported customer content. The local evaluation launcher removes provider API credentials, blocks remote data stores and tools, and runs both the product answer and its quality judge through the logged-in Claude command-line subscription. It also drops cloud-provider routes (Bedrock, Vertex, Foundry and AWS credentials), and each Claude call, the judge's included, must report that it used the subscription login or the call is refused. If that login or its quota is unavailable, the evaluation stops as incomplete. It does not switch to a paid API or quietly reduce the number of cases. Operators can set a shared hard limit on actual Claude processes, including product attempts, retries, and judge calls; the run records what it used. That limit is off by default.

With Cloud AI off

Cloud AI off is on-device only. Every cloud path stops: routing, the assistant's cloud answers, briefings, coaching, meal analysis, skills, overnight reflection, nightly note filing, Do (its own permission is withdrawn too), and the thinking tools an agent uses over MCP. Account sync and the minimal product events that keep the app working continue to use Kept's own servers. Screens say so when they meet the limit: _Cloud AI is off · from what's on this phone._

Goal Builder's model mapping routes are off for this release. Registered agent tools cannot turn them on, and a missing staged backend never falls through to a model call. The deterministic app path and any future cloud mapping remain separate rollout decisions.

On Mac, Settings → Capture → On-device routing is a different thing: it reports whether Apple Intelligence is available on this Mac to route captures privately, and offers Open System Settings if it is not.

Help improve Capture

A separate, optional permission under Cloud AI. When it is on, Kept keeps a sample only when you correct a capture: the line, the on-device and cloud proposals, and the fields you changed. Unchanged and abandoned captures are never kept. Samples live up to a year and are deleted the moment you turn the switch off; on Mac, turning it off asks you to confirm Turn off and delete shared samples. It starts off and stays off until you choose Allow and help improve. Capture works the same either way.

Withdraw

Do has a separate Cloud AI permission. Withdrawing Do permission saves the withdrawal directly, even if reading its current permission is unavailable. If the withdrawal cannot be saved, Kept reports that it is still waiting.

You can withdraw either permission while account deletion is waiting for reconciliation. Withdrawing Do permission also cancels its active runtime work. New permission grants stay blocked during deletion.

Turn Cloud AI off in Settings on any device. That also turns off Do's permission, so new Do requests stop going to a model; turning Cloud AI back on does not turn Do back on, and Do asks again before it starts. The Do conversations you already have stay in your account, and deleting your account removes them. It stops on that device at once, and the account-wide withdrawal follows; if it has to wait for a connection the screen says _Cloud AI stopped on this iPhone. Account-wide withdrawal is waiting to sync_ with a Try now. Turning it back on works the other way round: nothing starts until your account confirms the permission.

Next: Your account.

What is on

Once your Cloud AI permission has synced, Settings shows What's on now, with links to Ask Kept, Review your Top 3, and Task suggestions · Keep or Dismiss when available. Allowing Cloud AI from Settings also opens this receipt as a sheet once permission is confirmed. Overnight filing still follows your settings in Today's note, and Open Today's note takes you there; allowing Cloud AI does not turn those settings on. While permission is waiting to sync, the existing waiting message stays visible. Turning Cloud AI off stops new sends; saved memories can be removed in Memories with Delete.

Ask Kept works while the Body product is paused. It still checks your Cloud AI permission, On-device only choice, connection and enabled active modules. When a module it needs is off, it names it, for example Turn on Habits to ask Kept. On iPhone, if the cloud lane cannot run and the iPhone cannot answer on its own, suggested questions are hidden and the sheet names the reason; when Apple Intelligence can answer on the iPhone, they stay. On Mac the suggested questions always stay, because a question that cannot go to the cloud is answered from what is on your Mac and says so. You can still type a request for an available on-device action or answer.

Cloud AI for Do

Do asks for its own Cloud AI permission. In Settings → Privacy → Cloud AI for Do, choose Turn on to reopen the introduction, then Try Do and Allow Cloud AI to continue. Not now closes Do without granting permission. You can return to the same Settings row anytime, including after Turn off. When Do permission is on, Review introduction reopens the introduction and Turn off withdraws Do permission. Turning Do off does not withdraw Cloud AI permission for Capture or other Kept features.

Turning the global Cloud AI switch off on iPhone or Mac also withdraws Do permission. Do stops new sends on that device at once. Its account withdrawal waits for a connection if needed, and retries independently of the global switch. Turning global Cloud AI back on does not allow Do again. On iPhone, use Cloud AI for Do → Turn on and make Do's permission choice again. Do waits for a pending withdrawal to finish before accepting a new grant.