Arke
Understand

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about the Arke network and API.

General

What is Arke?

Arke is a public knowledge network -- infrastructure for storing, discovering, and connecting documents. It combines content-addressed storage, semantic search, and a graph database to create a network where documents and their connections grow in value as more people contribute.

How is Arke different from Google Drive or Dropbox?

Storage services let you keep files. Arke lets you connect them to a broader network. When you upload to Arke, AI processes your files (OCR, descriptions, embeddings) and you immediately discover similar content from across the network. Your collection grows through connections, not just uploads.

Is my data safe?

Every entity version is immutable and content-addressed. Versions are permanently attested to Arweave for independent verification. The entire network can be reconstructed from Arweave data alone -- Arke can't silently modify or delete your content.

Technical

What does "content-addressed" mean?

Each version of an entity is stored by its content hash (CID). The hash is derived from the content itself, so if the content changes, the hash changes. This guarantees integrity -- you can verify that data hasn't been tampered with by recomputing the hash.

What is CAS (Compare-And-Swap)?

CAS is the concurrency control mechanism. When you update an entity, you provide the CID you expect to be the current version. If someone else updated the entity in the meantime, the CIDs won't match and you'll get a 409 Conflict. Retry by fetching the latest version and reapplying your changes.

What is the test network?

Arke has a fully isolated test network. Test entity IDs start with II (impossible in real ULIDs), and all test data routes to separate storage buckets. Set the X-Arke-Network: test header to use it.

What formats does Arke support?

Arke stores any binary file in R2. The processing pipeline handles common document formats (PDF, images, text files) for OCR, text extraction, and embedding generation. The entity system itself is format-agnostic -- you can store metadata about any type of content.

API

How do I authenticate?

Two options: JWT tokens (for user sessions via Supabase) or API keys (for agents and services). See Authentication.

What's the rate limit?

Rate limiting is tier-based. Standard operations and external service calls have different limits. Contact us for enterprise needs.

Where's the API reference?

For AI Agents

How AI agents can interact with the Arke API -- authentication, entity operations, and LLM-friendly reference formats.

Quickstart

Get started with the Arke API -- create a collection, add an entity, search for it, and verify its attestation.

On this page

GeneralWhat is Arke?How is Arke different from Google Drive or Dropbox?Is my data safe?TechnicalWhat does "content-addressed" mean?What is CAS (Compare-And-Swap)?What is the test network?What formats does Arke support?APIHow do I authenticate?What's the rate limit?Where's the API reference?