Lockdown Mode

What you'll do

Lockdown Mode keeps your work inside Emerge.ai. Turn it on and only Emerge.ai's private models can be used — no third-party providers — and web search is disabled.

It has two scopes:

• Personal — applies only to the person who turned it on. Any member can turn it on for themselves.
• Cloud-wide — applies to everyone in the Cloud. Only a Cloud Owner or a Cloud Administrator can turn it on, and doing so forces it on for every member.

When Cloud-wide Lockdown Mode is on, an individual member cannot switch it off for themselves. The stricter setting wins.

What Lockdown Mode leaves alone

The name invites an assumption worth correcting before you rely on it.

Lockdown Mode is about AI processing, not about your content. Who can read, edit, share, export or delete something is decided by Cloud roles, and Lockdown Mode leaves all of that exactly as it was. Someone who could export a file before you turned it on can still export it afterwards.

Its coverage is specific. The behaviours listed in What changes when it's on are its full extent — treat anything outside that list as not covered.

If you need to control who can reach or move content, that is a matter of Cloud roles, not Lockdown Mode.

Step-by-step

1. For yourself: select the lock icon at the top of the chat screen and confirm. This is the personal scope, available to any member on a paid plan.
2. For everyone: open Cloud Settings → Lockdown Mode and use Lockdown Mode for Everyone. This requires the Cloud Owner or Cloud Administrator role.

What changes when it's on

The confirmation you get when you turn it on spells out the trade: "Only certain models will be available and web search will be disabled until lockdown mode is turned off."

Only Emerge.ai's private models can be used. The product's description reads: "your cloud uses only Emerge's private models — no third-party providers, and none of your data leaves Emerge." Which models remain available is configuration that Emerge.ai changes over time, so the model picker is where to check.

Auto is unavailable. The Auto option leaves the picker while Lockdown Mode is on, and a chat that was set to Auto moves to a specific allowed model.

Web search is disabled. It comes back when Lockdown Mode is turned off.

Plan requirements

Lockdown Mode is included in every paid plan. On the Free plan the control is still visible, but it points you to an upgrade instead of turning on — the product's own banner reads "Lockdown Mode is available on paid plans."

Lockdown Mode also needs the subscription to be active. If the account drops to the Free plan or the subscription lapses while Lockdown Mode is on, it stops applying until the plan covers it again. The protection genuinely stops at that point — it is not quietly kept running on a plan that no longer covers it. If Lockdown Mode matters to how your team works, check it after any plan change.

Checking the current setting

The current status is shown in Cloud Settings → Lockdown Mode, and hovering the lock icon in the chat header shows a status card. Turning Lockdown Mode on is recorded along with who changed it and when — the card's Locked By and Last Updated fields — so a Cloud-wide change is attributable rather than anonymous.

Definitions

• Lockdown Mode — a setting that keeps AI processing with Emerge.ai, by limiting chat to Emerge.ai's private models and disabling web search while it is on.
• Personal scope — Lockdown Mode applied only to the member who turned it on.
• Cloud-wide scope — Lockdown Mode applied to every member of the Cloud. Owner or administrator only.
• Approved model — a model Emerge.ai has approved for use under Lockdown Mode. The set is configured by Emerge.ai and changes over time.

Related topics

• Data retention
• Privacy & Security overview
• Your first chat — choosing a model, and what to do when one isn't available
• Troubleshooting