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Work Without Internet Access

An offline Heartwood workflow requires the executable or container image, a compatible Heartwood-managed model, and all project inputs to be present before network access is removed. The standard images contain inference software but no model weights.

Prepare the Project

In an approved connected staging environment:

  1. install or pull the exact Heartwood release;
  2. create the dedicated project directory;
  3. inspect and download a supported model, or import an approved transferred artifact;
  4. verify the selected model with heartwood doctor; and
  5. transfer the complete project through the institution's approved process when the offline host differs.

Model provenance remains in .heartwood/models/. Do not transfer provider tokens or unrelated project state.

Start a Container Without Networking

From the prepared host project:

docker run --rm -it \
  --network none \
  --user "$(id -u):$(id -g)" \
  --env HOME=/tmp \
  -v "$PWD:/workspace" \
  ghcr.io/schmiedmayerlab/heartwood:0.2.0 \
  heartwood

The mounted project appears as /workspace inside the container, but the host folder remains the durable location. With networking disabled, only a selected Heartwood-managed model can satisfy inference.

Docker's none network isolates the container from the host as well as the internet, so this strict recipe supports the terminal interface only. To use the browser in an air-gapped deployment, the surrounding platform must provide an authenticated or loopback-only inbound route while independently denying outbound traffic; validate that network design before using it with project data.

Verify the Boundary

Check that:

  • the active model route is loopback;
  • no hosted credential is configured;
  • the platform blocks outbound traffic independently of Heartwood policy;
  • model files and project storage meet the environment's handling requirements; and
  • audit exports remain in the approved environment.

Heartwood's no-network integration tests exercise the complete gateway, OpenHands, tool, action, replay, and audit path with deterministic and resource-qualified in-environment inference fixtures. Deployment isolation remains an infrastructure responsibility.