About

The AI security mandate.

We built Tether because existing DLP tools are fundamentally incompatible with developer AI workflows. Here is the problem we are solving, and our technical roadmap to enforce it.

Network DLP is blind to context.

Traditional data loss prevention (DLP) relies on scanning files and network traffic for static patterns at the perimeter. Developer AI tools bypass this entirely. They communicate over encrypted TLS tunnels directly to AI APIs, often paraphrasing proprietary concepts rather than copying literal strings.

Tether shifts enforcement to the endpoint. By inspecting the prompt before it enters the TLS tunnel, we restore visibility and deterministic control without breaking encryption.

The person behind it.

Alvin Richburg, founder of Tether Connect

Alvin Richburg

Founder

Alvin is a long-time cybersecurity professional whose work has centered on securing workloads and assets for the most sensitive customers — the ones who don't get to be wrong.

He started Tether Connect because the controls that governed the last decade of data loss — regex DLP, allowlists, signature scanners — were built for a world you could enumerate. The way developers work with AI isn't that world. Tether governs the request where it still carries the prompt and the identity: on the developer's machine, before it reaches the model.

Architecture dictates outcome.

01

The moat is execution and integration depth.

The real moat isn't abstract algorithmic claims. It is a working loopback proxy that generates cryptographically verifiable policy receipts. It is the ability to deploy single-tenant control planes. It is the deep integrations into existing SIEM and SCIM workflows that a CISO can operationalize in an afternoon. docs/reviews/SUMMARY.md

02

Every enforcement decision is cryptographically verifiable after the fact.

Every response carries X-Tether-Policy-Version. Every event and judge review stamps the active version. An auditor pulls the signed bundle and runs Ed25519 verification offline, against the controls in force at decision time. The auditor does not have to trust Tether to vouch for itself. docs/ATTESTATION.md

03

We do not install a MITM root cert on the developer machine.

The Connect proxy is loopback-bound and does not perform TLS interception. The same corporate CA that decrypts a Cursor call decrypts the developer's banking session — we do not put that into play. Workspace-tier TLS termination is reserved for the future managed VSCodium build, where the user has explicitly accepted a managed-device install. main.go:1-22

04

The judge is additive. The deterministic floor is the floor.

A regulated buyer needs a layer that blocks by policy alone — no model in the path. Tier 0 is that layer. The judge is honest about its tier: Tier 1 sync judge with fail-closed-on-timeout when the operator opts in, or Tier 2 advisory with no path to block the response in flight. We do not collapse those into one sentence to make the pitch cleaner.

Three things we're building next.

4–8 WEEKS

Managed VSCodium artifact pipeline

Signed installer for macOS / Windows / Linux. Apple notarization, Windows Authenticode, AppImage GPG signing. The workspace daemon is already in production and returns the correct decision today; the missing piece is the CI pipeline that produces a customer-trusted IDE binary. WORKSPACE_BRIDGE.md

SHIPPING WITH GA

Per-request attestation hardening

The chain is live today: event.policyVersion → signed bundle → Ed25519 verify → controls. The next cut is tamper-evident per-version bundle retention — an append-only WORM-style archive for deployments that need full forensic retention. Today's policy-audit.jsonl covers publishes; per-version archival is the remaining gap, shipping with GA. ATTESTATION.md

8–15 DAYS

Overwatch durable stores

Today, Overwatch's events / access-requests / judge-reviews / traffic-sessions live in process memory. A Cloud Run restart loses in-flight state. The 8-15 day plan is SQLite-backed durable stores for the per-request event surface, with SIEM forwarding as the durability path until that ships.

No 2027 dates on this page on purpose. Roadmap beyond 180 days is conversation, not commitment.

For investor inquiries or press: View our investor page or email contact@tetherconnect.app. We have a 30-minute conversation, the read-only architecture review, and a working pilot.

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