Storage Model

The Data Collector writes its output to the CYC Ephemeral Data Store — a dedicated encrypted store with job-scoped access and TTL-enforced deletion. Full details of the store architecture are in Component 2 — Ephemeral Data Store.

Two-Tier Model Summary

Tier	Default	TTL	Trigger
Ephemeral	Yes — all assessments	48 hours from report delivery	Automatic — store-native TTL
Retained	No — client must opt in at onboarding	90 days from report delivery	Client selects retention before payment

Write Contract

• The Data Collector writes collection.json.enc once, atomically, at the end of all four collection phases
• No partial writes exist in the store
• If collection fails before all four phases complete, no file is written — the job is marked failed and the client is notified
• The file is AES-256 encrypted using a per-job data encryption key (DEK) managed by the CYC key management service

What the Data Collector Does Not Do

• Does not read from the store
• Does not delete from the store
• Does not write to any other location
• Does not retain any data locally after writing to the store