How It Works

Overview

Understanding Needle's secure approach begins with a few guiding principles that shape every decision we make.

Core Principles

• ISO-compliant security architecture across every layer
• Secure cloud-based RAG processing with flexible deployment models
• Enterprise-grade data protection and auditing
• Bring your own LLM support for maximum control
• Performance optimizations to scale with mission-critical workloads

Security Features

• Rigorous ISO security standards compliance
• Hardened cloud infrastructure and isolation
• Advanced data protection with encryption in transit and at rest
• Fine-grained access controls and policy enforcement
• Regular third-party security reviews

Architecture

Inside Needle's technical infrastructure, each component has a defined responsibility to keep data secure and workflows efficient.

System Components

• Secure API Gateway for ingress, auth, and throttling
• Processing Engine that orchestrates ingestion, transformation, and retrieval
• Vector Database optimized for semantic understanding
• Dedicated Security Layer for monitoring, logging, and governance

Data Flow

• Secure data ingestion pipelines normalize and validate content
• Processing and vectorization create rich embeddings
• Secure storage maintains data residency and retention guarantees
• Controlled access ensures every retrieval is auditable

Security & Compliance

Needle is built for organizations that cannot compromise on compliance, residency, or auditability.

Compliance Foundations

• ISO-aligned policies and continuous monitoring
• Configurable data residency to meet regional mandates
• Documentation and controls ready for enterprise audits

Data Protection

• End-to-end encryption and secret management
• Segmented infrastructure to isolate sensitive workloads
• Automated logging with retention policies for forensics

Integration

Connecting Needle with your systems is straightforward whether you prefer APIs, SDKs, or event-driven workflows.

Integration Options

• REST API endpoints for CRUD, ingestion, and retrieval
• SDK integration for popular languages and frameworks
• Custom connectors for bespoke or legacy systems
• Webhook support for real-time event handling

Security Considerations

• API authentication with rotating credentials
• Role-based access control down to dataset level
• Transport-level encryption and request signing
• Detailed audit logging for every call

Workflow

From ingestion to response generation, the Needle workflow keeps context intact and governed.

Data Processing

• Document ingestion with format normalization
• Text extraction and chunking optimized for retrieval
• Vector embedding using Knowledge Threading™
• Semantic indexing for rapid, relevant lookups

Query Processing

• Query vectorization with contextual awareness
• Semantic search across governed datasets
• Context assembly that respects security posture
• Response generation using your preferred LLM