Cognitum Seed

Connect your Seed

A hardware root of trust for AI — identity, memory, and provenance. Follow the steps below; the last one checks the live connection for you.

Detected OS:
Watching for your Seed…
Plug it in via USB-C — I'll detect it automatically and walk you through the rest.

  1. Plug into the Seed's data port

    The Seed has two USB ports. Use the one set back from the edge — the port closest to the edge supplies power only (the light turns on, but your computer won't detect anything). Push the cable all the way in at both ends.

    Telltale: if the device's light is on but no COGNITUM drive appears, you're on the power-only port or the cable is loose — switch to the inner port and reseat firmly.

  2. Wait for the COGNITUM drive to appear

    This is how you know it's hooked up correctly — no software needed. When a drive named COGNITUM mounts, your cable, port, and seating are all good. The rest of setup is just trusting the certificate.

    On macOS it appears in Finder under Locations.

    No drive after ~10s? You're likely on the power-only edge port (step 1) or the cable is loose. The device's own identity (STATUS.txt) is also readable right on that drive — no setup required.

  3. Install the trust certificate

    The Seed uses its own security certificate. Installing it once lets your browser connect without warnings — and is required before this page can verify the connection.

    Open the COGNITUM drive → trust/ folder, then run:

    install-trust.command
    If double-clicking does nothing or macOS blocks it ("unidentified developer"), open Terminal and run this instead — it asks for your password, then installs the certificate:
    bash /Volumes/COGNITUM/trust/install-trust.sh
    After installing, use Safari for the smoothest result — it trusts the certificate you just installed and doesn't block local-network requests. (Firefox keeps its own certificate store and needs a separate import; Chrome may block local access.)

  4. Connected

    This page watches for your Seed automatically — no button to press. The moment it's reachable at 169.254.42.1, its live identity appears here and the banner above turns green.

Troubleshooting
The page never loaded / nothing happensThe device lives at a link-local address. After plugging in, your computer needs ~15–20s to assign itself a matching address — give it a moment, then retry. Also confirm you used the URL with https:// and port :8443.
Solid light but no COGNITUM driveThat's power without data — a shallow USB-C seat. Unplug both ends, push in firmly, or switch USB ports. The cable is almost never the problem if it's the one that shipped with the device.
Detection keeps failing even though the drive is mountedYou likely haven't installed the trust certificate yet (step 3) — the browser blocks the secure connection until you do. Safari is the most reliable browser on macOS: it uses the certificate you installed and doesn't block local-network requests. Firefox keeps its own certificate store, so it won't trust the Seed until you import the CA there too. Chrome trusts the system certificate but may block local-network access. As a last resort, use the "Open the device directly" link to accept the certificate manually.
Prefer the terminal?Check reachability directly:
curl -sk https://169.254.42.1:8443/api/v1/status
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