---
title: What is ScaiDrive
path: introduction/what-is-scaidrive
status: published
---

ScaiDrive is an enterprise file synchronization and sharing platform. A central server stores the authoritative copy of every file; desktop, mobile, and web clients keep local copies in sync. Users collaborate in shared folders with NTFS-style permissions, send files to people outside the organization through password-protected links, and find content with full-text or semantic search.

You integrate once through the HTTP API. Whether a user is on a laptop, a phone, a browser, or calling the API from another service, the contract is the same.

## What it gives you

**Block-level delta sync.** Clients compute SHA-256 chunk hashes and upload only changed blocks. A 500 MB file with a 2 MB edit transfers 2 MB, not 500 MB. Chunks deduplicate across files and users — if two people upload the same attachment, it's stored once.

**Central shares with NTFS-style ACLs.** Shares are the unit of collaboration. Each share has members (users or groups) with roles (`owner`, `admin`, `contributor`, `reader`) and an ACL system that supports per-file and per-folder allow/deny entries with inheritance. Permissions behave the way a Windows administrator expects.

**External sharing without accounts.** Create a public link to a file, folder, or share. Optionally protect with a password, IP allow-list, email allow-list, expiry date, download cap, or upload-only drop zone. Every access is logged. See [External Links](/docs/scaidrive/api-guides/external-links).

**Cursor-based sync protocol.** Clients poll `GET /api/v1/sync/changes?cursor=...` and get every change since their last checkpoint. No full scans, no diffing. Conflicts surface as first-class objects with pluggable resolution strategies (`LAST_WRITER_WINS`, `KEEP_BOTH`, `MANUAL`, `SERVER_WINS`, `CLIENT_WINS`). See [Sync Model](/docs/scaidrive/core-concepts/sync-model).

**Hybrid connectors.** Sync content from existing SMB shares or SharePoint Online libraries without migrating. The connector keeps the external source and a ScaiDrive share in step on a schedule, mapping identities between systems. See [Connectors](/docs/scaidrive/connectors).

**Semantic search, optional.** If you've attached a vectorization provider (OpenAI, Cohere, Bedrock, Hugging Face, or a local embedding model), text content is chunked, embedded, and indexed in Weaviate. Search becomes `POST /api/v1/search/semantic` with a natural-language query, or `POST /api/v1/search/context` to pull RAG-ready context for an LLM.

**Multi-tenant from day one.** Partners contain Tenants contain Users. Quotas and budgets enforce themselves at every level. If you're running ScaiDrive as a platform serving multiple customers, the tenancy model is already there.

## What it's not

- **Not a block device or filesystem.** ScaiDrive exposes files and folders over HTTP, not over FUSE or SMB (SMB is a *source*, not a frontend).
- **Not a document editor.** ScaiDrive stores and syncs files — it doesn't edit them. Plug in Office Online, OnlyOffice, or Collabora for in-browser editing.
- **Not a backup product.** Versioning retains prior file versions, but ScaiDrive is primarily a sync-and-share platform. For compliance retention, see [Enterprise Compliance](/docs/scaidrive/advanced/enterprise-compliance).
- **Not opinionated about identity.** ScaiDrive delegates authentication to [ScaiKey](/docs/scaidrive/introduction/architecture#scaikey-integration) (an OAuth 2.0 / OIDC provider). Users log in through your existing SSO — ScaiDrive just consumes the JWT.

## Who it's for

- **Teams that want Dropbox-for-Business without the SaaS bill.** Self-host ScaiDrive on your own infrastructure.
- **Enterprises with SMB or SharePoint-based workflows** that want a modern sync/share layer on top of existing storage.
- **Platforms building collaboration features** that need multi-tenant file sharing with strong permission semantics.
- **AI-product builders** that need a content store with RAG-ready semantic search baked in.

## What's next

- [Philosophy](/docs/scaidrive/introduction/philosophy) — the design principles behind the API shape.
- [Architecture](/docs/scaidrive/introduction/architecture) — how the pieces fit together.
- [Quickstart](/docs/scaidrive/getting-started/quickstart) — upload your first file in five minutes.