FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

General questions

What is Sencai?

Sencai is a cloud SaaS platform for managing AI agents, organizations, and projects. It lets you easily provision and manage cloud instances, deploy applications, and monitor performance — all from one place.

Do I need my own cloud provider account?

No, it’s not required. Sencai can run your infrastructure under its own cloud licenses — you get the exact same full access and control over your instances through the Sencai console, just without the hassle of invoices, payment details, and a direct billing relationship with the cloud provider. This is the default and most convenient path for most customers.

If you’d still prefer to use your own cloud account (for example, for direct cost control, an existing provider contract, or compliance requirements), Sencai also supports Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) — connect your own AWS, GCP, Azure, Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Vultr, or Linode credentials under Settings > Cloud Credentials, and Sencai provisions instances directly in your account via each provider’s native APIs — never through Terraform/CDKTF for customer resources (see ADR-001 in the platform architecture docs). In that case, you’re billed by your cloud provider directly for the underlying infrastructure, plus a separate Sencai platform subscription for the management layer.

Where is my data stored?

Your account data (profile, organizations) is stored on Sencai servers. Cloud instances run on your chosen provider’s servers.

Is Sencai secure?

Yes. Sencai uses enterprise-grade security:

HTTPS TLS 1.3 — All data in transit encrypted
AES-256-GCM — API tokens encrypted at rest in the API Manager
JWT tokens — 12-hour expiry for access tokens; secure OIDC with Keycloak
TOTP 2FA — Two-factor authentication via authenticator apps
Role-based access control (RBAC) — Fine-grained permissions via organization roles
Security monitoring — RabbitMQ-based event logging
No plaintext storage — Passwords hashed; tokens encrypted

Standard cloud provider security (AWS, GCP, Hetzner) applies to instance data.

Go to https://sencai.space
Click Sign Up
Enter email and password
Confirm your email by clicking the link sent to you
Complete your profile (first name, last name)
Sign in

I forgot my password

On the login page, click Forgot password?
Enter your email
You’ll receive an email with a reset link
Click the link and set a new password

The login page offers self-service SSO with Google, Microsoft (Entra ID / Azure AD), and Apple — no administrator setup or contact required. Organizations with a Google Workspace domain also get a domain-pinned Workspace button that routes straight to their company IdP. GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Okta, and generic SAML/enterprise SSO are shown as coming soon and aren’t available yet.

Enterprises that need automated user lifecycle management (create/update/deprovision users from their own identity provider) can enable SCIM 2.0 provisioning under Settings > Integrations > SCIM. See Enterprise Integrations for the full setup steps (SCIM, Google Workspace Directory Sync, and MS365/Entra ID).

Organizations

How many organizations can I have?

Unlimited. You can be a member of any number of organizations.

Who can create an organization?

Any user with a verified email and completed profile. However, the number of organizations you can own is capped by your personal User Plan tier (max_organisations_owned) — the Free tier has a low cap, and you can upgrade your User Plan to own more.

Go to your organization’s Members tab and click Invite Member. Enter their email address and select their role (Owner or Member). They’ll receive an invitation link.

What’s the difference between Owner and Member roles?

Owner — Full control: invite/remove members, change roles, delete organization, manage all resources
Member — Standard access: use instances and tools, but can’t manage members or organization settings

Can I leave an organization?

Yes, unless you’re the only Owner. Owners must promote another member to Owner before leaving.

Sencai syncs your profile with Keycloak (the authentication system). If your first name or last name is missing in Keycloak, you’re prompted to fill them in on your first login. This happens only once.

Cloud instances

How long does provisioning take?

Usually 2–5 minutes. First-time provisioning may take up to 10 minutes.

Can I change the instance type after creation?

Yes, use Resize. Some providers require stopping the instance.

What happens when I delete an instance?

The instance is permanently deleted. All data on it is lost. Create a backup first if needed.

How can I reduce costs?

Stop instances you’re not using (storage still charges)
Choose smaller instance types
Reduce bandwidth transfers outside the region

How much data can I transfer?

Depends on the provider. Usually the first 1 TB/month within the region is free; transfers outside the region cost extra.

Tool center

Where do I find tools?

Click Tool Center in the top navigation.

Can I add my own Docker image?

Yes. First add a custom Docker registry in Settings, then find your images there.

How do I deploy a tool on an instance?

Select the tool in Tool Center
Click Deploy
Choose the instance
Configure environment variables
Click Deploy Now

Billing

Sencai bills on two independent axes:

Organisation Plan — a tiered subscription per organization, metered via Lago (usage events) and invoiced via Stripe (ADR-002 in the platform architecture docs).
User Plan — a personal, identity-level subscription (free / plus / ai / unlimited) that’s independent of any organization’s plan and controls how many organizations you can own and how many members you can invite for free. New users get a 14-day trial with full features before it settles to the Free tier.

Both are managed self-service through the Stripe Customer Portal, linked from Settings > Billing. Upgrades, downgrades, and prorated charges are handled automatically; downgrades are blocked if they’d put you over the new tier’s limits (e.g. you own more organizations than the new tier allows).

When am I charged?

Costs are charged monthly based on actual usage. Invoices are issued on the 1st of each month.

Do prices change mid-month?

Costs are calculated dynamically. If you create an instance mid-month, you’re only charged for remaining days.

Can I change the billing address?

Yes, in Settings → Billing → Address. Changes apply to future invoices.

What payment methods do you accept?

Sencai accepts credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and bank transfers (for B2B).

How do I upgrade or downgrade my plan?

Open the Stripe Customer Portal from Settings > Billing and pick a new tier, or use the underlying POST /api/subscription-enrollments/:id/change-tier endpoint directly if you’re integrating programmatically. Changes are prorated for the current billing period.

What if I exceed my budget?

Two independent mechanisms can apply:

Plan limits. If you hit your Organisation Plan’s or User Plan’s tier limits (e.g. number of instances, members, or organizations owned), new provisioning or invite actions are blocked with an HTTP 402 response until you upgrade — existing resources keep running.
Spend caps. You can configure a soft and a hard spend cap (in EUR) per organization under Settings → Billing → Spend Caps. Crossing the soft cap sends a warning notification; crossing the hard cap blocks new non-critical provisioning actions (safety-critical actions like security patches or backup restores are never blocked).

Separately, if a payment fails, a dunning process kicks in automatically: day 0 you get a payment-failure notice, day 7 the organization enters a grace period, day 14 it’s suspended (read-only, existing instances keep running), and day 30 the organization is archived. Paying the outstanding invoice at any point restores the organization immediately. Existing running cloud instances are not automatically deleted by this process by default.

Technical support

How do I contact support?

Several options:

Email: support@sencai.space
Chat: Click the 💬 icon in the app
Community: forum.sencai.space (Czech and English)

What’s the support SLA?

Critical incidents (service down) — Response within 2 hours
High priority (major functionality broken) — Response within 8 hours
Standard (feature requests, general help) — Response within 24–48 hours

Response times are best effort during business hours (CET/CEST).

Is there English documentation?

Yes, all documentation is available in Czech and English. Use the language switcher in the top navigation.

Common issues

Instance got disconnected

Check your network connection and reconnect SSH. If it persists, restart the instance.

Verify you entered the correct email and password. Use Forgot password? if needed.

Instance won’t provision

Check:

Do you have cloud provider credentials?
Does your account have enough quota?
Is the chosen region available?

If it persists, contact support.

Security and privacy

Is my data private?

Yes. Sencai never shares your content with third parties. All data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

How long does Sencai keep my data?

After account deletion, data is removed within 30 days. Instances on cloud providers remain until you delete them.

Can I export my data?

Yes. In Account Settings → Export Data, download a backup of your information.

FAQ