AEGIS
Digital Legacy System

Documentation

Aegis DMS alpha — legacy-release infrastructure for self-hosters, families, and future platform integrations.

Overview

Aegis DMS is a dead man's switch system for digital legacy. It monitors that you are still active and, if you stop checking in, releases pre-configured information to designated contacts.

Use cases include: distributing passwords and account access to family, notifying executors of estate details, or delivering sensitive instructions that should only be shared after your death or incapacitation.

Aegis is in alpha. All pricing is a placeholder. Do not rely on it for legally binding document delivery.

Products

Aegis Hosted

Fully managed · No server required

A complete managed service for non-technical users. Aegis Hosted handles storage, switch monitoring, and contact notification. Release material is encrypted server-side — you are trusting Aegis with server-managed encryption in v1.

Aegis Relay

SaaS add-on · For self-hosters

Heartbeat monitoring for Aegis Core instances. Relay detects missed check-ins and can alert you or trigger release. Relay Escrow can hold release material on your behalf as a paid add-on.

Aegis Core

Open-source · Self-hosted · AGPL-3.0

A self-hosted application for managing and releasing digital legacy information. Run it on your own server with full control over your data. SQLite-backed, no cloud dependencies required unless you opt into Relay.

DeadDrop API

Coming soon · Platform layer

A future infrastructure API for developers and platforms who want to build legacy-release functionality into their own products. Not yet available — design is in progress.

Key Concepts

Dead man's switch

A mechanism that triggers an action when you stop actively preventing it. Aegis requires periodic check-ins. If you miss your window, it considers you incapacitated and begins the release process.

Release runs

A release run is the event where Aegis delivers your estate information to your contacts. Only one active release run can exist per account at a time. Release runs are irreversible once contacts have been notified.

Estate items

Structured records of your digital assets and accounts — including access credentials, important locations, and executor notes. Estate items are encrypted at rest.

Contacts

Trusted recipients who receive your release material. Contacts receive a claim link via email and must verify their identity before accessing your estate information.

Relay Monitoring vs Relay Escrow

Relay Monitoring tracks heartbeats from your self-hosted Aegis Core instance. Relay Escrow holds release material on your behalf for delivery when a trigger fires. These are distinct features — monitoring alone does not release anything.

Getting Started

Aegis Hosted

  1. Create an account at /register
  2. Complete the onboarding flow — choose Hosted, review the trust model, and acknowledge it
  3. Add at least one contact and one estate item
  4. Enable your dead man's switch and set a check-in interval
  5. Check in regularly to prevent a release run from triggering

Aegis Relay (self-hosters)

  1. Install and configure Aegis Core on your own server
  2. Create an account and subscribe to the Relay plan
  3. Generate an API key in your Aegis Core instance
  4. Connect Core to Relay via the Relay settings panel
  5. Send a test heartbeat to confirm the connection

Security Model

All PII fields (names, emails, account details, executor notes) are encrypted at rest using AES-256-GCM. Audit logs never contain plaintext PII. Passwords are hashed with Argon2id. Password reset tokens are SHA-256 hashed and single-use with a 15-minute expiry.

Sessions use HttpOnly cookies with SameSite=Lax. CSRF protection is required on all state-changing requests. Rate limiting applies to auth endpoints.

For Aegis Hosted v1, encryption keys are server-managed. There is no client-side or zero-knowledge encryption in v1. If you need full key control, use Aegis Core (self-hosted).

Trust & Limitations

Aegis is in alpha. We do not claim:

  • Guaranteed delivery — email delivery depends on third-party infrastructure
  • Legal equivalence to a will or estate document
  • Zero-knowledge encryption — Hosted v1 uses server-managed keys
  • Bank-level security — we apply reasonable security practices for an alpha product
  • Shamir secret sharing — not implemented

Aegis is infrastructure. It does not provide legal, financial, or estate-planning advice. Consult a professional for legally binding arrangements.

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