# How Black Ice works

> A one-page picture of how decisions flow from your team to your tools, and where your data lives.

**Category:** Getting started | **Tab:** getting-started

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Black Ice runs no model. It stores the decisions your team makes about terminology, and your tools read those decisions. This page shows how that works and where your data lives.

![Diagram: your people use the Black Ice app, which stores the governed ontology in the EU region. The Read API and MCP server serve it from there. GitHub Sync is an optional, dashed path that only runs if you turn it on.](/docs/how-black-ice-works.svg)

## 1. Your people decide

Terminologists, brand, legal and regional reviewers define concepts, terms and market rules in the Black Ice app. Approvals and every change are recorded with who decided and when, in the term history.

## 2. The governed ontology

The result is your governed ontology: concepts, approved terms, market definitions and relationships. It is isolated per workspace, encrypted, and never used to train any model.

## 3. Your tools read it

- **Read API**: pull the ontology into pipelines and CI jobs. Read-only keys are available. See [Pulling the ontology into your stack](/docs/integrations/ontology-pull-integration) and the [API reference](/docs/integrations/api-reference).
- **MCP server**: AI agents such as Claude or your IDE look up approved terms live. See [Connect Claude](/docs/integrations/connect-claude-mcp).

Both are served from the EU region.

## Optional: GitHub Sync

GitHub Sync is **off by default** and entirely your choice. It only runs if a workspace owner connects a repository and a token. When enabled, it copies your approved terms as Markdown files to the repository you choose. GitHub is listed as a sub-processor for this opt-in feature only.

**If you don't enable GitHub Sync, your ontology stays in the EU.** You can disconnect it at any time. See [GitHub Sync](/docs/integrations/github-sync).

## Where your data lives

- Your ontology content is stored and processed in the EU (Frankfurt, eu-central-1).
- The Read API and MCP server serve it from there.
- GitHub Sync is the only feature that copies ontology content elsewhere, and only to a repository you pick.
- Supporting services (email delivery, payments, CDN) are listed with their regions on the [Sub-processors](/legal/sub-processors) page.

Read more in [Privacy by design for integrations](/docs/integrations/privacy-by-design-integrations) and [Security and data protection](/docs/getting-started/security-and-data-protection).