What Mothership is
Mothership is the Growther.ai cloud. It is optional. C5 is complete without it.
C5 works fine alone #
Before anything else, be clear on this: you never have to connect. On its own, C5 gives you the full platform — agents, orchestration, recipes, skills, tool use, encrypted local storage, managed updates, and a kill switch — one control that stops every agent at once. It works with no internet at all.
Connecting is something you choose because you want more, not something you must do to make C5 work.
What connecting adds #
| C5 on its own | C5 with Mothership | |
|---|---|---|
| Agents, orchestration, recipes, skills, tool use | Full | Full |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes — Mothership only adds |
| Encrypted local storage | Yes | Yes |
| Managed updates | Yes | Yes |
| Kill switch — stop every agent at once | Yes | Yes |
| Getting better over time | From your own use | From the whole community's |
| Dashboards | Your own | Combined across your installs |
| Shared improvements | Local only | Proven patterns reach you |
The idea behind it #
A single C5 gets better from your usage. It notices what works for you and leans that way over time.
A group of C5 installs connected to Mothership gets better from everyone's. When an approach proves itself across many people doing similar work, that improvement can reach your install too — so you benefit from the whole community's experience instead of only your own.
If you run several C5 installs — across a team, or on several machines — Mothership also gives you one place to see them all, and one place to manage updates and billing.
What it does not do #
Connecting does not:
- Move your work to the cloud. Your data stays on your computer.
- Give Growther.ai your prompts, files, or results.
- Require internet to keep working. Lose your connection and C5 carries on.
- Lock you in. You can disconnect at any time and keep everything.
Exactly what is and is not shared is spelled out in Privacy. Read that before you decide.
Should you connect? #
Probably yes if you use C5 regularly, run it on more than one machine, or want it to improve faster than your own usage alone allows.
Probably not if you work under rules that forbid any outside connection, you work fully offline by choice, or you are still trying C5 out.
You can start alone and connect later. Nothing is lost either way.
Where to go next #
- Connecting — how to do it.
- Privacy — exactly what is shared.