# Introduction

**enVector** is a vector search engine that lets you search directly on encrypted data.

By leveraging **Homomorphic Encryption (HE)**, it ensures sensitive information remains confidential during computation. This eliminates the risk of **data-in-use** exposure, allowing you to build secure AI applications with confidence.

### Why enVector?

Traditional systems must decrypt data to process it, creating a critical security gap. enVector closes this gap by fundamentally changing how data is handled.

* **Mathematically Proven Security**: enVector's protection isn't just based on software or hardware configurations; it's rooted in the mathematically proven principles of cryptography. This guarantees data confidentiality at a fundamental level.
* **Developer-Friendly API**: You get the power of Homomorphic Encryption through a high-level, intuitive API. This abstracts away the underlying cryptographic complexity, so you can focus on building your application, not on becoming a cryptography expert. 
* **Eliminate Data-in-Use Exposure**: Data remains encrypted at all times on the server—during ingestion, storage, and search. This solves the core data-in-use vulnerability that affects traditional databases. 
* **Unlock Innovation**: Securely use sensitive data to build next-generation AI services in regulated industries like finance and healthcare, without the typical compliance and security risks. 

### How it Works

enVector creates a true **Zero-Trust** environment for your vector data. The server infrastructure never has access to your plaintext data or queries.

The workflow is simple:

1. **Encrypt on the Client**: Your application uses the enVector SDK to encrypt vectors before they are sent to the server.
2. **Search on Encrypted Data**: enVector performs similarity search computations directly on the encrypted vectors.
3. **Return Encrypted Results**: The server returns encrypted similarity scores, which only your client application can decrypt.

### Who is it for?

enVector is for teams that need to build innovative AI services without compromising on security and privacy.

* **AI Application Developers** who want to build features with sensitive data without the security overhead. 
* **Security Engineers** who need to guarantee the security of highly sensitive assets like biometric templates. 
* **Enterprise & Operations Architects** who must ensure new technologies meet corporate security and operational standards. 
* **Regulated Industry Product Strategists** who use demonstrable security to build customer trust and achieve compliance. 

### Ready to get started?

Jump right into the Installation guide to set up your environment or follow our Quick Start tutorial to run your first secure search.