Beta Warning

When a software product is described as being in beta, it means the product exists and works — but it is not finished. Engineers are still building features, fixing bugs, adjusting infrastructure, and making decisions that may fundamentally change how the platform behaves. Beta is not a marketing term at Tellus. It is a precise description of where the platform is in its development lifecycle.

For Tellus specifically, beta means the following. The platform's core functionality — connecting databases, browsing schemas, reading and writing records, and running AI analysis — is operational and available for use. However, the systems that surround that core functionality, including security controls, data handling infrastructure, monitoring, incident response, and platform stability guarantees, have not yet been fully built, tested, and independently verified. Some of these systems are partially in place. Others are still being designed.

Beta also means that the platform can change significantly at any time. Features that exist today may be removed, redesigned, or behave differently tomorrow. APIs may change without versioning. Data formats may change without migration tooling. Configuration options may disappear. None of these changes will necessarily come with advance warning, and none of them entitle you to compensation or data recovery if they affect your work.

This is normal and expected for a beta product. The purpose of a beta phase is to test the platform with real users, gather feedback, identify problems, and build toward a stable release. That process requires users who understand the risks they are accepting and who connect only the databases and data that are appropriate for this stage. If that describes you, we welcome your participation. If it does not, we ask that you wait until Tellus reaches general availability before connecting any database to the platform.

The most important thing on this page is this: do not connect a production database to Tellus during the beta period. A production database is any database that holds live data your business or application depends on — customer records, financial transactions, user accounts, application state, inventory, orders, or anything else that would cause real harm if it were lost, corrupted, or exposed.

This is not a legal formality. It is a genuine recommendation based on the current state of the platform. The infrastructure that Tellus runs on during beta has not been hardened to the standard required for production workloads. It has not been penetration tested by an independent security firm. It does not have a formal incident response process. It does not have the redundancy and failover systems that production-grade infrastructure requires. Connecting a production database to it exposes that database to risks that would not exist if you kept it connected only to software that has been through those processes.

More concretely: Tellus allows you to read and write data in your Connected Database. If something goes wrong — a platform bug that generates a malformed query, an accidental deletion triggered by a UI error, a permission misconfiguration that exposes your credentials — the damage happens in your real database. Tellus cannot undo it. We have no access to your database and no ability to restore data that has been modified or deleted. The responsibility for that data and for any harm that results from its loss or exposure sits entirely with you.

We understand that it can be tempting to connect a real database because test data feels artificial and does not fully reflect how the platform will behave in real use. We ask you to resist that temptation during beta. If you need realistic data for testing purposes, create a duplicate or snapshot of a real database with sensitive fields anonymised, and connect that instead.

The Tellus platform stores the credentials required to connect to your databases — hostnames, ports, usernames, passwords, API keys, and service account files. During beta, the security controls protecting this credential data are functional but have not been independently audited or verified to the standard that would be required before storing production credentials.

This means there is a non-trivial risk that a vulnerability exists in the platform's credential handling that has not yet been discovered or remediated. If such a vulnerability were exploited, an attacker could potentially obtain the credentials you have stored and use them to access your Connected Databases directly. The risk of this happening is not high — we have implemented standard encryption and access controls — but it is not zero, and it is higher than it will be after the platform has been through a formal security review.

There is also a risk that the platform's access control system contains bugs that could, in certain circumstances, allow one user to access another user's Project data or credentials. This type of authorisation bug is among the most common in web applications and is typically caught through a combination of thorough testing and external security review. We have tested our access control implementation, but we have not had it independently reviewed. We cannot guarantee it is bug-free.

Beyond credential security, the platform transmits data from your Connected Databases to third-party AI providers when you use AI features. During beta, the controls governing exactly which data is transmitted and how it is handled by those providers are still being refined. If you connect a database that contains sensitive, regulated, or confidential data, that data could be transmitted to a third-party AI provider when you invoke certain platform features, even inadvertently.

For all of these reasons, the safest approach during beta is to connect only databases that contain data you would be comfortable losing entirely or having exposed publicly — because in a worst-case security scenario, that is what could happen.

Tellus allows you to insert, update, and delete records in your Connected Databases. These operations are executed immediately and directly. There is no confirmation step that cannot be bypassed, no recycle bin, no soft delete, and no undo. When a record is deleted through the platform, it is deleted in your database.

During beta, there is an elevated risk that platform bugs could cause write operations to behave unexpectedly. A bug in the query construction logic could generate a DELETE or UPDATE statement that affects more rows than intended. A bug in the form handling could submit incorrect data to an INSERT. A bug in the pagination logic could cause a record to be operated on that was not the one displayed on screen. These types of bugs are a normal part of software development and are expected to occur during a beta phase. They are exactly why beta testing exists. But they mean that the risk of unintended data modification is higher now than it will be after the platform reaches general availability.

Tellus does not back up your database data. When you connect a database to Tellus, you are connecting it to a management interface — not a backup service. If data is lost or corrupted as a result of a platform bug, a user error, or any other cause, Tellus has no ability to restore it. Your own backup and recovery procedures are the only protection you have against data loss. If you connect a database to Tellus that you do not have a current backup of, you are accepting the risk of permanent data loss with no recourse.

You should also be aware that platform bugs during beta can occasionally cause write operations to be executed more than once — for example, if a network timeout causes the client to retry a request that was already processed. This type of bug can result in duplicate records being created or a delete being applied to a record that had already been restored. We are working to implement idempotency controls that prevent this, but they are not yet fully in place.

Tellus does not currently offer any uptime guarantee or Service Level Agreement. The platform may be unavailable at any time, for any duration, without advance notice. This can happen because of planned maintenance, unplanned outages, infrastructure failures, or decisions made by the Tellus team to take the platform offline in order to deploy a fix or make an architectural change.

During beta, infrastructure changes are made frequently and sometimes without the level of forward planning that would be applied to a production system. A deployment that was expected to take five minutes may take an hour. A database migration that was expected to complete smoothly may require the platform to be taken offline while it is resolved. These situations are part of the normal development process and they will happen.

This means you should not depend on Tellus being available when you need it during beta. If you are planning to use the platform for a time-sensitive task — a demo, a client presentation, a deadline-driven data operation — you should have a contingency plan that does not require Tellus to be working. If the platform is unavailable when you need it, Tellus cannot guarantee it will be restored on any particular timeline.

Features that exist in the platform today may also be removed or significantly changed without notice. If you are relying on a specific feature or behaviour, be aware that it could change in a future deployment. We will make reasonable efforts to communicate significant changes through our feedback channels, but we cannot guarantee that every change will be communicated in advance.

Tellus does not hold any compliance certifications during the beta period. This means the platform has not been independently assessed against GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, or any other regulatory or industry framework. If you are subject to any of these frameworks — or to any other data protection regulation or contractual data handling requirement — you should assume that connecting data subject to those requirements to Tellus during beta creates compliance risk.

Specifically: if you connect a database containing personal data of EU residents to Tellus, you may be creating a situation where that personal data is being processed by a data controller without the required safeguards in place. This could put you in violation of GDPR, which carries significant financial penalties. The same applies to health data under HIPAA, payment card data under PCI-DSS, and any data subject to contractual data residency or handling restrictions.

Tellus does not currently provide data processing agreements, Business Associate Agreements, or any other compliance documentation required by these frameworks. We plan to obtain relevant certifications and provide the necessary compliance documentation before the platform reaches general availability. During beta, they do not exist, and we cannot provide them on request.

If you are unsure whether the data in a database you are considering connecting is subject to regulatory requirements, the safest assumption is that it is. Create an anonymised or synthetic version of the data for testing purposes and connect that instead.

The risks described in the preceding sections do not mean that Tellus is not useful during beta. They mean that it is appropriate for a specific and limited category of use, and that staying within that category is important.

Development and staging databases are the primary appropriate use case during beta. A development database is one that contains data created specifically for testing — schemas and records that exist to verify that your application works, not records that represent real users or transactions. A staging database is a copy of your production database structure, populated with test or anonymised data, used to verify changes before they go to production. Connecting these to Tellus is appropriate because losing or corrupting the data in them does not cause real harm.

Synthetic and anonymised data is also appropriate. If you want to test Tellus with realistic-looking data — for example, a database with the same schema as your production system but with all personal information replaced with generated values — that is a good approach. It lets you evaluate how the platform handles your data structure without exposing real user data to the risks described in the security section above.

Learning and evaluation is an appropriate use. If you want to understand how Tellus works, evaluate whether it meets your needs, or explore its features before deciding whether to adopt it when it reaches general availability, beta is the right time to do that. Connect a test database, try the features, and form a view. That is exactly what the beta phase is for.

Providing feedback is perhaps the most valuable thing you can do during beta. If you encounter a bug, notice something that does not work as expected, have a suggestion for how a feature should behave, or want to request a database provider or feature that does not yet exist, we want to hear from you. The feedback address is at the bottom of this page. Your input directly shapes how the platform develops.

If you are going to use Tellus during beta — which we encourage, within the appropriate use cases described above — the following practices will reduce the risk that something goes wrong and ensure your experience is as useful and safe as possible.

Create a dedicated, minimum-privilege database user for Tellus. When you connect a database to the platform, do not use your root or admin user. Create a new database user specifically for Tellus, and grant that user only the permissions required for what you intend to do. If you are only browsing and reading data, create a read-only user. If you need to test write operations, grant INSERT and UPDATE permissions on specific tables only, not blanket permissions on the entire database. This limits the damage that can be done if something goes wrong — whether due to a platform bug or a security issue.

Back up any database you connect before connecting it. Even if you are connecting a staging database that you believe contains no important data, take a backup before connecting it to Tellus. It costs almost nothing and means that if a platform bug causes unexpected data modification, you can restore from the backup rather than reconstructing the data from scratch.

Monitor your Connected Database independently of Tellus. Keep an eye on the query logs and connection logs in your database management system during your Tellus testing sessions. If you see queries being executed that you did not initiate, or connections from unexpected sources, disconnect the database from Tellus immediately and rotate the credentials. Do not wait for Tellus to alert you — we do not currently have the monitoring infrastructure in place to detect and notify you of anomalous query patterns in real time.

Rotate the Tellus database user's credentials regularly. Change the password for the database user you created for Tellus at regular intervals — at minimum every 30 days during the beta period. This limits the window of exposure if credentials are compromised. After rotating credentials, update the connection settings in your Tellus project to reflect the new credentials.

Do not use AI features on sensitive data. The platform's AI features involve transmitting schema information and sample data records to third-party AI providers. Even if the database you connect does not contain production data, be mindful of what a sample of your data reveals. If it contains realistic-looking names, email addresses, or other personal information — even synthetic — consider whether you are comfortable with that data being transmitted externally before using AI features.

By creating a Tellus account and connecting a database during the beta period, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this advisory, and you accept the risks described here in full. You are using beta software. Beta software is unfinished, potentially unstable, and not held to the security and reliability standards of production software. That is the nature of the beta phase, and it is the reason this page exists.

Tellus accepts no liability for any harm that results from your use of the platform during beta, including data loss, data corruption, credential exposure, security breaches, service unavailability, regulatory violations, or any other adverse outcome. This is not a new or unusual position for beta software — it is the standard operating reality of testing a product that is still being built. The platform is provided to you during beta on an entirely as-is basis, with no warranties of any kind, express or implied.

This does not mean Tellus is indifferent to what happens to you or your data during beta. We take security seriously, we will investigate and fix reported issues promptly, and we will communicate significant problems to users as soon as we become aware of them. But the responsibility for choosing what data you connect, what operations you perform, and what precautions you take rests with you. We have given you the information you need to make those decisions safely. What you do with it is your choice.

If at any point you are uncertain about whether something you want to do in Tellus is safe during beta, the answer is simple: do not do it until the platform reaches general availability and has the stability and security guarantees in place that you need. We would rather have you wait and use the platform safely than push ahead and have a bad experience that could have been avoided.

Beta users are the most important contributors to making Tellus production-ready. Every bug you report, every feature request you submit, and every confusing experience you describe helps us build a better, safer, and more useful platform. We read all feedback and it directly influences what we prioritise.

If you encounter a bug, please describe what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened. If you experienced data loss or unexpected data modification, tell us immediately — these are our highest-priority incidents and we will investigate them as soon as we receive the report.

Send all feedback, bug reports, and general questions about the beta to beta@tellusplatform.site. For security concerns specifically, use security@tellusplatform.site.

Tellus · Beta Advisory · tellusplatform.site