Support

What Castellan puts right on its own

Castellan looks after its staff, and they look after themselves. Most hiccups are dealt with before you'd notice, and what can't be reaches Needs you on Castellan's page, with a Windows notification if you allow them.

Keeping your staff at work

• An agent that stops answering is opened again. Three tries, five minutes apart, then once an hour. If it still won't come back, it's in Needs you. An agent you stopped stays stopped.
• Everything comes back after a restart. Castellan and each agent start again when you sign in to Windows, each on or off as you left it.
• A job that hangs is let go. An agent's round that runs far past its time is stopped, and the next one tries again.
• Nothing is left half-written. Each agent saves its files whole, so a crash or a power cut can't leave one half old and half new. A damaged status file is simply started fresh.
• A new PC isn't swamped. The staff's heavy first jobs take turns, one at a time, at low priority.

Updates

• Every download is checked against its fingerprint (SHA-256) before it's used.
• A failed update leaves the old version working. The new version is put in beside the old one and swapped in only at the end. If anything goes wrong, the old one stays, and its page comes back.
• A failed automatic update is tried again after 30 minutes, up to three times for one release. Meanwhile the agent keeps working on the version it had.
• Offline, it waits quietly. No errors and no alarms: it looks again every 5 minutes, and carries on once you're back. A download that failed because you were offline doesn't count against its tries. Agents' jobs that need the internet wait for their next turn the same way.
• Hiring works without the internet. If an agent's download fails, Castellan installs the copy its setup brought, once it's checked.
• Running the setup again repairs Castellan. It puts back whatever is missing and keeps your settings. A setup that was interrupted carries on from where it stopped.

Your settings

• Backed up every day, and again before every update: Castellan's settings and every agent's, to the folder you choose. A day the PC was off is caught up soon after it starts; a backup that fails is tried again an hour later.
• A mistake in a settings file doesn't break anything. Castellan names it on its page and uses the default meanwhile.

The local AI

• It finds what works on your PC. Setting up the local AI tries the NPU first, then the graphics card, then the processor, and uses the NPU only after it has answered a test question.
• It falls back when something fails. If the NPU, GPU or CPU can't answer, the work moves to the next one, and the one that failed is tried again 10 minutes later. A model that's just slow to load isn't counted as a failure.
• Games come first. Background AI work keeps off the graphics card while a game is using it.
• The model servers are kept healthy. One that goes silent is restarted, idle ones are stopped to free memory and started again when needed, and a program that holds an accelerator too long is moved aside so the rest can carry on.

Your license

• It works offline. Castellan checks its license on your PC and refreshes it now and then; offline, it keeps using the one it has. A paid license that runs out stops nothing: you keep what you have.

Staff whose work is putting things right

• The Lamplighter puts a new graphics driver on trial, and rolls it back by itself if the screen goes dark, if you don't keep it, or if the PC restarts twice without you keeping it. A bad driver that keeps coming back is stopped on its third try, instead of going round and round.
• The Watchman turns Windows' System Protection on and makes a fresh restore point whenever the newest is over a day old, so there's always a way back.
• The Marshal sets a display's refresh rate, resolution or HDR right, and puts the old setting back by itself if you don't keep the new one within 15 seconds.
• The Cellarer and the Butler test their backups every week, by restoring a sample of files (or game saves) and checking each one against the original. The Cellarer copies again any file that didn't match, and when the backup drive is away, it backs up once it's back.
• The Smith keeps the local AI's model servers running, checks every week that the models still answer right, and tries a new NPU server before it trusts it, taking it out again if it fails.
• The Surveyor checks your PC and every agent each hour, and tells you what to mend. It never changes anything itself; a finding that clears goes away by itself.

What Castellan leaves to you

• Switching on automatic updates. They're off until you choose them, and an update that has failed three times waits for your Update click.
• Undoing an update. An agent's update can't undo itself yet: restore the backup made before it, or wait for the next release, and write to us.
• Restoring a backup. It's your button. Backups failing two days running, or a backup folder Castellan can't reach, are in Needs you.
• Port clashes. When another program uses an agent's port, Castellan says so; it won't stop the other program for you.
• Windows' administrator prompts: turning on or updating the Lamplighter's and the Watchman's guards, and each of the Watchman's undos.
• A restart, when you're signed in. The Lamplighter restarts the PC by itself only when nobody is signed in, or the screen went dark; otherwise it asks you.
• Anything that changes your files or your PC waits for your tick, as it always does.

If something's in Needs you and you're not sure what to do, write to us: support@castellan-software.com.