Cortex | purpose-trained brains for expert industries
Every Cortex model is trained on a curated domain corpus, answers with citations to the source text, and signs every response with a cryptographic receipt.
Cortex is Onyx AI Labs' line of purpose-trained domain AI models.
Each Cortex brain combines a fine-tuned model, a curated and validated knowledge corpus, and cryptographic verification — Ed25519-signed receipts and Merkle-batched audit trails — so every answer is citation-grounded and independently verifiable.
Purpose-trained
Every Cortex brain is fine-tuned on a curated corpus specific to one domain — not a general-purpose model with a system prompt bolted on. The training data is validated and versioned, not scraped.
Citation-grounded
Answers are retrieved from the source text via RAG, not recalled from model memory. Every claim traces back to a specific passage in the underlying corpus — no unsourced assertions.
Cryptographically receipted
Every response carries an Ed25519-signed receipt. Receipts are batched into Merkle trees for efficient, independently verifiable audit trails — no trust in Onyx AI Labs required.
Deployable anywhere
Cloud, dedicated cloud, on-premises, or fully air-gapped. Packaged as NIM containers, GGUF or MLX quantized formats for local hardware, or Python wheels — your infrastructure, your control.
One brain in production. More by engagement.
Compass
In productionGRC and financial services. Compass is the regulatory intelligence engine inside the SureStep GRC platform, running at financial institutions today.
In development / by engagement
Defence & Government
CMMC, NIST 800-171, and air-gapped deployment for defence contractors and federal agencies — built by engagement.
Healthcare
Clinical and regulatory knowledge for providers, payers, and health tech — built by engagement.
Energy & Nuclear
Safety-critical operational and regulatory knowledge for energy and nuclear operators — built by engagement.
Every Cortex brain has three layers
A purpose-trained model, a structured knowledge base, and cryptographic verification — each layer independently verifiable.
Model
The purpose-trained reasoning engine
- ▸Fine-tuned on a curated domain corpus with citation-grounded output
- ▸Selected and trained via Forge — NeMo, Unsloth, or MLX depending on the target hardware
- ▸Deployable on-premises or air-gapped — zero telemetry option
- ▸Quantized (GGUF/MLX) for local execution where required
Knowledge
The structured domain corpus behind the model
- ▸Curated and validated — not scraped, not auto-generated
- ▸Cross-document relationships and conflict detection where relevant
- ▸Citation-level provenance for every answer
- ▸Updated on a cadence appropriate to the domain
Intelligence
The cryptographic governance layer
- ▸Ed25519-signed receipts for every response
- ▸Merkle-batched audit trails — thousands of receipts verifiable from a single root hash
- ▸Independently verifiable — no trust in Onyx AI Labs required
- ▸Full audit trail with non-repudiation for regulatory or internal reporting
NVIDIA Inception Program Member
Cortex brains are built on the NVIDIA AI platform — NeMo, TensorRT-LLM, and NIM microservices for production deployment. Learn more
Any environment, from cloud to air-gapped
Frequently asked questions
What is Cortex?
Cortex is Onyx AI Labs' line of purpose-trained domain AI models. Each Cortex brain combines a fine-tuned model, a curated and validated knowledge corpus, and cryptographic verification — Ed25519-signed receipts and Merkle-batched audit trails — so every answer is citation-grounded and independently verifiable.
Is Cortex one product?
No. Cortex is a product line, not a single product — it's the family name for every purpose-trained, citation-grounded, cryptographically-receipted domain model that comes out of Forge, whether productized or built bespoke for a client engagement. Compass is the first Cortex brain in production.
Can I buy Compass here?
Compass is sold as part of the SureStep GRC platform, not directly by Onyx AI Labs. Visit surestepsi.com to learn more about Compass, Meridian, and Navigator.
How do I get a Cortex brain for my industry?
Two paths: build it yourself with Forge, our AI product factory, or bring us your domain expertise and we'll build it with you through an Onyx engagement.
Want a Cortex brain for your industry?
See how the first one performs in production, or start the conversation about building yours.