Do I ever need CueCrux's cloud?

No. The local daemon is the complete core product: receipts, passports, RCX, retrieval, sessions, plans, the console, and offline verification, all on your machine, on CPU, with no account.

The hosted side is strictly additive:

• Pro adds hosted sync, multi-device passports, and better-dense rerank.
• Governance adds fleet-wide attribution, policy gates, and revocation that propagates with proof.
• Hosted CoreCrux lanes (entity, event, navigational) extend retrieval beyond what the local lanes do.
• Metered credits (~£0.01/Cr) cover hosted heavy lifts only: dense rerank, extraction, attestations. Each spend mints a signed receipt.

Nothing in the local path phones home for permission, and nothing about it expires. If you never need the hosted features, you never pay, and you never talk to our infrastructure.