data residency

The hard part is not the retrieval pipeline, it is the boundary. Embeddings and the index live inside the VPC; the only question is whether the generation model is an in-VPC open model or an external API with a zero-retention DPA, and what crosses that line.

'Can't leave our environment' means four different things to four different stakeholders. The FDE skill is decomposing the demand into the actual requirement, and knowing which deployment tier each requirement really needs.