No prior knowledge needed

How Regixo works, from scratch.

We'll start with the plain-English basics — what a data catalog even is, and what "EU compliance" means — then show you every screen you get, exactly as it looks on your machine. No jargon left unexplained.

01Start with the words

Three terms, in plain English.

If you've never run a "data catalog" or dealt with EU privacy law, these are the only three ideas you need. Everything else on this page builds on them.

Data catalog

All your data, in one list

It's spread across databases, payment tools and spreadsheets. A catalog brings it together so you can search it in one place.

Personal data

Data about a person

Names, emails, phone numbers, card details. It's protected by law — so step one is knowing which of your data is personal.

EU compliance

The proof the law wants

Hold EU personal data and you must record what you keep and why. That record is a RoPA; regulated financial firms keep a similar one called DORA.

One more word “Metadata” means the labels on your data — a table called users, a column called email, and its type. Not the names and emails inside. Regixo reads only the labels. That one fact is why it can run safely against your production database.

Don't need EU compliance? That's fine — the map alone is useful to any team, anywhere. The compliance part simply waits, already drafted, for the day someone asks.

02The big idea

Scattered data in. One clear map out.

Before Regixo, the answer to "where does our customer data live?" is spread across systems and people's heads. One command replaces the guesswork with a single, readable map.

Before

Data everywhere, owned by no one

Postgres ? Stripe ? Snowflake ? BigQuery ? SQL Server ? dbt models ?

Nobody can say for sure what's stored, which parts are personal, or who's responsible. Answering an auditor takes weeks of asking around.

$regixo start
After · one scan

One map, personal data flagged

users· app-db● 6 personal payment_methods· app-db● 4 personal customers· warehouse● 5 personal events· app-db

38 datasets across 4 sources, mapped in minutes. 42 columns look like personal data — already flagged. The same answer, from one command instead of a week of asking around.

03How you run it

Say it — or type it. Same command either way.

Have Claude Code, Cursor, Codex — any coding agent with a terminal — open in this project, and tell it what you want. It runs the same regixo commands you would, including the install. There is nothing extra to install and nothing to register. No agent? The terminal is first-class too.

Primary · say it

Tell your coding agent

One sentence does it. The agent runs the ordinary command in the same project shell you'd have typed it in, watches the output, and reports back.

say

“Set Regixo up in this project — scan my sources and build the data map.”

run$regixo start
Also first-class · type it

Or run it yourself

Paste this into your project's terminal. Either path, the machine needs Node 22.18 or newer — no Docker, no server, no account.

$ npx regixo start
Honest note Nothing extra to set up. There is no Regixo plugin or extension for any of those tools — your agent just runs the same command you would, which is why any coding agent with a terminal works, and why typing it yourself is always an option. Separately and optionally — later — regixo mcp registers Regixo's read-only catalog server so your agent can also search the finished map; nothing needs it.
04The screen tour

Every screen you get, before you install.

Recreations of the real screens, label for label, so you know what to expect before you install. They are static pictures; the live ones run on your own machine. Four steps, start to finish — the first three are free and happen entirely on your own computer.

1

Install & scan

Regixo finds your sources, connects, and reads only their structure — the table and column names and their types, never the rows inside. It prints exactly what it reached, and exactly what it didn't.

what the agent shows you when it's done — or your terminal, if you typed it · not a live app
$ npx regixo start

Regixo — free to install and use. It maps your data and drafts your
compliance record, right here. Nothing leaves this machine.

▸ Looking for your databases…
 Found your PostgreSQL database — ready to map  (from the DATABASE_URL setting)

▸ scanning your sources — names and types only, never the values inside…
 app-db    — 12 datasets · 148 columns · 21 with personal data
 stripe    —  5 datasets ·  61 columns · 12 with personal data
 warehouse — 21 datasets · 262 columns · 9 with personal data
 dbt       —  0 datasets ·   0 columns · 0 with personal data

 done in 4m12s — your data map is ready.
  To see it, type:  regixo open   (opens it in your web browser)
  Bonus, already done: a DRAFT RoPA — your GDPR record of how you use
  personal data (6 activities found in your real tables).
If a source can't be reached
It says so, plainly, and the rest of your map still works. Regixo never quietly drops a source and never pretends the map is complete when it isn't:
 warehouse — couldn't open this one (the rest of your map is fine) → next: regixo doctor
 partial map — 3/4 sources reached · 1 missing: warehouse
2

Open a dataset

Run regixo open and the map opens in your browser at localhost:4319. Click any table and you see what its columns look like, where the data came from, and where it goes next.

what you'll see — the free portal · a dataset, opened (localhost:4319) · not a live app
Data map/warehouse/analytics/customers
warehouse / analytics / customers ● 5 personal
Source
warehouse · Snowflake · scanned just now
Rows
Columns
11 · 5 personal
Classified by
11 auto

In plain words: this dataset looks like it holds 5 kinds of personal data — address, date of birth, email, name, and phone. That's why it feeds your compliance record.

Columns
ColumnTypePersonal data
emailSTRING● Emailby field name
full_nameSTRING● Nameby field name
date_of_birthDATE● Date of birthby field name
phoneSTRING● Phoneby field name
billing_addressSTRING● Addressby field name
planSTRINGnot personal
created_atTIMESTAMPnot personal
● personalLooks like personal data — a name, email, and so on.
⚠ Art. 9Extra-sensitive (health, beliefs, biometrics). Stricter rules apply.

Regixo reads column names and types only — never the values — so double-check anything that looks wrong.

Where this data flows

Comes from2 direct

  • users· app-dbvia dbt
  • customer· stripeasserted by you
customers· warehousethis dataset

Feeds into1 direct

  • revenue_daily· warehousevia dbt

Arrows point the way data moves — down the page, into customers and out of it. Flows inside your warehouse (including your dbt models) are found on each scan; flows between systems you assert yourself. Dataset-level only — Regixo never implies column-level flow.

Notice the honesty: every flag says how Regixo recognised it (“by field name”), and every data flow says who claims it — the scan, or you.

3

Read the draft record

From the same scan, Regixo writes a draft of the EU compliance record — the RoPA, and a DORA register if you're a regulated financial firm. It's free to read, and stamped DRAFT: useful, but not yet official.

Every field says where it came from. found means Regixo read it from your real tables. suggested means Regixo proposed it and a person still has to agree. needs you means only a person can answer it.

what you'll see — the free portal · the drafted record (RoPA) · not a live app
Record of Processing Activities DRAFT

A plain list of every way your company uses people's personal data — drafted from your real schema. EU law (GDPR Art. 30) makes most companies keep one.

Manage customer accounts

PurposeCreate and run customer accounts and subscriptions so people can use your product or service. suggested
Personal dataDate of birth, Email, Financial (card/IBAN), Name, Phone found
Data subjectsCustomers suggested
RecipientsStripe found
Lawful basisYou need it to provide your product or service. Art. 6(1)(b) contract suggested
RetentionAccount lifetime + statutory minimum suggested
Transfers outside the EUNone identified from source regions suggested
Security measuresDescribe them — or set once in your org profile needs you
A person confirms legal fields — not Regixo. Purpose, lawful basis, retention and recipients are legal calls only your compliance owner makes. Regixo drafts them from your data; a person reviews and signs.
4

Forward it — only when you need to

If someone needs the official version, regixo invite makes a shareable PDF and a link. This is the only step that leaves your machine, it still carries metadata only, and you see exactly what would be sent before it goes.

what you'll see — what your compliance team opens · not a live app
Record of Processing Activities DRAFT

Sent by your engineering team from a scan of your real systems. Read-only, metadata only — no customer data, no row values. You need no account to read it.

Still needs a person · 4 items

Security measuresDescribe them — or set once in your org profile needs you
Lawful basisRegixo suggests: you need it to provide your product or service. Art. 6(1)(b) contract suggested — confirm or change
RetentionAccount lifetime + statutory minimum suggested — confirm or change
Transfers outside the EUNone identified from source regions suggested — confirm or change
The draft stays a DRAFT until a person signs it. Regixo never confirms a legal field on your behalf. Making the record official — removing the DRAFT stamp and sealing it under a named signature — is the paid step, and it is always a human act.
05The handoff

From the engineer to the person who signs.

You run the scan once, and two people read it: the engineer, as a live map today; the compliance team, as paperwork later. The handoff is built in — the engineer never has to become a compliance expert, and the compliance team never has to touch a terminal.

Step 1 · The engineer

Runs the scan

Installs Regixo, gets the map, glances at the draft record. Five minutes, no cost, no sign-up.

does the easy technical part
forwards a link
Step 2 · The claim link

A view-only draft

A shareable link + PDF of the draft record. Read-only, metadata only — safe to forward to anyone who needs to look.

live on day one
opens & decides
Step 3 · The compliance team

Makes it official

Opens the link, reviews it, and — when it's truly needed — unlocks the signed, official version. They hold the budget and the sign-off.

does the legal part
At launch The last step is a request, not a checkout. You can read and forward the draft today; unlocking the official record opens to early teams now — ask, and we set it up when your portal is ready.
06Where your data goes

Your actual data never leaves your machine.

This is the question everyone asks, so here's the blunt answer. Regixo reads the labels on your data, never the contents. It runs locally, and nothing is uploaded unless you explicitly forward it.

What Regixo reads

The structure — the names and shapes of things, the way a library reads spine labels, not the books.

  • Table names — e.g. users
  • Column names — e.g. email
  • Data types & how tables relate
  • Row counts — how many, never which
The personal-data flags come from the names and types alone — a column called email is flagged without ever reading a single address in it.

What it never touches

The contents — the actual values inside your rows. Never read, stored, or sent.

  • The real names, emails & addresses
  • Card numbers & payment details
  • Messages, documents & file contents
  • Anything a single customer would recognise as theirs
Everything Regixo builds is stored in a hidden .regixo/ folder inside your project. Delete the folder and every trace is gone.
Because it reads labels and not contents, Regixo can map your data safely — and you can see exactly what would be shared before anything is ever forwarded. The full architecture is on the Security & privacy page.
The flip side, stated plainly Reading only labels means Regixo can be wrong. A column called notes might hold personal data; a column called customer_ref might not. That's why every flag says how it was made, why you can correct any of them in one click, and why a person — never Regixo — signs the final record.
07Still wondering

Quick answers.

?Does my data ever leave my machine?+
No. Regixo reads metadata only — table and column names, their types, and owners. It never reads, copies, or uploads the rows themselves, and everything it builds stays in a local file on your machine. The one exception is if you choose to forward the draft to whoever handles compliance — and even then only metadata travels (dataset names and personal-data flags), never a single row of real data.
?Does my coding agent send my data anywhere?+
Regixo doesn't talk to your agent, and your agent doesn't talk to Regixo's makers. When you ask it to "map my data with Regixo", it runs the ordinary regixo command in your project shell — the same one you'd type. Regixo itself makes no cloud call of any kind and has no AI in it. Whatever your agent sends to its own provider is between you and that tool, exactly as it is for every other command it runs for you.
?Can I read the code — is this legit?+
Yes. The catalog is open source under the AGPL licence — read every line, run it yourself, and audit exactly what it connects to and what it stores. There's no hidden agent and nothing phones home.
?Is it really free, or is this a trial?+
The catalog is free forever and complete on its own — not a limited trial. You'd only ever pay to turn the drafted compliance record into an official, signed one, and only if your organisation actually needs that. A team can use the free map and never pay anything.
?Do I need to be technical to use it?+
To run the first scan, yes — it's one command an engineer runs, or asks their coding agent to run. But to read the result, no: the map and the draft record open in a normal browser, in plain language. That's the whole point of the handoff — the engineer runs it, anyone can read it.
?What if my company isn't in the EU?+
Then you may never need the compliance part at all — and that's a perfectly good way to use Regixo. The data map is valuable to any team, anywhere. The EU paperwork simply sits there, drafted, in case it's ever useful.
?What does it connect to?+
Out of the box: Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, Redshift, Snowflake, BigQuery, Stripe, plus dbt for data flows and a CSV import for describing anything Regixo can't reach. If your source isn't on that list, you don't file a feature request — you ask your coding agent to write the connector, and Regixo runs it on every scan. Your credential always stays in .env; the config file stores only the variable's name.
?How long does it take?+
About five minutes from install to a finished map. The only prerequisite is Node 22.18 or newer — no Docker, no servers to set up, no account to create.

See it on your own data in five minutes.

One command, on your machine, nothing uploaded. The map is free — read it, and decide for yourself.

$ npx regixo start