# Residency

URL: /code/platform/residency · Id: `capability:residency`

> Residency pins where a namespace stores and processes its records, Files and analytics, set per Startup or per Tenant.

Residency pins the region where a namespace stores and processes its records, [Files](/business/nouns/file) and analytics copy. A [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) sets it for itself, and a [Tenant](/business/nouns/tenant) can set its own.

## Contract
`residency` is a [Setting](/business/nouns/setting) with the value `us` or `eu`. It is set before a namespace writes its first record and locks once that record exists.

| Rule | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Default | Inherited from the [Studio](/business/nouns/studio), nearest holder first |
| What stays in region | The owner database, Files, the analytics copy, backups and every step that reads them |
| Tenants | A Tenant takes its own region at [provisioning](/business/nouns/tenant/provision), whatever its Startup's region |
| Model calls | Routed to models served inside the region |
| [Visitors](/business/nouns/visitor) without [Consent](/business/nouns/consent) | Counted by a daily-rotating hash; no cookie is set and no IP address is stored |
| Region on record | Every [Action](/business/nouns/action) records the region it ran in |

Residency is read by the [Privacy](/systems/privacy) and [Compliance](/systems/compliance) [Systems](/business/nouns/system), which answer a [Customer](/business/nouns/customer)'s data-location questions from these records.

## Verbs
| Verb | Object | Event |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Setting.update](/business/nouns/setting/update) | [Setting](/business/nouns/setting) | `Setting.updated` |

## Interfaces
- [API](/code/api/reference)
- [SDK](/code/sdk/reference)
- [CLI](/code/cli/reference)
- [MCP](/code/mcp/reference)

## Example
`shiftboard.app`, scheduling [Software](/business/nouns/software) for clinics, runs in `us`. When a clinic in the EU signs up, its Tenant is provisioned in `eu`, and that clinic's records never leave the EU.