Frequently Asked Questions

What is Permit Sheriff?

Permit Sheriff is a permit-intelligence layer for teams managing permit evidence, project history, risk, and next actions. It is not a government portal, permitting authority, legal service, or generic AI chatbot.

What happens after I upload or import a permit package?

Permit Sheriff processes the submitted evidence, organizes the permit record, identifies relevant findings and risks, updates Permit Memory, and presents the results with supporting context and next actions. Processing status is shown so an incomplete analysis is not presented as a completed result.

How does Permit Sheriff handle different jurisdictions?

Permit Sheriff uses a layered jurisdiction-intelligence approach. Where verified local guidance exists, it can use source-cited, versioned jurisdiction playbooks. Where reviewed current official public data is available, that context can inform the analysis. Where trusted local guidance is unavailable, Permit Sheriff can still analyze the submitted permit evidence while clearly treating jurisdiction-specific requirements as unverified.

Jurisdiction coverage is designed to improve through a governed source-review process rather than by treating every discovered rule or public record as automatically authoritative.

Does Permit Sheriff guess when it does not know a jurisdiction?

No. Permit Sheriff is designed to fail closed on unknown or ambiguous jurisdiction guidance. It does not silently substitute rules from a nearby city, county, state, province, or country. When verified local guidance is unavailable, the analysis remains evidence-based and identifies jurisdiction-specific guidance as unverified rather than manufacturing certainty.

How does Permit Sheriff reduce the risk of inaccurate AI findings?

Permit Sheriff is designed around evidence-backed analysis rather than unsupported AI answers. Submitted evidence, structured permit facts, source provenance, confidence, and deterministic rules are used where appropriate. When information is incomplete or uncertain, Permit Sheriff is designed to surface that uncertainty instead of presenting a guess as fact.

What is Permit Memory?

Permit Memory is the persistent permit and project context created from accepted evidence and structured facts. It helps teams retain the history and current state of a permit instead of reconstructing the story from scattered documents, emails, and one-off AI conversations each time they return.

What do risk, readiness, and financial exposure numbers mean?

They are operational decision-support signals based on the permit record and available evidence. They are intended to help teams prioritize attention and understand potential exposure; they are not guaranteed savings, legal damages, accounting conclusions, or promises of a particular permit outcome. The signals can change as the underlying permit evidence and status change.

What happens when Permit Sheriff is uncertain?

Permit Sheriff is designed to show uncertainty rather than manufacture certainty. Missing evidence, incomplete processing, unverified jurisdiction guidance, or findings that cannot be responsibly quantified should remain visible as limitations rather than being converted into an artificial all-clear result.

How is one customer's information kept separate from another customer's information?

Permit Sheriff scopes protected customer data to the authenticated organization and enforces authorization on the server. Evidence access is permission-controlled, and protected evidence storage supports encryption and integrity checks. Customer-facing identifiers are not treated as permission by themselves.

How does the Autodesk integration work?

An authorized customer can connect Autodesk, select the appropriate project and supported document version, and bring that evidence into the same Permit Sheriff analysis workflow used for direct uploads. Permit Sheriff detects the selected project's capabilities: native Forma or BIM 360 Issues where supported and permitted, or a new findings report in a writable Autodesk document project. Read-only projects remain usable for analysis with results retained in Permit Sheriff. Source documents are not overwritten.

Will Permit Sheriff automatically change my Autodesk project?

Permit Sheriff is not designed to blindly publish machine-generated findings into a customer's Autodesk project. Writeback is built around controlled, verified findings and authorized customer actions.

Does Permit Sheriff guarantee permit approval?

No. Permit Sheriff supports evidence analysis, workflow intelligence, risk visibility, and reporting. Government agencies and other authorities make final decisions, and users should verify material requirements and findings before relying on them for filing, legal, engineering, or other professional decisions.

Is Permit Sheriff legal advice?

No. Permit Sheriff provides operational permit intelligence and evidence-backed decision support. It does not replace a permitting authority, attorney, architect, engineer, code professional, or other licensed professional when their judgment or approval is required.

What happens if processing fails or takes longer than expected?

Permit Sheriff tracks processing state and is designed to distinguish incomplete or failed processing from completed analysis. The goal is to recover safely where possible and to avoid presenting a failed or partial analysis as a successful all-clear result.

Can I generate reports?

Yes. The Reports area turns project findings into review-ready outputs. Generated content should be reviewed before it is filed, submitted, or shared externally as an authoritative statement.

How are payments handled?

Permit Sheriff uses supported payment and marketplace billing channels for eligible purchases. The checkout experience shows the applicable plan and billing terms before purchase. Permit Sheriff does not require customers to provide full payment-card details directly to the permit-analysis workflow.

Can I cancel?

Yes. Customers can cancel future recurring renewal where a recurring plan applies. Access and any refund eligibility follow the billing terms and Refund and Cancellation Policy applicable to the purchase channel.