Can the pool connect to our WMS or PLCs?

Yes, when the site decides it should. A Czar in the connected posture talks to systems the site already secures: the warehouse system, the PLCs on the line, the robot vendors' fleet software, and whatever else the site has declared. It does so over routes the site named, and it refuses every route the site did not name. The WMS and the PLCs are exactly the kind of systems the connected posture is for. The open internet is not.

What a declared route is

Local Bridge is the governed connectivity in Substrate. Its rule is plain: only declared routes, default-deny egress. A route is a connection the site wrote down on purpose, between the pool and a named system on the site's own network. If the warehouse system is to hand the pool an order queue so decisions can account for it, that is a route. If the PLCs are to report line state so perception knows which station is active, that is a route.

Anything not declared does not exist as far as the pool is concerned. The pool cannot reach out to a vendor's cloud, to Element 31, or to a system the site forgot to mention, because none of those is a declared route. A connection is a decision, not a default, and the list of decisions is short enough for the automation team to read in one sitting.

What the pool does with the connection

The pool uses what the warehouse system and PLCs tell it to make better decisions for the robots. A pick that the warehouse system has prioritized is a pick the pool can route a mobile robot toward. A station the PLCs report as stopped is a station the pool can keep a humanoid away from. The pool serves the robots; the warehouse system and the PLCs keep doing what they already did.

Nothing flows the other way out of the building. Camera feeds, captures, task records, adapted weights, and the record of every decision stay on the operator's hardware inside the operator's network. A connected posture means connected to the site, not connected to the world.

Because every decision is recorded on the Grid, a safety officer can read what the pool decided and when, and the list of declared routes shows which systems were feeding it. That is something to hold onto when a decision is questioned after the fact.

Mixed estates

Posture is chosen per site and can differ across one estate. A plant may keep its assembly floor air-gapped because the process knowledge there does not leave, and connect its receiving dock to the warehouse system because the dock's robots take orders from it. Both floors are served by Czar. The difference is in which routes each one declared.

A warehouse with a single floor usually declares a few routes: the warehouse system, each vendor's fleet software, perhaps a PLC bank at the dock doors. A terminal may declare none and keep its outdoor feeds entirely on site. E31 Consulting works through the list with the operator's automation team and the integrator during installation, and the list is recorded with everything else.

The technology page covers Local Bridge alongside Watchman. Does Czar need the internet answers the companion question about what a connection is not.