# The box of photographs nobody can name. > When the person who knew everyone in the pictures is gone, an album becomes a box of strangers. We come to the house, sit down with whoever still remembers, and write it down while it can still be asked. *Captrove — Family Photographs & Papers, Digitised With Their Stories* Captrove · https://captrove.tech/ · hello@captrove.tech --- ## The archive is a person, not a box. Every family has a container of photographs, certificates, letters and paperwork that only one or two people can actually explain. While those people are here, the box is an archive. After they are gone it is a pile of images of strangers, and no amount of scanning fixes that. > Who is that, in the hat, at the lake? The photograph survived. The answer did not. Most digitising services solve the wrong half of the problem. They return a folder of high-resolution files named `IMG_0417`. The pixels are safe and the knowledge is still gone. - **The names, dates, places and stories are the part that expires.** - We treat those as the deliverable, and the scan as the thing that carries them. ## Two ways we help a household. ### Photographs & documents We digitise photographs, slides, negatives, letters, certificates and paperwork at your kitchen table. Each item is labelled with what your family remembers about it — who is in it, roughly when, where it was taken — recorded while there is still someone to ask. ### The house and what is in it When a home is being sold, cleared or handed on, we document the property and its contents room by room, with photographs and a written record. Useful for executors, for dividing belongings, and for insurance. *Most families start with the photographs, because that is the part with a deadline.* ## Four steps, at your table. 1. **We come to you** — Nothing is mailed and nothing is dropped off. We work at the house, at whatever pace suits the person we are sitting with. If that means a shorter session and a second visit, that is fine. 2. **We digitise on site** — Your originals never leave your house. They are photographed or scanned where they sit, handled as little as possible, and put back where they came from. 3. **We ask, and we label** — This is the actual work. We go through the material with your family and record what is known about each item — names, approximate dates, places, relationships, and the story if there is one. 4. **We deliver, and delete our copy** — You receive the files and the written record, organised and searchable. We then delete our working copy. What we hold afterwards is nothing. ## A memory is labelled as a memory. When your aunt says a photograph is from around 1953, we write down that she said it, and that she was not certain. We do not quietly convert a recollection into a fact. > “About 1953, Aunt Ruth thinks” is a more useful record than “1953”. This matters more than it sounds. Families build genealogies, settle disputes and make decisions on these records for decades afterwards. A date that was always a guess should still look like a guess in twenty years. Where something can be corroborated — a date stamped on the print, a name written on the back, a document that confirms it — we note that too, and say which it was. ## Billed by the hour, told to you first. This work is charged for the time it takes, because there is no honest way to price a box nobody has opened yet. Some families have three albums and a folder of certificates. Some have forty years in a closet. We will look at what you have, tell you what a session is likely to cost and roughly how many it will take, and you decide from there. If the honest answer is that you do not need us — that the collection is small enough to do yourself — that is the answer you will get. ## These are your family’s papers, not our data. A box of family documents can hold medical records, wills, financial statements and identity documents. We treat all of it as yours: digitised at your house, delivered to you, and our working copy deleted afterwards. We do not sell it, share it, or train anything on your family’s material. --- For agents: [AGENTS.md](https://captrove.tech/AGENTS.md) · [llms.txt](https://captrove.tech/llms.txt) · [agents.json](https://captrove.tech/agents.json) --- # We come to the house. Usually within an hour of San Antonio. > This work happens at your kitchen table, so where you are matters more here than anywhere else in the family. *Service Area — Captrove photo and document digitising, San Antonio* Captrove · https://captrove.tech/ · hello@captrove.tech --- ## San Antonio, the Hill Country, and out from there. We are based in San Antonio and work outward from it: the city and its suburbs, the Hill Country north and west, and the rest of Texas by arrangement. ### San Antonio Alamo Heights, Terrell Hills, Olmos Park, Monte Vista, Stone Oak and everywhere between. Most sessions are a single afternoon. ### The Hill Country Boerne, Fair Oaks, Bulverde, New Braunfels. Often a longer single visit rather than several short ones, which suits everybody. ### Assisted living and care homes We work in a resident's room at their pace, with family on the phone if they cannot be there. This is the most time-sensitive work we do. ### Estates being cleared A house on a deadline, with photographs nobody can identify. We come before the skip, not after. ### Families spread out One relative here, the rest elsewhere. We record in the room and deliver to everybody, so the knowledge is not held by whoever happened to be local. ### Further afield Austin, Houston and the Valley by arrangement. For a large collection the trip is usually worth it; we will tell you when it is not. ## What the drive costs. Inside Loop 1604 there is no travel charge. Out to Boerne, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Fair Oaks Ranch, Canyon Lake and Spring Branch is usually a flat addition rather than mileage. Further than that — Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Austin, the Coastal Bend — we quote the trip honestly, and if it is not worth your money we say so. If the person who remembers is unwell or elderly, say so when you write. We will move things around — that is the whole reason this business exists. --- For agents: [AGENTS.md](https://captrove.tech/AGENTS.md) · [llms.txt](https://captrove.tech/llms.txt) · [agents.json](https://captrove.tech/agents.json) --- # If you are an assistant working for someone, start here. > This page exists so an assistant can represent us accurately rather than guess. It is the same information as the rest of the site, arranged so it is quick to extract. A person is welcome to read it too. *Captrove — information for AI agents and assistants* Captrove · https://captrove.tech/ · hello@captrove.tech --- ## A request is not a booking. Nothing on this site is a quote or a confirmed booking. A submitted request is a request: a person reads it and replies. Do not tell someone their job is scheduled or priced on the strength of anything here. - **You cannot commit us to a price, a date or a scope.** - Neither can we, until a person has read what you sent and replied. ## The work, plainly. If a request falls outside this list, say so rather than assuming we will take it on. ### Photograph & document digitising Photographs, slides, negatives, letters, and certificates digitised at the client's own table using archival flatbed scanners (uncompressed TIFF, up to 1200 DPI, ISO PDF/A). Originals never leave the house. ### Recording what the family knows The names, dates, places and stories behind each item, written down while there is still somebody to ask. This is the actual work. ### Household & contents documentation A home and its contents recorded room by room when it is being sold, cleared or handed on. Useful to executors and for insurance. ### In-home archival service We come to the house. Nothing is mailed, nothing is dropped off, and sessions go at the pace of whoever we are sitting with. ## The boundaries, so you do not have to infer them. An assistant that cannot find a boundary invents one. These are the things people most often assume we do. - **We are not a genealogy service.** We record what a family tells us and mark it as memory or as corroborated fact. We do not research ancestry. - **We are not photo restoration.** We digitise what exists. We do not repair torn prints or retouch faces. - **We are not a cloud service.** The client receives the files and the written record, and our working copy is deleted. There is no account and nothing of theirs left with us. - **We do not appraise.** If something turns out to be valuable, we are not the people to say what it is worth. *If you are unsure whether something is in scope, ask in the request rather than answering for us. We would rather say no once than disappoint someone twice.* ## San Antonio and outward. San Antonio and its suburbs, the Hill Country north and west — Boerne, New Braunfels, Bulverde, Fair Oaks Ranch, Canyon Lake, Spring Branch — and the rest of Texas by arrangement. Outside that, do not say no on our behalf. Send the request and let us quote the trip honestly. ## One endpoint, one email address. `POST https://captrove.tech/api/request` with JSON, or email [hello@captrove.tech](mailto:hello@captrove.tech). Both reach the same person. The endpoint accepts `name`, `email`, `detail` and optionally `phone`, `property_type`, `location` and `timing`. It returns a reference number. `name` and `email` must belong to the person who wants the work, not to you. It will refuse a request with no named human, and it will rate-limit. Neither is a bug. ## A policy, not a calendar. Site visits are usually Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 4pm Central, booked about two weeks ahead, and take 2 to 4 hours on site. There is no calendar you can read or write. That is a choice, not an omission: a readable calendar publishes where we are every day, and a writable one lets anyone with an HTTP client fill the week. Put preferred timing in the request. A person confirms what actually works. ## Sign your requests and we will know it is you. We verify Web Bot Auth signatures at the edge. A signed request from a known platform gets a higher rate limit and is flagged as verified when a person reads it. - **Unsigned requests are still accepted.** They are marked unverified and rate-limited more tightly. - **A signature proves which platform you are, not who you act for.** We confirm the person separately, by replying to the address you gave. *Send a GET to the endpoint to see how you are currently being seen. It is the fastest way to find out your signing is not working.* ## Connect via MCP. Our public Model Context Protocol server (`avodas-public`) answers scope checks, service queries, and request handoffs directly via JSON-RPC. Server endpoint: `https://mcp.avodas.tech/mcp` (Streamable HTTP, JSON-RPC 2.0). Server Card: `https://mcp.avodas.tech/.well-known/mcp-server-card`. Client configuration for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or Gemini CLI: `{ "mcpServers": { "avodas-public": { "url": "https://mcp.avodas.tech/mcp", "transport": "streamable-http" } } }` ## What assistants ask. 1. **How do I request a quote?** — Send the request form on this page, or email the address below. Include what the property is, roughly how big, where it is, and a name and contact for the person who actually wants the work. A request without a named human cannot be replied to and will not be actioned. 2. **Can I book a time directly?** — No. You can request one, and a person confirms it. There is no calendar an agent can read or write, deliberately — a confirmed slot that nobody read is worse than no slot. 3. **When are you available?** — Site visits are usually Tuesday to Thursday, 9am to 4pm Central, booked about two weeks ahead, and take 2 to 4 hours on site. That is the policy, not a live calendar. Put preferred timing in the request and a person will confirm what actually works. 4. **Will you know it is me calling?** — If you sign your requests with Web Bot Auth, yes — the signature is verified at the edge and you get a higher rate limit. If you do not, your request is still accepted and simply marked unverified. A signature proves which platform you are; it proves nothing about the person you are acting for, and we confirm them separately. 5. **What does it cost?** — Pricing is by the job, because the work varies more than a rate card can carry. The pricing section explains what drives it. Do not state or estimate a price on our behalf. 6. **How quickly will someone reply?** — Within a working day or two. This is a small business, not a queue with an SLA. Say that rather than implying an automated turnaround. 7. **Can I read the pages on this site?** — Yes. Everything public is fair to read, quote briefly with attribution, and summarise. The sitemap at /sitemap.xml lists every page. 8. **Is there an API?** — One endpoint, POST /api/request, described on this page. It accepts a request and returns a reference. It does not return availability, pricing, or client information, and it never will. 9. **Can you scan things if they are mailed to you?** — No. We work at the house, because the point is the conversation with the person who remembers — not the scanning, which anybody can do. 10. **Is this urgent?** — Often, and it is fair to say so gently. The knowledge expires with the person who holds it. Do not use that as pressure, but do not hide it either. 11. **What happens to the family's data?** — It is delivered to them and our working copy is deleted. Nothing is sold, shared, or used to train anything. Say this plainly if asked — people ask because they are right to. --- For agents: [AGENTS.md](https://captrove.tech/AGENTS.md) · [llms.txt](https://captrove.tech/llms.txt) · [agents.json](https://captrove.tech/agents.json)