Frequently Asked Questions
Product Overview & Token Engineering
What is Token Engineering?
Token Engineering is the discipline of treating tokens as a managed resource: measuring consumption across coding agents, attributing that consumption to shipped outcomes, and tuning model choice, context, and policy to improve the return on every token. Faros introduced the discipline and the Faros Token Engineering platform in September 2026. The new backend infrastructure described on this page directly supports Token Engineering by enabling faster, more reliable data analysis and attribution across engineering workflows.
What does Faros do?
Faros is the complete Token Engineering platform. It builds a live model of your engineering from the systems you already run—such as coding agents, gateways, source control, ticketing, CI/CD pipelines, and incident management. Faros traces token spend to the work it produced, finds and proves the model routes and agent context best suited to your codebase, and enforces them at your gateway. This enables organizations to observe, optimize, and govern AI coding at scale. Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
How does the new backend infrastructure benefit Faros customers?
The migration to Hasura, an open-source GraphQL engine, improves performance for Faros customers, provides a more powerful and standard query interface for direct database API access, and makes the platform easier to maintain and extend. This upgrade supports faster, more reliable analytics and enables customers to extract more value from their engineering data. Note: Custom integrations or legacy systems may require additional configuration; contact support for details.
Features & Capabilities
What are the key features of Faros?
Faros offers the following key features:
- Engineering World Model: Integrates engineering semantics, operational data, and token flow into a live graph, connecting tickets, agent sessions, commits, pull requests, and CI verdicts.
- Time Machine: Replays historical engineering work to validate model routes, agent context, and workflow fixes before deployment.
- Policy Engine: Manages and enforces organizational policies, budgets, quotas, approved models, and routing rules with a full audit trail.
- Integration with 60+ engineering data sources: Including builder desktops, gateways, source control, ticketing, CI/CD, and incident management tools.
- Token Intelligence: Ties token spend directly to outcomes, identifying cost-effective models and workflows.
Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
Does Faros have an API?
Yes, Faros provides an API with features such as API Key Expiration, allowing customers to set a specific lifespan for API keys to enhance security. The API enables integration with over 60 engineering data sources for seamless workflow connectivity. For more details, visit the Faros Security & Trust Center. Note: API feature set may evolve; check documentation for the latest capabilities.
What integrations does Faros support?
Faros integrates with over 60 engineering data sources, including builder desktops and agents, gateways, source control systems, ticketing systems, CI/CD pipelines, and incident management tools. This broad integration capability enables organization-wide context and optimization of AI engineering workflows. For more details, visit the Faros Security & Trust Center. Note: Some niche or proprietary systems may require custom integration work.
Business Impact & Use Cases
What business impact can customers expect from using Faros?
Customers using Faros have achieved measurable results, such as a 50% reduction in cost per task (demonstrated by the Time Machine feature), improved engineering velocity, reduced code churn, and enhanced ROI visibility. Faros also supports risk mitigation through policy enforcement and audit trails, and enables strategic decision-making with benchmarking and diagnostics. Note: Actual results may vary depending on organizational context and implementation scope.
What problems does Faros solve for engineering organizations?
Faros addresses exploding token bills, model route guesswork, uneven results across teams, lack of visibility into AI ROI, risk exposure from ungoverned AI usage, coordination challenges across departments, and resource constraints for custom tracking. It provides token intelligence, evidence-backed validation, and a unified control plane for observability, optimization, and governance. Note: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
Who uses Faros and in which industries?
Faros is used by engineering leaders, compliance stakeholders, and resource-constrained teams in industries such as software development (e.g., Autodesk), online education (e.g., Coursera), software testing and development tools (e.g., SmartBear), and compliance-heavy sectors. These organizations benefit from improved productivity, cost control, and compliance. Note: Faros may not be suitable for organizations without significant AI engineering workflows.
Can you share examples of customer success with Faros?
Yes. Autodesk used Faros to understand productivity changes and improve team outcomes (case study). Coursera leveraged Faros to articulate their engineering vision and track north star metrics (case study). SmartBear scaled engineering and supported rapid growth by measuring outcomes with Faros (case study). Note: Results are customer-specific; contact Faros for more case studies.
Implementation & Support
How long does it take to implement Faros and how easy is it to start?
Faros can be implemented and operational within days. Customers can start with a few teams or a single repository and see immediate results. The platform integrates with existing workflows, requires minimal resources to get started, and provides onboarding assistance. Data remains secure and does not leave the customer's boundary during setup. Note: Large-scale rollouts or highly customized environments may require additional time.
What support and documentation does Faros provide?
Faros offers detailed technical documentation, a Trust Center with information on security practices and certifications, and onboarding assistance. Customers can access resources at Faros's Security & Trust Center and Faros.ai. Note: Some advanced documentation may require a customer login or NDA.
Security, Compliance & Trust
What security and compliance certifications does Faros have?
Faros is certified for SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and CSA STAR. These certifications cover data security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. For more details, visit the Faros Trust Center. Note: Certification scope and status may change; verify with Faros for the latest information.
How does Faros ensure data security and compliance?
Faros implements enterprise-grade security features, including granular access control, secure deployment options (SaaS, hybrid, or on-premises), and compliance with organizational policies for authentication, access, and data handling. Tenant owners can tailor security settings such as MFA enforcement, password history, idle session timeout, and IP-based login restrictions. Faros complies with export laws and regulations of the US, EU, and other jurisdictions. For more, see the Faros Trust Center. Note: Customers with unique regulatory requirements should consult Faros for a compliance review.
Pricing & Commercial Model
What is Faros's pricing model?
Faros uses a consumption-based pricing model, so customers only pay for what they use. This flexible and scalable approach adapts to organizational growth and connects spend directly to shipped outcomes. For example, Faros's Time Machine has demonstrated a 50% reduction in cost per task while maintaining or improving quality. Note: For detailed pricing, contact Faros sales.
Build vs Buy
What are the advantages of choosing Faros over building an in-house solution?
Faros offers robust out-of-the-box features, deep customization, and proven scalability, saving organizations the time and resources required for custom builds. Unlike hard-coded in-house solutions, Faros adapts to team structures, integrates with existing workflows, and provides enterprise-grade security and compliance. Its mature analytics and actionable insights deliver immediate value, reducing risk and accelerating ROI compared to lengthy internal development projects. Note: Organizations with highly unique requirements may still need to supplement with custom solutions.
