Lab Bridge
Verifiable file handover for isolated lab systems.
Whatever carries the file — a screen and a camera, a one-way cable, printed pages, or the USB stick you already use — the sending device signs what left and the receiving device signs what arrived. Anyone can check both offline, years later.
The file left the instrument PC. Can you prove what arrived?
Three situations this solves
Isolated workstation
The instrument PC cannot join the network
An old validated configuration, or a site policy that forbids the connection. The results still have to leave. Today they leave on a USB stick, and the stick leaves no record. Kionel can replace the stick, or leave it in place and add the record.
Compare the routesReconciliation
The sample lists do not match
Expected versus received manifests, with missing, unexpected and duplicate IDs found in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Start freeSecond-person review
Someone else has to approve it
Who produced the result, who reviewed it, who released it — signed in order, travelling with the file instead of living in three separate systems.
See the evidence modelSee Lab Bridge in action
This is the app itself, not an illustration: the same labels and the same two steps you will see on your own devices. It runs in a browser tab and needs no install.
Scan the receiver's offer QR
- content hash
- match
- delivery signature
- valid
Open the app with the sample file
- PC without a cameraType a one-time code from the phone; the PC sends by screen only.
- Report for the auditorOne printable page: file, SHA-256, work order, each signature check.
- Verify in any browserkionel.com/verify.html — offline, nothing uploaded.
- Colour codeDenser images for a clean screen recording, recognised automatically by the receiver.
- Read from a recordingFilm the screen with the phone's camera app; no need to hold still, and a countdown says when to stop.
- Compressed before sendingCSV and text results shrink four to ten times on screen.
From file to verifiable evidence
Five steps, about a minute for a small file. The detail is on the protocol page.
- 01PrepareChoose the file, add the work order
- 02CompareSix digits and five symbols, on both screens
- 03TransferEncrypted optical frames, loss tolerant
- 04SignDispatch and delivery, two keys
- 05VerifyOffline, years later, without us
What the two records actually say
This is the part a USB stick cannot do. One transfer produces two independently signed records — one from each device — and anyone with the free verifier can read them.
- file
- result_041.csv
- size
- 42 KB
- work order
- LCMS-2026-0042
- target
- Analysis workstation
- hash
- 9ad2...a77e
- status
- dispatch signed
- content hash
- match
- dispatch signature
- valid
- delivery signature
- valid
- audit entry
- chained
- verified by
- offline verifier
- needs Kionel
- no
The verifier is licensed under Apache-2.0 and stays free forever, so a record you hold today can still be checked if we raise our price, change direction or disappear.
Beyond the lab
The same problem sits on plant floors: operator and engineering stations that must stay off the network, and files that still have to leave. Kionel moves logs, reports and recipes out of an isolated OT zone with a signed record per file — or seals a file so that only the proof leaves. Kionel for OT and manufacturing · IEC 62443 and file transfer
Questions labs ask first
Can the file travel on a USB stick?
Yes. Seal the file on the sending PC, carry the file and its sealed record on the stick, and the receiving device checks the file against the record and signs the delivery receipt. On that route Kionel does not encrypt the file or control the USB port; the screen-to-camera route encrypts before the first image is shown. How to do it.
Does the instrument PC need a camera?
No. The receiving phone or tablet shows a one-time 12-character code; you type it on the PC, and the PC sends by screen only. For a PC that always sends to the same device, a receiver card replaces the code. A PC with no usable screen route can print the file as pages of codes, or send over a one-way serial cable.
How fast is it?
Reading live with a phone's camera: in our phone test, a 117 KB file took 10 to 24 seconds. Filming the screen with the phone's camera app and letting Kionel read the video took about 7 seconds for the same file and suits files of a few megabytes; the sending screen counts down how long to film. The speed calculator gives an estimate for any size. Text and CSV are compressed first and often shrink four to ten times. It is the wrong tool for large raw data.
Is anything installed on the instrument PC?
No. It runs in the browser, and after the first visit it works with no network at all.
Does Kionel see our files?
No. File content goes from screen to camera between your two devices. Our server only receives contact messages; if you switch on trusted timestamps, it also passes each receipt's 32-byte fingerprint to DigiCert, never the file.
Can an auditor check a record without Kionel?
Yes. Records verify offline with a free Apache-2.0 verifier, or in any browser at kionel.com/verify.html, where nothing is uploaded. A printable one-page report is produced for reviewers who do not read JSON.
What happens if we clear the browser or change computers?
Device keys and receiver cards belong to the browser that made them; create new ones if that data is cleared. Records you already exported stay verifiable.
Is Kionel open source?
Yes. The code is on GitHub under AGPL-3.0 and the record verifier under Apache-2.0. Organisations that embed Kionel in a closed-source product can buy a commercial licence.
Do both devices have to be there at the same time?
No. The phone can film the sending screen with its camera app, and Kionel can read the video later — on the same or another phone — once the code used for the transfer is typed in. Without that code the recording cannot be opened.
Which computers and browsers does it run on?
Chrome or Edge 137 or later, Firefox 130 or later, or Safari 17 or later, on both devices. Windows 10 and 11, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS can run these. Windows 7 and 8.1 cannot, so Kionel does not run there. The app checks this when it opens and says so.
Does the sending PC need internet access?
No. Download the offline package once on another PC, check its SHA-256, and copy the single file to the isolated PC. It opens in Chrome or Edge 137 or later and never contacts the network or updates itself.
Is there a free version?
Yes, all of it. Kionel is open source: signed records, reports, the audit chain, the fast recording mode and receiver cards are included, for personal and organisational use. A commercial licence is only for embedding Kionel in a closed-source product.
How is it different from free QR file transfer tools?
Open-source tools move the file, some faster than Kionel. Kionel adds what a regulated lab needs around the move: encryption tied to the receiving device, a signed dispatch and delivery record bound to the work order, a local audit chain and a printable report. Kionel is open source too.
Is Lab Bridge right for this workflow?
Probably yes
- The air gap has to stay, and the file still has to move.
- USB is banned, discouraged, or leaves no record you can show.
- An auditor has asked, or will ask, who moved which file.
- Files are small: results, certificates, methods, configurations.
Probably not
- An approved USB route with its own audit trail already works.
- The instrument PC may be connected to the network.
- Your data fits in a single printed QR code, which costs nothing.
- You need bulk throughput — this is not a data diode.
Open source
Kionel is free and open source. Every feature is included for personal and organisational use: signed dispatch and delivery records, reports, the local audit chain, the fast recording mode, printed pages (up to 60, also from photos and scans), the one-way serial cable, receiver cards and site policies.
Open source
AGPL-3.0. Free for any use that keeps the source open.
- All features, files up to 64 MB
- In the browser or as one offline file
- Verifier under Apache-2.0
- Issues and discussion on GitHub
Commercial licence
For products that embed Kionel without publishing their source.
- Use outside the AGPL's obligations
- Integration and support by agreement
- Offered by Lumina Digitale
Before you rely on it, read the limits
Kionel does not sanitise file content, does not prove who a person is, and has not had an independent security audit yet. We publish that list ourselves, because the buyer who checks is the buyer worth having.
- Threat model
- published
- Offline verification
- available
- Verifier licence
- Apache-2.0
- File upload to Kionel
- none
- Trusted timestamps
- optional, DigiCert RFC 3161, verified in the browser and offline
- Device matrix
- not published
- Protocol model
- machine-checked
- Independent audit
- not completed