# Setups FAQ

> Common questions about the setup vault, remixing, iRacing recipes, file formats, limits and privacy.

## Why can't Braking Lab give me a `.sto` file for iRacing?

Because iRacing encrypts its native setup format. No tool outside the sim can write a valid `.sto` — any product claiming otherwise is loading fixed community files, not generating yours. Braking Lab gives you a **garage recipe** instead: the exact changes, in the units of your uploaded export, that you apply in-sim and save. See [iRacing setups](/en/docs/ai-setups/iracing-setups).

## Can I run the Setup Interview before uploading a setup?

No. Setups starts from a setup you own. Upload an LMU `.svm` or an iRacing
garage `.htm` export first. On LMU, the [Setup Interview](/en/docs/ai-setups/setup-interview)
can then derive a child version from that owned file using bounded relative
movements. It never places a protected Braking Lab reference in your vault.

## Did the Setup Interview replace my setup with a reference?

No. The selected owned version remains the parent, and only declared adjustable
parameters may move relative to its values. The report lists categorical source
and target cells, step deltas and dropped reasons; it never returns a reference
identity, file, hash, path or absolute setup values.

## How does Braking Lab compare with professional setup providers?

Professional setup providers produce high-quality work. Their setups are built
and tested by professional sim racers and setup engineers with rare, specialized
skill. They can be excellent baselines, and Braking Lab does not pretend
otherwise.

Braking Lab solves a complementary problem. It works like your **personal race
engineer**: it starts from a setup you own, then uses your level, inputs,
telemetry, feedback and objective to create controlled versions you can test.
An excellent setup made for an elite driver may still be tuned around a driving
style or confidence level different from yours, making its potential harder to
access. The goal is to adapt the car to you.

Braking Lab does not distribute or reproduce commercial setup files or claim
affiliation with a provider. If you have the right to use and upload a
professional setup, you may place your copy in your private vault so the Race
Engineer can explain it or create private iterations for your own use. A Braking
Lab version is always described from its real base — your setup, data, level and
goals — never as an official provider product.

## Can the engineer break my setup?

It changes **only adjustable parameters** — settings your garage exposes. A
change to an unknown or non-adjustable parameter is rejected, and no version is
written. A remix changes at most 8 parameters.

Braking Lab does not know the legal range of every setting. It checks each value
against what it has observed for that car in uploaded files, and a value outside
that range is saved with an advisory for you to confirm in the garage. The only
hard stop on values is the protected guard for LMU car variants with reviewed
coverage.

Because every remix is a **new version**, your original is always intact: if a
change doesn't work on track, go back to the parent version.

## What happens with protected or fixed-setup sessions?

Some iRacing sessions (fixed-setup series, protected setups) hide part or all of the garage values. An export from those sessions may be incomplete — the parts you can see will parse, but hidden values can't be remixed.

## My `.htm` upload failed to parse. What now?

Make sure it's the **setup summary export from the iRacing garage** — not a saved web page or a modified copy. If a fresh garage export still fails, the file may use markup we haven't seen; keep the `.sto` in iRacing's **My Setups** folder and reach out on our Discord so we can look at the export.

## How many setups can I store?

There's no practical cap on setups or versions in your vault — build as much history as your program needs. Uploads have these limits:

- a file can be up to **1 MB**;
- a setup can contain up to **512 parameters**;
- you can upload up to **120 setups per hour**, with at most **10** in a quick burst.

## Can I undo deleting a setup?

No. **Delete setup** removes the setup and all its versions from your vault, and
withdraws its readings from the shared parameter library. You cannot undo this
from the app. Download the versions you want to keep first.

## Does remixing use my Race Engineer report quota?

No. Remixes and Setup Interview builds do not count against the AI report quota
(25 every 30 days on Plus). That quota applies to coaching reports and race readiness reports.

## What is the difference between a type, a tag and a status?

A **type** is one optional intended use: Training, Qualifying, Race - Sprint or
Race - Endurance. **Tags** are your reusable personal terms, up to eight per
setup. **Status** is different: Braking Lab derives Draft, Ready or Tested from
the evidence available. A type or tag never changes that status. See
[Types and personal tags](/en/docs/ai-setups/types-and-tags).

## Can the Race Engineer trust a tag such as `fast` or `understeer`?

It can find the setup by that tag and say that **you** labeled it that way. It
cannot treat the tag as measured behavior, telemetry, a diagnosis or an A/B
result. Tags are organizational metadata, not evidence.

## Are my setups private?

Your vault is private to you. No other Braking Lab user can see your setups, their versions or your session evidence: there is no public sharing and no team visibility, and nothing about a setup is ever published.

Your **Race Engineer** is your own third-party AI client, such as Claude or ChatGPT, connected to Braking Lab through MCP. When it reads your setup values, notes or evidence, that data passes through the client's provider, under that provider's terms. Braking Lab does not store your conversation. It stores only two milestones of each remix: your request (up to 500 characters) and the engineer's rationale (up to 1,200 characters).

One more thing leaves the vault, and it is not the setup. Braking Lab derives **parameter observations** from uploaded files — which parameters a given car exposes, and which values have been seen on it — so the engineer knows what it can actually change instead of guessing. Those observations carry no contributor identity and no setup ownership; exact community values surface only once **at least three distinct contributors** support that car parameter; and readings that disagree are quarantined rather than averaged. Deleting a setup, or your account, withdraws its observations from the shared aggregate.

The full detail is in the [privacy policy](/en/privacy).

## Which sims are next?

The vault and remix flow are built sim-agnostic. iRacing and Le Mans Ultimate are the launch pair; support for other sims will follow demand.