Build Basics / Industry term
Vendor lock-in
Switching costs created by dependence on a provider's formats, interfaces, data location, contracts, skills, or surrounding services.
A migration can require exporting and transforming data, replacing proprietary APIs, retraining staff, rebuilding integrations, renegotiating contracts, or accepting downtime. Some dependence buys real value, so lock-in is a cost and risk to compare with the benefits rather than a defect that must always be eliminated.
Builder example
AI memory, custom tools, fine-tunes, evaluation data, and workflow state can each have different portability. Plain text helps some content, while databases, permissions, provenance, embeddings, and tool behavior need schemas, export paths, and tested migration procedures.
Common confusion: Lock-in is about how hard it is to leave, not how good the tool is today. A genuinely useful assistant can still trap your work if its instructions and data only exist in a shape no other tool can read. The switching cost is what defines lock-in.