The Charter

Write a commons that governs itself, then sign it so no single platform can quietly recall it.

A guided builder for a commons charter, on Elinor Ostrom's eight design principles for shared resources that endure: the rules a town green, a tool library, a maker space, a community fund, or a shared well needs to last. Fill in your specifics, get a real charter document, and sign it to the open network so the official copy lives on no one's server. It is signed and tamper-evident: no one but the holder of the seal can alter it, and amendments are published as new signed versions, so the history stays visible.

This is the oath layer from You Cannot Eat Code: a binding commitment, made real. It signs your charter the same way The Record does: a signed Nostr event on the same relays, tagged #therecord, so both tools' records interleave on any Nostr client. The adopting body's signature is the seal.

Work through eight principles, sign the result, and it's a commons, not a mailing list: governed by the people who use it, under rules they wrote.

Use it

Open the app, work through the eight principles (each comes with a plain-language prompt and a starter you edit), hit Draft the charter, then Download (.md) or Sign & record to the open network.

• Source and app: github.com/michaelditter/the-charter
• Book: youcannoteat.codes
• Hosted demo: deploying at charter.youcannoteat.codes (not live yet). Until it is, run it locally:

npx serve .          # serves on http://localhost:3000
# or:
python3 -m http.server 3000
# or:
npm run serve        # same, python on port 3000

No account, no build step. The Nostr library and fonts are vendored locally (vendor/), so drafting works fully offline. Nothing is stored on a server while you draft; only you decide when to record it. Recording does need internet: it broadcasts to live Nostr relays.

Elinor Ostrom's eight principles

Ostrom won the Nobel for showing commons don't need to be privatized or nationalized to survive: communities govern them well when the design follows eight principles. The Charter walks you through each:

1. Clear boundaries — who belongs, what's shared.
2. Rules that fit the place — benefits and burdens shared in proportion, for your situation.
3. Collective choice — the people affected can change the rules.
4. Monitoring — by people accountable to the members.
5. Graduated sanctions — escalating, proportional, applied evenly.
6. Conflict resolution — cheap, fast, local.
7. Right to organize — the group's authority to govern itself is recognized.
8. Nested layers — local decisions stay local; layers coordinate.

What happens when you record (in plain English)

You don't need to know anything about Nostr to use this. Here is what the buttons do.

• Nostr is an open messaging network. Instead of one company's server, there are many independent servers called relays. Anyone can run one. Your charter is posted to several at once, so no single operator can erase or edit it.
• Signing means your charter is stamped with a cryptographic key that only you hold. That stamp is the adopting body's seal. Anyone can check the stamp; no one can forge it.
• Your key comes as two strings. The npub (public seal) is safe to share; it identifies your charter. The nsec (secret key) is the private half. Guard it like the town seal itself.
• After recording you get a link (via njump.me, a Nostr viewer) plus the raw identifiers, so anyone can open and verify the charter. The nevent link points at the exact version you signed. The naddr address points at "the latest version," which a later signature by the same key can replace.

Durable, not eternal. A recorded charter lives as long as at least one relay keeps a copy. That is stronger than any one platform (no company can unilaterally recall it) but it is not a promise of forever. Keep your own .md download as the canonical backup.

Amendments, and who holds the key

Nostr long-form documents (kind 30023) are replaceable: the holder of the secret key can publish a new signed version. That is the amendment mechanism, and it is also the honest caveat.

• Amendments are new signed versions, not silent edits. The app records every charter under a fresh identifier, so each recording is its own signed document you can link to. To amend, record again and share the new link; keep the old nevent link if you want to show what changed. Never reuse a key to overwrite the same address unless you intend to replace that charter in place.
• Who signs? Exactly one key signs, so decide whose it is before you record. The usual answer: the clerk or moderator signs on the body's behalf, and the meeting minutes record that they were authorized. The Adopted by field names the members; the key is the instrument that acts for them.
• If the key is lost: you can never amend the charter. The recorded version stands as-is, forever verifiable, but frozen. This is why you download and safeguard the key at recording time.
• If the key is stolen: the thief can publish a replacement at the same address. They cannot forge a different key's signature, but they can act as the seal-holder. Treat the nsec like the physical town seal. If it may be compromised, adopt a fresh charter under a new key and announce the change.

Signing safely

• Best: if you have a Nostr browser extension (Alby, nos2x), choose Sign with my Nostr extension. Your secret key never touches this page.
• Otherwise: choose Create a dedicated charter key. The app generates a key, shows it once, and stores it in this browser until you remove it. Use the Download key file button to save it, and Remove key from this browser when you're done (especially on a shared or town-office computer).
• When an extension is present, the app makes you pick explicitly rather than silently creating a local key.

The recording method, made real

One of one real tool per recording layer:

• Print → Nostr: The Record.
• Correspondence → CRDT: The Correspondence.
• Oath → Ostrom charter: this. It signs to the same relays as The Record and shares the #therecord tag, so charters appear alongside The Record's entries on any Nostr client.

Security & privacy

• Keys: generated in your browser and, for the local option, stored in this browser only until you remove them. Nothing is sent to us. See "Signing safely" above.
• Supply chain: nostr-tools@2.23.5 is vendored at vendor/nostr.bundle.js (no runtime CDN), so a compromised CDN can't swap the signing code.
• Metadata: recording reveals your IP address to the relays you publish to, and the charter text is public by design. Draft offline; only recording touches the network.

MIT licensed. Built for You Cannot Eat Code.