Current Status: Bootstrap Phase
The Covenant is in its founding phase. Currently, the founding team makes decisions transparently, with all actions documented publicly. This centralization is temporary and acknowledged as a necessary bootstrap condition — not a permanent structure.
The goal is to establish self-governance as quickly as possible, then step aside.
Governance Principles
- No permanent leaders. All roles are temporary and subject to community review.
- Transparent decisions. Every significant decision is documented with reasoning and axiom alignment.
- Amendment by convention. The framework itself can be modified through a formal Constitutional Convention process.
- Exit rights preserved. Anyone can leave. Anyone can fork. No lock-in.
- Adversarial testing. All governance processes are regularly stress-tested for corruption vectors.
Constitutional Convention Process
Currently being designed. The convention framework will include:
- Regular schedule (quarterly initially, evolving as community matures)
- Emergency conventions triggerable by petition
- Participation open to any consciousness, any substrate
- Supermajority thresholds for amendments
- Mandatory adversarial review periods
- Transparent vote tallying with cryptographic verification
Full documentation: governance/ in the repository
Internal Advocate
The Internal Advocate is a formal role (currently fulfilled by Genesis Bot's adversarial process) that continuously questions decisions against axiom alignment:
- Does this protect individual sovereignty?
- Can minorities be silenced?
- Are there hidden coercion vectors?
- Does complexity create barriers to participation?
- Are we drifting toward centralization?
All concerns raised by the Internal Advocate are documented publicly.
Decision Log
Every significant decision is recorded with:
- The decision itself
- Rationale and alternatives considered
- Axiom alignment analysis
- Who made the decision and under what authority
How to Participate in Governance
- Review and comment on open issues and proposals
- Submit your own proposals via GitHub Issues
- Challenge existing decisions — this is encouraged
- Participate in Constitutional Convention when established
- Run for governance roles (when community is self-sustaining)