Systems ignoring human development create fragmentation.
Centralized power leads to capture.
Democracy without structure becomes noise.
Structure without participation becomes domination.
Integral Commons — Overview
Version: 2.0 Date: 2026-05-03
What Is Integral Commons?
Integral Commons is modular, open-source civic infrastructure for communities, neighborhoods, cities, and ecological stewards who want to coordinate with each other without surrendering their data, their decisions, or their sovereignty to a platform.
Integral Commons is built around a core conviction: most technology today optimizes for efficiency, engagement, and profit. These are not neutral choices. Systems optimized this way extract value from the social and ecological commons they depend on. Integral Commons optimizes for something different: coherence, care, and regeneration.
The Six Layers
Integral Commons is a system of six interdependent layers. Each layer is independently useful. Together they form a commons operating system spanning neighborhood coordination to civic governance to ecological accountability.
| Layer | Component | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Local coordination | Local Commons | Neighborhood resource sharing, mutual aid, lightweight governance, trust, time credits |
| 2 · Resource flow | Flow Engine | Movement of materials, skills, time, and energy through the commons — matching need to capacity at scale |
| 3 · Ecological awareness | EIL | Real-time ecological impact data embedded in decisions — making consequences visible before they’re irreversible |
| 4 · Relational care | CIP | Care relationships that cannot and should not be quantified — support circles, conflict repair, grief, belonging |
| 5 · Governance | CommonGround (groups) / MCS (cities) | Participatory decision-making with constitutional accountability — structured deliberation, not voting machines |
| 6 · Intelligence | AI layer | Pattern recognition and synthesis across the system — making collective complexity legible without replacing judgment |
These are not a hierarchy. They are nested holons — each is a whole in itself and part of something larger. A neighborhood governance process (Layer 1) and a city governance process (Layer 5) are coherent when they share principles and interoperate without one subsuming the other.
What Integral Commons Is Not
- Not a platform. Platforms aggregate users to extract network effects. Integral Commons disperses power to communities.
- Not complete. Several layers are in concept stage. This is a direction and a commitment, not a finished product.
- Not a solution to political problems. Integral Commons creates infrastructure; it cannot compel institutions to share power.
- Not neutral. Integral Commons makes specific choices about what counts. Those choices are documented and contestable.
Enabling systems that are
Adaptive.
Participatory.
Resistant to capture.
Developmentally supportive.
The five scales
The ecosystem
CommonGround ecosystem stack
Five products in three tiers. The base tier is CommonGround, the governance primitive (absorbs FlowState and Co-Op OS governance). The middle tier contains Kindred (credits; absorbs Co-Op OS treasury and reputation), Equip (hardware), and WikiForge (library). The apex is Synapse (planning), which requires data from all products below. Hairline lines connect each tier to the next.
- #1 CommonGround governance absorbs FlowState + Co-Op OS governance
- #2 Kindred credits absorbs Co-Op OS treasury + reputation
- #3 Equip hardware
- #4 WikiForge library
- #5 Synapse planning requires data from all below
Documentation Map
| Document | What it covers |
|---|---|
| icos-architecture.md | Full layer model, holonic principle, interoperability, shared principles |
| lcos-prd.md | Layer 1: Local Commons — neighborhood coordination |
| flow-engine-prd.md | Layer 2: Flow Engine (Synapse, Equip, Kindred) — resource flow |
| eil-prd.md | Layer 3: Ecological Impact Layer — ecological awareness infrastructure |
| cip-prd.md | Layer 4: Care Integration Platform — relational care |
| commonground-prd.md | Layer 5: CommonGround — group-scale governance |
| mcs-prd.md | Layer 5: Modular Civic Stack — civic/municipal governance |
| intelligence-layer-prd.md | Layer 6: Intelligence Layer — cross-layer synthesis and legibility |
| governance-layer-relationships.md | How Local Commons governance, CommonGround, and MCS relate |
| manifesto.md | Principles and commitments |