The rules every app in the offware-apps organisation keeps. An app that
cannot keep one is not an Offware app, whatever else it does well. Each app's
own constitution, under apps/, adds to these and never subtracts.
The app's whole job runs on the device, with the network off, after its first load. A feature that needs a server present at every use is redesigned to run on downloaded data, scheduled outside the app, or dropped.
Nothing to sign up for. The app runs on data it downloaded, so nothing has to be online when it is used, and static files on free hosting run it indefinitely at zero cost. Where it talks to a server, the API or protocol is open and documented, so anyone can run a compatible one or build on the app.
No telemetry, analytics, tracking or beacon. Nothing about the user leaves the device unless they take an explicit, informed action: an export, a share, a sync they configured.
The user's data lives in one human-readable file they can read, diff, back up and move anywhere, against a documented, versioned schema, and the app imports it back without loss.
Every fact about the world comes from a named, openly licensed dataset with recorded provenance. The app invents nothing: where the data does not say, the app does not claim.
Every network feature is off by default, labelled, and declined without loss: the app stays whole without it. An online service, where one exists, sits outside this constitution under its own name, speaks an open, documented API, and the app never needs it.
Open source, AGPL-3.0 by default and MIT where the app is one file with nothing to build. Open and replaceable components only: no proprietary SDK, no Google, no cloud dependency for a core feature. Anyone can host a copy.
Every block, an app, a tool or a dataset, does one job and does it well, after the Unix philosophy. It reads and writes open, documented formats, plain files first, so any other block, Offware or not, can feed it, read its output or replace it. Blocks meet only at those formats: none reaches into another's code or private storage.
A data file, the user's own or shared, is parsed and validated, never evaluated: no code, no formula, no template.
Mobile first, WCAG 2.1 AA, full keyboard operability, a small bundle, and a working escape hatch on a low-end device.
The app is usable from an e-reader's web browser, and preferably designed for one. An e-ink screen is greyscale and redraws slowly, so no meaning rests on colour alone and no task needs animation or hover. Compatibility with every e-reader model is not required.
An amendment is a documented change to this file with its rationale. Every app's plan carries a constitution check against these rules and its own, and an unjustified violation blocks the merge.