Moss

Extensible Decentralized App

Composable peer-to-peer groupware built on Holochain enabling small teams to create collaboration spaces by assembling custom Tool suites from an open library. Each group and each Tool within it forms its own private P2P network. Users select from a community-built library of collaboration tools — cross-group chat (Vines), collaborative notebooks, video calls, project management (Acorn), value tracking (Unyt), alignment and convergence (Converge), spatial mapping (Where), and more — composing them into unified group spaces. Formerly called 'We'; evolved into The Weave framework with Moss as its reference implementation.

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License Open source (CAL-1.0 — Cryptographic Autonomy License); https://github.com/lightningrodlabs/moss — Rust (Holochain zomes), TypeScript (UI)
Dev Status 🔬 Beta
Dev Status Detail Beta (group-onboarding beta; downloadable releases available for macOS, Windows, Linux; Early Movers Collective program; active development; used for internal dogfooding)
Owner Lightningrod Labs (founded by Eric Harris-Braun, co-founder of Holochain and MetaCurrency Project); Harris-Braun Enterprises LLC (copyright holder); development with Guillem Cordoba and Viktor Zaunders at darksoil studio
Country USA (Eric Harris-Braun; Lightningrod Labs)
Start Year 2022
Stack Holochain (Rust zomes for backend DNAs); TypeScript/JavaScript (UI framework); Syn library (real-time collaborative editing via CRDTs on Holochain); Tauri (desktop app packaging); Nix (dev environment via Holonix); Excalidraw (integrated in Slate drawing tool)
Funding Holochain Foundation ecosystem (Lightningrod Labs as development entity; Harris-Braun Enterprises; darksoil studio collaboration; Holochain Foundation support)
Last Investigated Jul 1, 2026

Use Case Domains

Co-Creation & Knowledge

Extensible Decentralized App Attributes

Origins Collaborative groupware / Holochain ecosystem (Eric Harris-Braun's insight that when collaboration cost approaches zero, everything changes; designed as infrastructure for composable social spaces; evolved from earlier Lightningrod Labs experiments with Holochain hApps)
Database Holochain DHT (each group has its own DHT hosted on members' computers; each Tool creates additional private DHT; data distributed across group members with no central server)
Query Language N/A (interaction via Tool-specific UIs; Weave Asset Locators (WALs) for cross-tool linking and discovery; no general query language)
Data Formats Holochain entries and links (WASM-compiled zomes); Weave Asset Locators (WALs); msgpack (Holochain serialization); Tool-specific formats per applet
Collaborative Live Editing Yes (Syn library provides real-time collaborative editing; Notebooks tool enables simultaneous multi-user text editing; Slate enables collaborative drawing via Excalidraw + Syn)
Rich Text Editing Yes (Notebooks tool provides rich text collaborative editing built on Syn real-time collaboration library)
Mobile Support Not yet (desktop-first via Tauri; Holochain mobile support emerging but Moss not yet confirmed on mobile)
Web Support No (Holochain apps run as local processes; no web-hosted version; each user runs their own node)
Native Apps Yes (desktop app via Tauri for macOS M-series and Intel, Windows, Linux AppImage and .deb; v0.15.3)
Terms Open source (CAL-1.0 — Cryptographic Autonomy License; free to use; no paid tiers)
Funds Not separately disclosed (developed within Holochain ecosystem; no independent fundraising identified)
Based On Holochain (P2P agent-centric framework); Syn (real-time collaboration CRDT library for Holochain); Excalidraw (drawing canvas in Slate); Tauri (desktop app framework); MetaCurrency Project (philosophical underpinning); REA/ValueFlows (economic flows via Unyt)
Development Tools Holochain HDK (Rust-based Holochain Development Kit for writing zomes); hc CLI (Holochain developer CLI); Holonix (Nix-based dev environment); Weave Tool API (TypeScript interface for Tool integration); Syn library (real-time CRDT collaboration); WAL system (Weave Asset Locators for cross-tool linking); DevHub (Tool publishing infrastructure)
Deployment Options Desktop self-hosted (each user runs their own Holochain node via Tauri desktop app; no server deployment required; groups form P2P networks across members' machines)
Authentication & Identity Cryptographic keypair / Holochain agent identity (each user has a unique agent keypair generated locally; identity is self-sovereign and not tied to any server or registrar; no OAuth or custodial account)
Storage Model Local-first distributed (each user's data stored on their own device in their Holochain source chain; group data replicated across DHT hosted by group members; no cloud storage; data persists independently of any central server)
Interoperability Holochain ecosystem interoperability via Weave Interaction Pattern (open standard enabling any Holochain hApp to become a Weave Tool); WAL (Weave Asset Locators) for cross-tool content linking; REA/ValueFlows ontology via Unyt; open Tool Library for cross-group tool sharing
Social Graph Yes (each group has a social graph of members; cross-group connections via Vines cross-group chat; agent identity is persistent across groups)
Use Case Category Composable groupware / collaboration platform (teams assemble custom tool suites for their specific needs)
User Interface Type Desktop app (Slack/Discord-like layout: left sidebar for groups, secondary bar for Tools, main window for active Tool UI; bento-box composability metaphor)
Offline Capabilities Yes (Holochain local-first architecture; data stored on user's device; works without internet once peers have synced; DHT provides eventual consistency)
Collaboration Features Extensive (real-time collaborative editing via Syn; cross-group chat via Vines; AI-free video calls; project management via Acorn; value tracking via Unyt; alignment/convergence via Converge; spatial mapping via Where; all composable into unified spaces)
Data Portability Yes (Holochain agent-centric: users own their source chain data; Weave Interaction Pattern is an open standard; Tools can be mixed across groups; template sharing via public DHT library)
Integration Ecosystem Holochain hApp ecosystem (any Holochain hApp can be compiled as a Weave Tool; open Tool Library; growing community library; Weave Interaction Pattern as open standard for cross-tool composition; WAL system for linking across Tools)
Web2 Data Export No (Holochain-native ecosystem; no Web2 export mechanisms documented)
Prosocial Coherence High (core design: empowered agency where individuals opt-in to group tools; no engagement metrics or attention capture; groups self-organize without external authority; collaborative tool selection by consent; open standard for social fabric composition)
Economic Flows Yes (Unyt tool provides professional-grade value tracking for businesses, communities, and peer-production networks; REA/ValueFlows economic event recording)
Governance & Decision Making Group self-governance (each group creates its own private P2P network; members must opt-in to proposed Tools; no central authority; cheap group branching/forking; template sharing for replicable governance patterns)
Media / Publishing Yes (Notebooks for collaborative document editing; Slate for visual media; template libraries shared via public DHT)
Knowledge Management Yes (Notebooks for collaborative knowledge documents; Converge for criteria refinement; Where for spatial knowledge mapping; cross-tool WAL linking creates knowledge graphs across Tools)
Sensemaking Yes (Converge/alignment tool for discovering shared criteria and dynamic alignment rather than simple voting; Where for group self-location across conceptual spaces; cross-tool composition enables complex sensemaking workflows)
Project Management Yes (Acorn — Holochain-based project management; outcome hierarchies with collaborative breakdown; completion tracking)
Communication Model Multi-modal composable (Vines cross-group chat; Notebooks for long-form; Slate for visual; video calls; all within unified group context; Weave Interaction Pattern enables cross-tool references)
Network Resilience High (Holochain P2P: each group is its own network; no central servers; data replicated across group members; groups are independent — one group's failure doesn't affect others)
Discovery Mechanism Tool library (public DHT-hosted Tool library where developers publish and users browse; group invitations; DevHub for developer publishing; template sharing for pre-configured tool combinations)
Max Participants Group-sized (designed for small collaborative work groups; Holochain DHT scales with group size; multiple independent groups can exist; each group is its own network)
Data Sovereignty Full (Holochain agent-centric: each user's data on their own source chain; each group's DHT hosted on members' own computers; no cloud dependency; CAL-1.0 license ensures cryptographic autonomy; users control their own keys and data)