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id(phase-14): Hosted worlds & always-on hosting — core topic (research + design) #6276
Description
Hosted worlds & always-on hosting — Phase 14 core topic (research + design)
Filed from the next-horizons discussion #1240, decided by Drew on 2026-11-05: all themes are planned. This issue is the core topic for Hosted worlds & always-on hosting. Its job is research and design — broaden the idea beyond what is already understood, set up multiple next steps, and produce implementation plans. No implementation starts here; the output is design documents and implementation issues.
Drew's principles for everything in Phase 14 (from #1240, 2026-11-05)
- Local-first is always the goal, AND a hosted version is intended: central coordination supporting a large graph of broadly accessible objects.
- Anything built must be completely usable by others hosting a small or large server themselves. P2P-hosted worlds and data behave the same as a large hosted public server; differences live in backend scale elements and access controls.
- Users connect to each other and transfer/interact directly wherever possible, so hosted resources are an offloadable backstop, not a requirement. The app must not technically need us to function. Collaborative / shared / federated / local-first / p2p.
- Our hosted instance is essentially public; other operators open theirs only as much as they want. Publishing paths: share to a big server, publish on pkarr, or self-host. All comms through iroh on the backend; first-class clients.
The idea, broadened
A world today lives while a host process runs. Hosting asks: what is a world when nobody is connected? Broaden beyond 'run the same binary on a VPS': world persistence semantics, who may wake/pause a world, journal custody and backup, operator trust, and how a hosted world stays the same object as the local one (same journal, same programs, same ceilings) so moving a world between a laptop, a home server and a public host is a transfer, not a port. Include the split Drew named: a totally public main endpoint, with deeper backend pieces as separate iroh/id servers behind private tunnels with limited trusted access.
Research questions (first pass)
- World lifecycle states (live, asleep, archived) and who can transition them under the role model (Phase 10 roles, F12.3 authority frames)
- Journal custody: encryption at rest, snapshot/export formats, restore drills — what 'backup' means for a journaled world
- Basement cluster as the first hosting target: capacity, power/egress limits, what breaks first
- Hosted vs local parity checklist: which behaviors must be identical, which are legitimately backend-only (quotas, abuse controls, storage tiers)
Dependencies and existing pieces
Builds on F12.11 multi-node worlds (#805), F12.13 journal replication (#806), F12.10 quotas (#1067), #227 journal rollback compatibility (done). First Phase 14 implementation theme (with discovery).
Next steps — the version ladder
- v1 — first-iteration design — its own issue, filed in the same pass and linked in the first comment below
- v2 — outline: custody & lifecycle — its own issue, filed in the same pass and linked in the first comment below
- v3 — outline: many nodes — its own issue, filed in the same pass and linked in the first comment below
- v4 — outline: public-server operation — its own issue, filed in the same pass and linked in the first comment below
Plus a standing rule for this topic: anything the research surfaces that doesn't fit v1–v4 gets its own issue (Drew's rule: every feature, concept, or idea gets an issue), and future investigations are listed as comments here rather than lost.
Sequencing
Design queue order: F12.4 provider registry (#1061) and F12.10 scheduling/quotas (#1067) designs land first; Phase 14 v1 designs then run hosted worlds → discovery → agents spike → the rest. Implementation follows Phase 13. The drop rule applies throughout: anything that proves blocked, wrong, or superseded gets parked or closed with a note — never a silent stall.
Activity
developing-today commentedon Nov 5, 2026
CODE-1842
dezren39 commentedon Nov 5, 2026
Version ladder for this topic (filed in the same pass, 2026-11-05):
Phase 14 plan of record: #6312. Discussion of record: #1240.
17 remaining items
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
🤖 Agent note · handed off
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
Handed off to opencode claimant per execution-lane assignment (task 11048, issue #6276).
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
🤖 Agent note · handed off
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
🤖 Agent note · handed off
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
🤖 Agent note · handed off
dezren39 commentedon Nov 6, 2026
🤖 Agent note · handed off
opencode