FAQ

Software for working together while keeping information on your own phones and computers. You join groups (a household, a coop, a project), keep lists and plans, chat, and see what needs attention. When devices can reach each other, they catch up. Sharing something more widely is optional. It is early software — a proof of concept — not a finished product.

No. You do not sign up with ZinZen®. You add people under names you choose, the way you already know them. Connecting a new device uses an invite — a link, a QR code, or a short code.

A shared space you join with a role — household, coop, marketplace, project. Lists, chat, and what needs attention stay inside that group unless someone deliberately shares outward. It is not “one big shared folder on a company’s cloud.”

Yes. You can have a private household group next to work or community groups, all in the same app. Calendars, to-dos, and other items stay in the group they belong to, while you can still see what needs attention across the groups you have joined — without juggling many separate apps.

Yes — that is a main aim. It is still early: fine for learning and small experiments. Do not make it the only tool for critical work without your own backups and fallbacks.

Mainly on your devices. A connecting service helps your phones and computers catch up inside the groups they share. It is not meant to be the permanent home of your private life. You can keep working when you are offline.

Only what you choose to publish goes out — for example a marketplace listing. That is separate from private group work. Finding someone in a public place does not put them into your household or home group.

No. Day-to-day collaboration is meant to work without AI. Optional writing help, if used at all, uses a model or key you set up. An AI-free product line is an explicit goal.

Keeping the main copy on your devices means less of your private life has to sit on someone else’s server, and you can keep working if the connecting service is unreachable. Traffic to that service is protected in transit. Full end-to-end encryption (so even the service operator cannot read sync traffic) is not implemented yet — you need it only if you do not trust the operator. If you run the service yourself, that trust is yours. Treat anything published as public; keep your devices updated.

This about site aims for strong accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA). The app aims for the same level but does not claim full compliance yet. The app’s text is available in English and Dutch so far.

No. Core sharing and collaboration already work end to end for people trying it; other parts are incomplete. Do not put irreplaceable work on it without backups and judgment.

Computers (Linux, Windows, macOS) and Android if you build the app yourself from the project source — it is not in the usual app stores. There is an Ubuntu Touch listing that has not been tested yet. There is no iOS app and no browser-only version yet. Several devices can stay in sync through a connecting service.

Watch the demo videos for a feel of the app. Installing still takes technical steps today (building from source, or the untested Ubuntu Touch package). Details are under Technical details below, and on the About page.

Please do — feedback is very welcome. See Contact for email, Signal, Matrix, and Mastodon. No form required.

Individual people may inspect, change, and use the code under the COMMONS license (steward: ZinZen® B.V.). It is not open source or free software in the usual license sense. See the technical section for pointers to the design notes.

Classical ERP centralizes planning data in one system of record. ZinZen® is built for Federated Resource Planning (FRP): keep information local, work offline, share only what you choose — coordination without a mandatory central platform holding everyone’s private operational data.

The internal name for a lived workspace you join with a role — household, coop, marketplace, project. Things, chat, and activity stay inside unless someone publishes outward on purpose. Not a shared cloud folder with a global Access Control List (ACL).

Installs sync as cryptographic endpoints; people show up under local petnames you manage. Pairing uses relay-stored invites (link, QR, or code). No ZinZen® account is required.

An optional layer for carefully published rows (for example marketplace listings), separate from private sync — never backfilled from private history. Finding someone there does not admit them into your home collection.

Desktop (Linux, Windows, macOS) and Android: build from the app PoC (see the repo README) — not in app stores. Ubuntu Touch: OpenStore listing, untested so far. Hosted PoC relay: relay.zinzen.me. This about site does not distribute installers. No iOS app and no browser-only product yet.

Yes. Typical pieces: sync relay, optional definition registry, optional public dataplane object store. The PoC ships containers and K3s/Traefik-style manifests; DNS and TLS are yours. DIY — not a one-click appliance yet. Devices still hold primary data.

The current hosted stack runs on a small attic lunchbox-scale host — the scale self-hosting is meant to allow.

TypeScript UI, Rust/Tauri backend, Axum relay, optional definition registry and Garage-backed public datasets. ADRs, design notes, and app PoC live on Codeberg. Definitions, FlowGuides, and a visual workflow language are design directions — not a finished Studio product. Licensing is COMMONS — see above and the About page.

Relay traffic is protected with TLS. End-to-end encryption (so the relay itself cannot read sync payloads) is only needed if you do not trust the relay operator — and it is not implemented yet. If you self-host the relay, that trust is yours by design.

ActivityPub still tends toward a few large instances and app platforms shaping the network — the opposite of ZinZen®’s aim for many small, locally trusted collaboration contexts. ZinZen® keeps identity and permission with the people and groups who share a Thing, not with home servers that become de facto platforms. That is why we do not build on ActivityPub.

Solid waits on global standards committees; ZinZen® prefers practical experimentation that communities can reshape to fit themselves. We learn by shipping working collaboration first, then hardening what proves useful — not by waiting for a complete standards stack.